Doc Rivers calls out Shams Charania for 'inaccurate report' of Milwaukee Bucks locker room, wants Adrian Wojnarowski return

Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers went after ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania again and said he wanted Adrian Wojnarowski back in the role. Wojnarowski left the business of being an insider to become the GM of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team.

But Rivers, who’s trolled Charania this year already, called his report of an unhappy locker room after a recent game “inaccurate.” In that report, Charania said Rivers reportedly told his players to “look up his résumé” during a team meeting. 

“I took teams to the playoffs and to the championship that weren’t supposed to,” Rivers reportedly said, via Charania. “I thought this was one of them. Either you’re with us or against us. If you’re not playing hard, we’re not playing you anymore. I know everything that goes on in this building.”

When Rivers got wind of that report, he downplayed what actually happened and maintained he and Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo had a good relationship, despite the contrary reports. That’s when he wished Charania would be replaced by his old mentor Wojnarowski.

“We have a great relationship,” Rivers said on FanDuel’s Run It Back. “You know, Shams wrote an article that was so accurate that I don’t have enough time to go into. He talked about a locker room thing, and I was laughing like, yeah, we had a tough locker room day. We lost to the Chicago Bulls with a 20 point lead. I showed clips the next day of guys who were screwing up. That’s what happens in a locker room. You know, the first thing I thought: where’s Woj? I miss Woj so much.”

This sounded more than just a playful jab from Rivers, compared to what he said ahead of the All-Star weekend. Charania participated in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game and played under Antetokounmpo’s squad alongside celebrities such as former NBA champion Jeremy Lin, NFL wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, GloRilla, FIFA champion Cafu and actor, writer and producer Keegan-Michael Key — among others.

Rivers made the joke originally at a Bucks press conference to discuss Milwaukee’s moves before the trade deadline. He originally addressed it as a “Giannis update.”

“You know (Antetokounmpo’s) going to coach the celebrity All-Star game, right? You see that?” Rivers asked the reporters. “He did inform me that he’s going to put Shams (Charania) on the trading block today, and he’s just going to listen to offers. So I’m just going to go make that announcement right now.”

The playful jab at the NBA insider comes after a trade deadline in which Charania heavily reported on the future of Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. Charania reported three hours before the deadline that the Bucks had begun to indicate to teams they’d be keeping him through the deadline and that they would begin making other trades.

Unfortunately for Rivers and the Bucks, the postseason was not a reality in 2025-26. At 32-49, the Bucks are 10 games out of the final play-in spot in the playoffs, so they’ll have to wait until 2027 to try and make another run.