Classic CNN Sports Tonight screengrab.
ESPNNBAWarner Bros. DiscoveryBy Awful Announcing Staff on

After head coach Adrian Griffin was surprisingly fired by the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, speculation quickly turned to who might replace him on the bench for a championship contender. Almost immediately, one name surfaced to the top as the most likely option – Doc Rivers.

Of course, Rivers is currently employed by ESPN as their top NBA analyst alongside Doris Burke and Mike Breen in their new three person booth. After getting rid of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson in the offseason, ESPN made a big deal about the new trio as the new combination for the NBA Finals.

Given ESPN’s investment in Rivers, and the fact this is his second stint with the network, one would think they would have the inside track on if he wanted to leave broadcasting to return to coaching so suddenly.

Then on Tuesday night, it was officially reported that Rivers would be on his way to Milwaukee to be the next head coach of the Bucks. But instead of Adrian Wojnarowski, Mike Wilbon, Stephen A. Smith, or anyone else breaking the news about Rivers at ESPN, it was revealed to the world on TNT’s Inside the NBA during their Tuesday night doubleheader. Even weirder, the person credited with the breaking news wasn’t a person at all, but the very vague “CNN Sports.”

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1749992625980248249

These developments left NBA Twitter and everyone else watching on very, very, very confused.

Let’s be real – something incredibly weird is happening here.

This Doc Rivers report is the first time CNN Sports has been mentioned as a thing in literally decades. CNN Sports Tonight, the highlight show alternative to SportsCenter from Turner, hasn’t aired since 2001. CNN was linked with the Sports Illustrated brand before the platform was taken over by Bleacher Report sports content in 2013. In fact, all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s sports branding had transitioned to Bleacher Report in the last several years before it literally just rebranded to TNT Sports earlier this month. As mentioned above, the ‘CNN Sport’ homepage makes no mention of this Doc Rivers news whatsoever. And Rivers’ name has not been mentioned at all as of 10:30 PM ET on the CNN network according to a closed captioning search.

Furthermore, there’s no reporter mentioned as getting credit for this story. We have no idea who actually has this scoop. Chris Haynes is the main NBA newsbreaker at TNT Sports, but if it’s his breaking news, why isn’t he credited with it? For Inside the NBA to report this, mysteriously as “CNN Sports” ahead of Woj and Shams, is mind-blowing. For anyone not working at ESPN, who we should remind you is the current employer of Doc Rivers, to get this scoop first is even more astounding.

Maybe it’s all too crazy to believe? Maybe someone at TNT heard the news but didn’t want to put their name on it? Things are so weird that Bleacher Report’s NFL insider Jordan Schultz (same company here!) is reporting a deal isn’t done yet.

The longer the likes of Woj and Shams remain silent, the more nervous TNT, Inside the NBA, and whoever is responsible for being CNN Sports is likely going to get. But if they do have the goods, then Inside the NBA should do a Masked Singer type reveal so we can actually know who’s behind this all.