Doc Rivers is far from done talking about Shams Charania. The Milwaukee Bucks’ coach has been doing the media rounds, with the latest one being a full fresh shot at the ESPN Insider. Rivers isn’t trying to hide his frustration.
Doc Rivers Disputes Shams Charania’s Bucks Report
Doc Rivers addressed everything, from the locker room to the Adrian Wojnarowski comparison. He went fully head-on during his recent appearance on the Run It Back podcast.
He started, “If you read Shams’ article the other day, that article was so far off-base. It was nowhere near as hectic, or a toxic situation as it looked.”
“If you read Shams’ article the other day, that article was so far off-base. It was nowhere near as hectic, or a toxic situation as it looked.”
– Doc Rivers on the #Bucks pic.twitter.com/BU7dO7oFMQ
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) April 10, 2026
He had a rather simpler explanation for all of this. Milwaukee had just blown up a 20-point lead against the Bulls. Rivers was busy with film study the next day, calling the team out for the mistakes.
All part of a coach’s standard locker-room procedure. “That’s what happens in a locker room,” he laughed.
Doc Rivers says Shams’ article about Giannis & the locker room was so inaccurate 👀
“I miss Woj so much.”@DocRivers | @MichelleDBeadle | @ChandlerParsons | @TeamLou23 pic.twitter.com/3V8BDFN3mi
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) April 10, 2026
It’s not like the Bucks are having a smooth season. They’ve been pretty inconsistent all throughout. A little scrutiny by their coach is only fair. Rivers, however, drew a hard line between a toxic environment and a rough stretch. The film session was just crisis management wrapped around with coaching.
But then, just after he called out Sham’s article, the Woj bomb dropped. “The first thing I thought, where’s Woj? I miss Woj so much.”
Doc Rivers Reveals the ‘Trade Shams’ Joke That Started a War
The backstory to it all runs a bit deeper than just one article. Right before the All-Star weekend, Rivers cracked a simple joke at a press conference. At the time, Giannis was coaching the Celebrity All-Star game alongside Charania. That’s when the joke came in, “Giannis should trade Shams.”
The Bucks even posted this statement on their social media handles.
Charania, who carefully spent weeks reporting that Milwaukee was listening to trade offers for Giannis, did not take the spirit.
Rivers stated Shams was so offended by it that he wanted the Bucks’ social media team to take the “joke” down.
“I made a joke before All-Star, where I said, ‘Giannis should trade Shams.’ Shams took that so personal that he actually called the Bucks and yelled at them to take it down. The NBA called the Bucks and are like, ‘Shams wants us to tell you this, but we really don’t care.’ And then the NBA posted it!”
“I made a joke before All-Star where I said ‘Giannis should trade Shams.’ Shams took that so personal that he actually called the Bucks and yelled at them to take it down.” 👀
Doc Rivers knew Shams wanted revenge 😱@DocRivers | @MichelleDBeadle | @ChandlerParsons | @TeamLou23 pic.twitter.com/C7zrmsXmeg
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) April 10, 2026
Rivers didn’t stop there. He continued, “I’ve heard from 10 different people that Shams is going to do revenge article on you guys and on you. And I was like, ‘okay, I don’t care.’”
While the Bucks continued posting, Rivers just shrugged off the entire situation saying Charania is just “very young.”
