The Milwaukee Bucks officially named Glenn “Doc” Rivers as the 18th head coach in franchise history on Friday, signing the 62-year-old Marquette University alumnus to a multi-year deal.

“Doc is a proven, extraordinary leader and communicator during his renowned NBA coaching career,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said in a statement released by the team. “As a championship coach, he’s widely respected as an established innovator, and the right coach to lead our experienced and talented team. I want to thank our owners, Wes Edens, Jimmy and Dee Haslam and Jamie Dinan, for their unwavering commitment to winning. It’s a pleasure to welcome Doc to the Bucks.”

Rivers addressed the team in the morning before their Friday loss to Cleveland, and after the game Brook Lopez said, "I played against Doc a ton in my career. I'm excited to have him here. I think obviously he has tons of experience. He's been in the NBA, played in the NBA for a very long time. So, it'll be good to have in this locker room, kind of an outside perspective to what's been going on this year on the court with the team. We get to use his outside (point of view) and all his wisdom he has. It's going to be very beneficial for us."

Bucks forward Bobby Portis smiled and thought it was cool that Rivers will be coaching in the arena where his college number is retired and is bringing "great voice" to the team.

"Someone, obviously, who's had success in this league, who has respect in this league, big name coach, top 15 coach all-time, I could go on and on," Portis said. "But like, he's a great fit."

Though an agreement between the team and Rivers had been reached Wednesday, the official hire was announced with about a minute to go in the game with the Cavaliers. Bucks stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton declined to speak to the media after the game.

Rivers will coach his first game in Denver on Monday.

He replaces Adrian Griffin, who was fired on Jan. 23 after coaching the Bucks to a 30-13 record, the third shortest tenure of a full-time head coach in NBA history. Rivers, who will now coach his fifth team, has never taken over a team midseason.

After his 13-year playing career ended in 1996, Rivers was hired to coach in Orlando for the 1999-2000 season. He won his only Coach of the Year award that year, guiding the Magic to an eight-win improvement from the season before.

He was fired after 11 games in 2003 and made his first foray into television as a broadcaster before Boston hired him at the start of the 2004-05 season. Four years later, he guided a Celtics team led by Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to a title.

Rivers’ Celtics teams from 2007-12 were his most successful in the postseason, featuring the title in 2008, a Finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010 and an Eastern Conference finals loss to Miami in 2012. After Boston went 41-40 and lost in the first round of the 2013 playoffs, he was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers made the playoffs in six of his seven years at the helm and won 50 or more games four times, but they never advanced out of the second round and he was fired after the team lost a 3-1 series lead in the 2020 “bubble” playoffs.

He was hired by Philadelphia at the start of the 2020-21 season, and the 76ers made the playoffs for three straight years but also did not advance past the second round. He was fired in May and had been serving as an ESPN game analyst this season.

An introductory press conference for Rivers will be held Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at Fiserv Forum.

What is Doc Rivers’ record?

In 24 seasons with Orlando (171-168), Boston (416-305), the Los Angeles Clippers (356-208) and Philadelphia (154-82) he has a career regular season record of 1,097-763.

He is one of only 10 coaches to win 1,000 games and is No. 9 all-time. He is the only coach in that club not currently in the Hall of Fame.

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What is Doc Rivers’ playoff record?

Rivers’ teams have gone 111-104 over 19 postseasons. He has won one championship and coached in two NBA Finals.

It's a record that his new players find impressive - even if they know Rivers' recent teams have not reached the pinnacle of the NBA Finals.

"The interesting thing to me is, I know a bunch of talking heads will talk about some of the negative things because that's what social media is and they like to do," Bucks forward Pat Connaughton said. "But you talk about the success that he's had and the ability that he's had to get teams into positions to win - whether they've closed or not - I look at our team and I look at the situation that he's coming into, we get to those situations I think we got a really good chance to close."

To Connaughton's point, Rivers’ non-championship teams have gone:

• 6-10 in Game 7s.

• 16-33 with a chance to clinch a seven-game playoff series, including nine straight losses with a chance to reach the conference finals.

Rivers’ teams have also let slip three, 3-1 series leads:

• 2003: No. 8 Orlando was on the verge of an upset of the top-seeded Pistons in the first year of a seven-game first round.

• 2015: No. 3 Clippers, which took that lead on No. 2 Houston. Star point guard Chris Paul missed the first two games of that series with a hamstring injury and played through it after that.

• 2020: No. 2 Clippers lost that advantage to No. 3 Denver in the “bubble,” losing Games 6 and 7 by a combined 28 points.

"It's going to be fun just get coached by someone who has something to prove as well," Portis said. "We know being on the team with other guys who, obviously, we all have something to prove. Not saying we failed over the last couple years but we didn't achieve what was sought out to be the goal, so having a coach that's low-key in the same boat as us is great. It's refreshing as well to have everybody on the same page and have guys that ultimately have a little chip on their shoulder and have something to prove."

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What is Doc Rivers’ Bucks contract?

The Athletic reported Rivers signed a four-year, roughly $40 million deal through 2026-27 – though it would make sense that his salary for this season would be prorated.

The coaching marketplace changed drastically this season in the NBA, with Detroit signing Monty Williams to a six-year, $78.5 million ($13 million annually) deal in June. Then, San Antonio rewarded Gregg Popovich with a five-year, $80 million ($16 million annually) contract in July. Miami further upped the ante by extending Erik Spoelstra to an eight-year extension valued at roughly $120 million ($15 million annually) on Jan. 10.

Rivers had originally signed a five-year, $40 million deal with Philadelphia in 2020 and had two years, $16 million left on that deal when he was fired.

How much are the Bucks paying coaches this year?

Assuming Rivers’ salary is prorated, the team could be paying Rivers, Griffin (approximately $4 million) and Mike Budenholzer ($8 million) roughly $17 million this season.

But this is not unfamiliar territory for Bucks ownership.

Current governor and co-owner Wes Edens sacked his manager at Aston Villa of the English Premier League during the 2022 season, and the Bucks fired Jason Kidd with 37 games left in the 2017-18 season.

New co-owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam cycled through six head coaches in the first eight years of their ownership of the Cleveland Browns, and they have had two head coaches in five seasons of ownership of the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer. Both of those Crew coaches have won MLS Cups.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks officially hire Doc Rivers as head coach; contract update