The Milwaukee Bucks plan to make Adrian Griffin the 17th head coach in franchise history, wrapping up a 23-day search following the dismissal of Mike Budenholzer on May 4.
Griffin, a native of Wichita, Kansas, returns to Milwaukee after spending the last five seasons as an assistant coach in Toronto. He won a championship with the Raptors in 2018-19.
The Journal Sentinel confirmed the simultaneous initial reports by ESPN and The Athletic.
The hire is a full-circle moment for the 48-year-old Griffin, who began his coaching career in Milwaukee under head coach Scott Skiles in 2008. Griffin was a part of a three-team trade on Aug. 13 which also brought Luke Ridnour and Damon Jones to Milwaukee, but Griffin never played again. Skiles kept him on as an assistant.
Griffin remained in Milwaukee for two seasons before working for Tom Thibodeau in Chicago from 2010-15. There, Marquette University alumnus Jimmy Butler credited Griffin for his coaching after Butler earned the Most Improved Player award in 2014-15.
Griffin reunited with Skiles for a season in Orlando for a season before moving on to assistant roles in Oklahoma City (2016-18) and Toronto.
More: Milwaukee Bucks fire head coach Mike Budenholzer after 5 seasons
As a player, it took several years for the Seton Hall alumnus to get into the NBA after finishing his career in the Big East. But once Griffin latched on in 1999, he stuck, playing for five teams in nine seasons. He played in one NBA Finals, with the 2005-06 Dallas team that lost to Miami in six games.
Though he is a first-time head coach, Griffin has been interviewing for head coaching jobs since at least 2014. He’s been highly regarded in league circles as far back as 2012, when Chicago denied Portland and Orlando permission to speak with him about assistant jobs, insisting he’d only be allowed to interview for head jobs.
Griffin has reportedly been requested to interview or interviewed for vacant head coaching positions in Cleveland, Utah, Orlando, for the Los Angeles Lakers, in Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit and Toronto over the last decade.
During the “bubble” playoffs in 2020, Griffin was accused of domestic violence on social media by his ex-wife Audrey Sterling. Griffin denied the allegations and faced no punishment from the Raptors or the league and in 2021 Griffin sued his ex-wife for defamation. The case was settled in 2022.
Griffin is the third coach acquired or hired by the ownership group led by Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan, who took over the franchise along with Marc Lasry in 2014 from former Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl. The team traded 2 second-round picks to Brooklyn for Jason Kidd in 2014, who lasted until the 2017-18 season before he was fired after 45 games. Joe Prunty finished out the season and the playoffs on an interim basis.
Budenholzer was hired at the start of the 2018-19 season and oversaw a five-year period where the Bucks won 69.3% (271-120) of their regular-season games.
Jimmy and Dee Haslam bought Lasry’s share in the team in mid-April.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks set to hire Adrian Griffin as their new head coach