CNN Sports' Doc Rivers Scoop Has Everyone Baffled

Let's be 100 percent fair here. There's a possibility that every other news outlet goes about the business of confirming that the Milwaukee Bucks are hiring Doc Rivers to be their head coach and an unusual scoop turns out to be completely correct. That would be the biggest win for CNN Sports in many, many years and perhaps some people will feel bad about their initial dubiousness. The other option is that one of the more bizarre bits of reportage in some time actually gets weirder.

To sum it up: the Bucks fired Adrian Griffin yesterday and need someone capable of leading them to high aspirations. Doc Rivers, recently hired by ESPN to be at the forefront of their NBA coverage, fits the bill. Last night NBA TV aired a report read by Coy Wire saying CNN had confirmed Rivers will be the new head man in Milwaukee.

During the postgame coverage following Los Angeles Lakers-Clippers, Adam Lefkoe said CNN had learned Rivers has accepted an offer to run the Bucks. Jamal Crawford, who was on set, cast some doubts on the report by asking, "CNN?," incredulously.

Now, you can understand why everyone was confused. It's the rarest of rare occassions to have major NBA news come out without the involvement of Adrian Wojnarowski, Shams Charnia or some other scoops merchant. As more and more time went on without confirmation from anyone else, and no original source appeared in article form on any CNN/TNT property, it got even stranger.

Sometime after midnight CNN did publish a piece about the news. It's titled Doc Rivers accepts Milwaukee Bucks head coaching position, source says and it somehow does not have a byline. It uses the same language without having any interest in crediting the reporter who beat a crowded field in being first-to-market.

NBA veteran Doc Rivers has accepted an offer from the Milwaukee Bucks to be the team’s next coach, a source with knowledge of the conversations told CNN.

Further complicating things is a decent amount of reporters from inside the extended family saying something much different than the Bucks and Rivers have a deal that ends in him coaching the team.

Got all that?

You're not supposed to root for anything but the story in sports blogging but we'll be honest in saying it'd be nice if this news becomes official official in short order and CNN Sports gets to take a savored victory lap. The other outcome would be really embarrassing and who wants to see that? At the very least it sounds like Rivers and the Bucs have had substantive conversations so maybe it's just a case of some t's being crossed and i's dotted.

Or ...