The Milwaukee Bucks have hired Adrian Griffin to be their next head coach, but the hiring is not coming without controversy.
Milwaukee parted ways with coach Mike Budenholzer earlier this month after the Bucks were upset in the first round of the playoffs as the top seed by the Miami Heat.
After the announcement of his hiring, a story surfaced of Griffin being accused of domestic violence made by his ex-wife. Back in 2020, Audrey Griffin said Adrian Griffin had repeatedly abused her, including choking her, throwing her into a wall with enough force to leave a hole, and dragging her across a lawn while she was pregnant.
“This morning, accusations were made against me on social media by my former wife that I vehemently deny,” Adrian Griffin said in a statement released by the Raptors. “We are involved in a longstanding legal dispute over alimony and child support arrangements. I am disappointed to have to address false accusations in this way, and I apologize for any distraction this has potentially caused for our team at this important time.”
In 2021, Griffin sued his ex-wife for libel after she accused the hoops coach of domestic violence on social media. TMZ said at the time, he blasted her as a “bitter woman, hell-bent on destroying his life and career by any means necessary.”
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“These were all lies, completely fabricated to take advantage of the current online climate where a woman’s unsupported accusation would be inherently believed, no matter how false or far-fetched,” Griffin’s attorney wrote in the lawsuit.
“In today’s lost cancel culture, where angry mobs patrol the bowels of social media ready to pounce, an accusation, with or without evidence, is the equivalent of a conviction. Sterling knew her accusations to be false. She made them anyway, and persisted in making them, until her thirst for blood was quenched.”
AG’s lawyer went as far as to call the ploy a “Twitter jihad” where his client had a choice … “either pay off his ex-wife to end her campaign of lies, or see his career destroyed.”
Griffin began his NBA coaching career as an assistant with Milwaukee from 2008 to 2010. He has worked as an assistant with the Chicago Bulls (2010-2015), the Orlando Magic (2015-2016), the Oklahoma City Thunder (2015-2018), and the Toronto Raptors (2018-2023). From 1999 through 2008, he also played nine seasons in the league. Griffin has definitely had plenty of experience as an assistant, and he will now be given the opportunity to be the head shot-caller for the first time in his career.
Having Giannis as a superstar certainly works great for him.
Antetokounmpo “vouched” for Griffin to become the team’s next head coach, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.
With their new coach selected, the Bucks will now have to turn their focus to free agency where they have a couple of major decisions to make. The right decisions combined with winning will shut out all noise surrounding his sketchy past.
