Doc Rivers is deflecting blame in the wrong places for the Bucks' failed Damian Lillard experiment

Former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers has been more candid than we've ever seen him as of late, for better and for worse. Whether intentional or not, he ripped into Giannis Antetokounmpo for his play style and basketball IQ on The Bill Simmons Podcast recently, but the part that slipped through the cracks was his take on the Damian Lillard era in Milwaukee.

Rivers told Simmons that he didn't feel the city of Milwaukee or the Bucks organization embraced Lillard when he arrived in Milwaukee, saying, "Really, [Lillard] was never welcomed in the way he should've been, in my opinion," and "you couldn't have traded for him at a worse time," because he was in an emotional time in his life while going through a divorce.

There's always been more to the Damian Lillard situation in Milwaukee than meets the eye. The portion of this regarding Lillard's personal life is more than fair. It was long documented that the former Portland Trail Blazers star was going through something behind the scenes and was candid about deeply missing his family when he moved to Milwaukee.

But as for Lillard being embraced by the city, Rivers was not only completely off base, but he wasn't even in Milwaukee yet when Dame arrived. Unlike Rivers, I was there when Lillard arrived in Milwaukee, and I can guarantee the city was overjoyed and incredibly supportive in welcoming Lillard to the city.

Let's keep it real about Doc Rivers' comments and what really went wrong with the Damian Lillard era with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Not to disrespect Rivers — a coach whom I've given the benefit of the doubt far more than most in Milwaukee sports circles — but he's just completely wrong about the city embracing Dame. I witnessed it firsthand as his jersey flew off the shelves when he arrived, and Bucks fans lost their minds with excitement as he made his debut. Milwaukee loved Damian Lillard, even when he didn't love them back.

You see, Lillard, like Giannis several years later, was widely reported as wanting a trade to Miami. If he was going to leave the only franchise he ever played for, it would be to join a glamour market. But the trade market never materialized, and Milwaukee's front office saw a rare opportunity to bring in a Top 75 all-time player to pair with their own franchise star, Giannis.

Lillard tried his best to adapt to Milwaukee, from the cold weather to playing second fiddle to Giannis and sometimes getting lost in the mix when the Greek Freak dominated on-ball touches. We know by now that Antetokounmpo didn't want to be the roller in a pick-and-roll duo, despite all the data suggesting it was one of the single best plays in all of basketball, and Lillard's heart was still in Portland.

All the while, the Bucks' front office let it play out on the court between the stars and eventually brought in Doc Rivers as a personality manager. With respect to the legend, he failed miserably and never got Giannis to buy into that pairing, until all the silent tension culminated in the Achilles tear that led to Lillard being waived by Milwaukee.

If we're playing the blame game regarding why Damian Lillard never panned out in Milwaukee, there are a lot of people who deserve to take their share. At the top of the list is probably Giannis, followed by Doc Rivers, then a split between Dame himself, for never putting his heart into it the way he did in Portland, and the front office, for not doing enough to make Dame feel like the co-star instead of the second fiddle.

Milwaukee and its fanbase do not belong anywhere on that mix. They did their part, and the people they trusted most on this team let them down. So, with all due respect to Doc Rivers for all his contributions to the game, he's letting his hubris cloud his vision of what really happened and how he ultimately failed Lillard and Milwaukee Bucks fans as their head coach.

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