Bucks shockingly fire head coach Adrian Griffin

Adrian Griffin (YouTube)

In of the biggest and most surprising stories of the 2023-24 National Basketball Association season, the Milwaukee Bucks have decided to fire head coach Adrian Griffin of Wichita, Kansas according to Sam Quinn of CBS Sports. The firing occurred even though the Bucks had the second best record in the entire NBA with a record of 30 wins and 13 losses. The only team better are the Boston Celtics at 34 wins and 10 losses.

This was the first season that Griffin was coaching the Bucks. He was initially hired as the Bucks head coach on June 5, after six very successful seasons as the Toronto Raptors assistant coach.

Even though the Bucks ware 24 games above the .500 mark, there were some signs of tension in Milwaukee this season. Bucks assistant coach Terry Stotts of Cedar Falls, Iowa resigned before the season began. Stotts, who had close connections with Bucks’s point guard Damian Lillard during their time together in Portland, was reportedly yelled at by Griffin during a team practice, which was speculated to be the root of the resignation. In addition to there being tension between Griffin and Stotts, there was tension between Griffin and Bucks’s veteran power forward Bobby Portis of Little Rock, Arkansas.

There was also a conflict within the Bucks organization regarding team strategy. Griffin wanted to implement an “aggressive defensive scheme” according to Quinn, but the plan did not get the support of the Bucks players.

In the meantime, the Bucks have hired Joe Prunty of Sunnyvale, California as their interim head coach. Prunty was the interim head coach last season for the Atlanta Hawks.