Ex-ESPN Host Sage Steele Mad at Hall of Fame NBA Coach Doc Rivers, Says Former ‘Friend’ Called Her ‘Idiot,’ Blocked Her for Donald Trump Support
Recently-inducted Hall of Fame NBA coach Doc Rivers does not like being close friends with people who support Donald Trump.
That is at least how it appears after a recent podcast interview that featured ex-ESPN host Sage Steele.
Rivers and Steele, who called the coach a former friend, both previously worked at ESPN covering the NBA. That relationship now no longer exists, she says, partially due to Steele’s shift to a role as conservative commentator and Trump supporter.
Steele accused coaches like Rivers and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, both of whom are not shy about criticizing the Trump administration, of being disingenuous.
The former ESPN host also claimed she also avoided watching NBA games until the playoffs.
“Just knowing that so many of them are full of sh—t with what they say versus what they do. And seeing the passive aggressiveness from some of these head coaches, whether it’s Steve Kerr or Doc Rivers — these people that I used to call a friend, especially Doc,” Steele said on The Rubin Report with far-right political podcaster Dave Rubin.
“I’m going to show you later, the DMs from this man,” Steele added about Rivers. “Pages and pages of why I’m such an idiot to be a Republican or conservative and support Donald Trump. Out of the blue, he would send me clips, and I’m like, ‘I just want to talk basketball with you’ or ‘How are your kids…?’
“Instead, it’s, ‘I’m so disappointed’ and the sellout thing with a coach. That’s what turns people off with sports. It doesn’t mean you can’t have that opinion. I did, too. I just happened to not do it when I was working in sports.”
Rivers, who most recently coached the Milwaukee Bucks, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last weekend.
While coaching the Bucks last season, Rivers spoke out multiple times against the actions of ICE under the Trump administration. That included after protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by ICE officers in Minnesota.
“The training of ICE is horrible. We all know that,” Rivers said in February, per The Athletic. “And being in Minnesota, where there’s 130,000, I think, undocumented people, why not Texas, where there’s 1.7 million undocumented?”
“I look at our league. I look at the NBA. We’re celebrating Pioneer’s Day today, right? And I look at our league and think (Hakeem) Olajuwon could have been taken off the streets,” referring to the Nigerian native Houston Rockets legend. “But we would, right now, the way Brown people feel, only the Brown people would be taken off the streets, and it’s just not right. And it’s not morally right, so I stand by my words 100 percent.”
Steele worked at ESPN for 16 years before leaving the network in 2023 following a lawsuit she filed against the company. The former “NBA Countdown” anchor alleged that ESPN breached her contract and violated her civil rights when she was briefly taken off the air after she made inflammatory comments about President Barack Obama.
In the comments that led to the dispute with ESPN, Steele said on a podcast that it was “strange” that Obama chose to identify as a Black man because his Black father was not present for much of his childhood while he was raised by a white mother and grandmother.
At the time, NFL analyst Ryan Clark, who was fired by ESPN this summer, refused to appear on the air with Steele.
Rivers announced his retirement from coaching in April after 27 seasons on the NBA sidelines.