Any NBA fan knows that, when it comes to major news, one of two sources will have the story: Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN or his onetime disciple, Shams Charania of the Athletic.
Woj or Shams. Coke or Pepsi. Boeing or Airbus.
Trades, player signings, coaching firings, league suspensions — if the news is major, it’s coming from one of the pair, plugged as they are into networks of player agents and league executives who know things firsthand. At the trade deadline, or the first day of free agency, you go to X, put Woj and Shams on alert, grab the popcorn and sit back and wait. That’s just how it’s done.
So it was a little bit of a surprise Tuesday night when TNT, airing the Knicks-Nets game, broke in with the news that the Milwaukee Bucks were hiring Glenn “Doc” Rivers as their next coach, citing the sports desk at CNN.
Now, Rivers going to the Bucks was logical enough, seeing as the Bucks had fired Adrian Griffin as its coach earlier in the day, and Rivers — who played his college basketball in Milwaukee, at Marquette — has a long and successful track record with the Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers, and till last May, the Philadelphia 76ers.
TNT is the longtime broadcaster of the NBA, and sister outfit CNN is, of course, a major news organization. (Both are units of Warner Bros. Discovery
WBD,
)
Still, no Woj or Shams. Huh.
And alert fans were starting to notice that CNN wasn’t reporting, on the air or on the internet, a big story that TNT said it had just broken. Odd not to highlight your own scoop!
Something was up.
Shortly after midnight, TNT said, “Oops,” no deal has been agreed.
By the time you read this, the Bucks and Rivers may well have agreed terms. But it looks like the duopoly on NBA transaction news is still very much intact.
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