Austin Rivers Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G
Born: 08/01/92
Height: 6-3 / 1.91
Weight:200 lbs. / 90.7 kg.
Salary: $2,174,310
Born: 08/01/92
Height: 6-3 / 1.91
Weight:200 lbs. / 90.7 kg.
Salary: $2,174,310
Taylor Rooks: I talked to Austin Rivers about whether or not this NBA Champion will have an asterisk next to their name. This was his response: “I think whoever wins should have a asterisk next it. But only for it being one of the toughest championships ever won. Your asking guys to take 3-4 months off, then come back and find chemistry etc. then play during a pandemic, while players are fighting for the BLM. There’s a lot going on right now. Crazy times and a lot of worry. And during these times players are leaving there families to go live in a locked down bubble. So for all these reasons and more. I think it will be one of the more tougher championships ever won. Only season ever like this. EVER. “
Doc Rivers has been in favor of resuming the season for a multitude of reasons — and it would be disingenuous to believe that the Clippers’ ability to win a title isn’t one of them — and he commended Austin’s argument on the “Flying Coach” podcast with Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll: “I was very proud of Austin, I told him that. I said ‘Finally, I have some pride about you son.’ But it was funny, and I’m embarrassed to say I was out golfing and I keep getting these texts, ‘love what your son said, love what your son said’, and as a parent, the first thing you think is, ‘oh gosh what did he say?’ And so I read it, and he was right in my opinion.”
With the NBA returning soon, you and the team have been communicating constantly. Obviously, they span various topics, but what’s been the most important aspect for you as Orlando edges closer? Austin Rivers: When can we see our family, when can we hang out with them? That’s my biggest concern. That’s everything for me. So you know, it’s tough but it is what it is. They’re saying we’ll be in Orlando for at least a period of time, anywhere between 30 to 40 days without seeing our family, that’s like a month and some change. Which is no fun, you know what I mean? And I don’t want to do it. Nobody wants to do it, but we all have to sacrifice if you want to have the season, resume and that’s what we have to do.
Speaking of ball movement, the system that you guys play doesn’t involve a whole lot of it. Most of that is due to the offensive abilities of James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Even though you have these two great players who can shoulder most of the load, is it better to incorporate some ball movement or is spacing and spreading the floor more important? Austin Rivers: No, we got to have ball movement. Especially in the playoffs, the floor shrinks, fouls don’t get called as much, the game changes, they’re allowed to be more physical. There’s not going to be fans there to influence refs. So there’s no antics. It’s going to be very physical game where you just can hear players and refs talking. I think because of that, we really have to continue to do what we do. You know, we have to move the ball and play at a high speed.
When you guys get to Orlando, there will only be a short window before the playoffs, but because the Western Conference standings are so tight, how high do you think the Rockets can climb? Austin Rivers: We’re hoping to obviously try to get — here’s the thing. There’s no more homecourt advantage, right? So no one cares about homecourt advantage anymore. So that goes out the window. That’s a big deal. So with that being gone, that’s no longer the focus. So now it’s about who you want to match up with. We play Denver right now. I think the key is to try to just get the best seed to see who you match up with best. Maybe a couple of seeds ahead. But regardless, you’re playing the Lakers or Clippers second round, so it’s gotta be a dog fight one way or the other. It’s going to be tough and that’s it. Obviously, we have to beat the first round too, and that’s gonna be a good series. We gotta beat Utah or possibly Dallas. So regardless, I think at this point, because homecourt advantage is out, I think it’s just more so about us getting in a good rhythm rather than who we’re playing before the playoffs.
In a Monday appearance on flagship radio station SportsTalk 790 in Houston, Tilman Fertitta explained his reasons for optimism: We have as good a chance as anybody. You have Russ and James, who want this, and P.J., and Eric and Covington, it’s just a really good team. And then [Danuel] House and [Austin] Rivers. When you start looking at our eight-man rotation, you just go ‘Wow, this is pretty darn good.’
Alykhan Bijani: Austin Rivers on Kyrie Irving, restarting the season: “I love Kyrie’s passion towards helping this movement…I’m with it…but in the right way & not at the cost of the whole NBA & players careers. We can do both. We can play & we can help change the way black lives are lived.”
Austin Rivers had a new approach to respecting legends from the eyes of the legend’s competition via Instagram Live with Richard Jefferson. “l’m not enjoying Lebron’s greatness right now,” Rivers said. “I have no fun playing against him… The fact that I didn’t play against Michael, I get to enjoy his greatness.”
NBA Central: Austin Rivers talks about the time an unranked Kyrie showed up to Deron Williams’ camp and gave buckets to the top ranked HS players in the country “He wasn’t even supposed to be there…Guys were like ‘Who the f*ck is this guy?’” (🎥 @uninterrupted ) pic.twitter.com/2YHYeXx0AM
Doc Rivers may have the largest All-Time starting five squad ever. Austin Rivers joined his father on the GO OFF podcast, where the two talked about All-Time starting fives, Kobe stories, and their player/coach dynamic. When it comes to an All-Time starting five, Doc Rivers is in favor of size. “I’m going Kareem at the center,” Rivers said. “I’m going Tim Duncan at the four, because those both are two-way players. I’m going Michael, and Magic at the one and two. This may be the biggest team ever. And then LeBron at the three.”
Coach Rivers had a top-five shooting squad as well. “Dirk at the five,” Rivers said. “I would put Durant at the three. Steph at the point, because that’s what you’d need. I would put Kobe in there because of his ability to drive. Now the whole team changes. At the four I couldn’t even come up with one.” Austin contested that Ray Allen should be on his father’s top-five shooting squad, but Doc believed Kobe’s ability to drive superseded the argument. In addition to Kobe’s driving ability, the elder Rivers believed Kobe’s shooting would improve significantly on a squad of good shooters.
Austin Rivers is tired of ESPN’s shenanigans. The Houston Rockets guard ripped ESPN’s NBA all-time greatest list on Wednesday for its ranking of Dwyane Wade. “If you did not play in the NBA or coach the NBA, I don’t care what your opinion is about the all-time greatest,” said Rivers, adding the list was “clearly made by guys who didn’t make their JV basketball team.” Wade checked in at No. 26.
NBA Central: Austin Rivers says DWade is a top 10-15 player of all time and rips ESPN for ranking him 26th “If you did not play in the NBA or coached the NBA, I don’t care what your opinion is about the all time greatest…I don’t give a f*ck.” (🎥 @uninterrupted ) pic.twitter.com/tN8zkvL8SN
Jovan Buha: The Clippers recently filed a trademark for the phrase “Win the wait.” “You guys definitely seem like you guys are ahead of the curve by far,” Austin Rivers recently told Doc Rivers on Austin’s podcast. On LA’s strategy during lockdown @TheAthleticLA: theathletic.com/1813681/2020/0…
Doc then turned his attention to the people that assign asterisks to NBA titles. “It’s so hard to win. I always say that the people who say ‘put an asterisk by it’, they’re the losers.” The winners don’t ever say ‘put an asterisk by it’. If we win it, we’re gonna have a parade, we’re gonna have a big trophy in our case, and we’re gonna get rings.”
The LA Clippers head coach recently joined his son Austin Rivers on an episode of Austin’s podcast Go Off to catch up on all things NBA when the topic of a potential 2020 champion came up. Austin brought up how some people think this season’s NBA title (if there is one) could be seen as a lesser accomplishment due to the circumstances. Both father and son, however, disagreed with such a claim. “I would say this is one of the hardest ones to ever win,” said Austin. “Part of winning a title is keeping your focus,” added Doc. “Teams that keep their focus throughout this whole time — they’re gonna deserve it.”
Both agreed that LeBron James is the greatest athlete of all time. “I really believe if LeBron James had to play football, he may have been the greatest football player ever,” Doc Rivers even said that. “I don’t think there’s ever been a better, and Michael [Jordan] was a super athlete, so was Kobe [Bryant], so is Kawhi [Leonard], I don’t know if there has ever been an athlete in our league like LeBron James,” he added, per Jonathan Sherman of Lakers Daily. His son agreed, saying that there has never been someone with the abilities of LeBron. “I don’t think in sports,” he said. “I don’t think in sports we’ve seen anything like LeBron James,” the Rockets guard said, per Jonathan Sherman of Lakers Daily.
Austin Rivers: Personal news: I’m bringing my @uninterrupted podcast back… And my first guest is Pops @Doc Rivers. We talk NBA lockdown, Rockets vs. Clippers, playing vs. MJ and yes, our time in LA together. 📺: youtu.be/yU-xTLNZyP8 🎧: podcasts.uninterrupted.com/GoOff-DocRivers
Based on those circumstances, Rivers believes this year’s champion could be among the most memorable of all-time. People have been saying, whoever wins, it’s going to have a blip [asterisk] next to it. I personally believe it’s the complete opposite. Whoever wins, this is so much harder. … Whoever wins this year really had to go get it and earn it, and had guys who took time off seriously and still stayed in shape, and was able to get back the chemistry, true chemistry. So many things. In my eyes, whoever wins this, it’s going to be the hardest championship ever won.
After giving a thorough analysis of his team’s shortcomings during Houston’s four-game losing streak in early March, Rivers was asked in a Facebook Q&A whether he had thought about one day becoming a coach. “Yeah, I have,” Riverstold Houston broadcaster Craig Ackerman. “Coaching is something that, I’ll be honest. Prior to the past couple years, it never interested me. I never thought I had that in me.”
“I’ve always seen me in the business side of things — either a player agent, or being a GM or president. I’ve always wanted to be in the front office. I love the business side of basketball, and I know it well. I guess the pedigree, and me learning and knowing the game my whole life and being around it. I just think it’s something I could really do well, and that still stands. I will say that over the last couple years, coaching has continued to grow. It’s something I didn’t see myself possibly doing, but now, it’s a little itch. I’m starting to get to where I feel like 10 years down the road, or however many years I have left, that is something I would like to get into, possibly.”
“Every year you have six new teammates,” Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers said in an interview with SB Nation. “It’s like gaw-lly! In some ways you wish that would stop. “It’s a new NBA, man. Guys are playing on a new team every year now, and it has nothing to do with how good of a player you are, it’s just how the NBA is. I have teammates who’ve played on eight, nine teams. I mean, that’s fucking nuts. I don’t ever want to go through something like that.” (Rivers is 27 years old, and on his fourth team in seven NBA seasons.)
I do not. It would be shocking if Rivers could not get a fully guaranteed minimum contract on a competitive team on the open market so he might as well get more control by opting out. Also, the Rockets have Early Bird rights on Rivers, meaning they can pay him up to about $10 million without having to use another exception like the MLE. While that is more than the 27-year old will get as a free agent, it does give him some leverage in negotiations since the Rockets can sign him without diminishing their ability to bring in new talent. Furthermore, as the question alluded to, Houston does not have many capable replacements for his 23 minutes per game on roster, especially for the times when someone in the rotation is injured.
Have any former Duke players given you advice on taking this next step? Cassius Stanley: Yeah, the brotherhood is really real. In the summer, even before going there, I ran with so many NBA players. I worked out a lot with Justise Winslow. I also worked out with Austin Rivers and Seth Curry and Rodney Hood. They were all great and telling me to go into it with the mindset of learning everything you possibly can from Coach because he knows exactly what he is talking about. That is exactly what I did. I came in as a sponge, just trying to soak everything I could.
More so than any other player, Austin Rivers’ time with the Clippers was an absolute roller-coaster. He was the only player in NBA history to be coached by his own father, Doc Rivers. The end result was a level of trash talk, and scrutiny that no other player has ever received. It was something fans could see from the outside, but Rivers confirmed it himself on Instagram. “That shit was so hard,” Rivers said. “At that level, the scrutiny that I had to go through playing for this man, and the magnifying glass I was under. It just took joy away from the game bro. And I love my pops, but that shit was crazy.”
On top of the magnifying glass Rivers played under, he also mentioned that he was incessantly teased about playing for his father. Despite that, Austin has no ill-will towards his time on the Clippers, nor does he have any hard feelings about being traded. “That situation was amazing,” Rivers said. “But it reached its ceiling, and you just move on bro.”
Justin Russo: On his IG live just now, Austin Rivers said teams would get two practices before starting up the season again and all the games would be in Las Vegas, apparently. That’s one of the propositions.
Austin Rivers: Nahhh that’s not cool…. AG been robbed twice now.
For one night, even as their own world and the one around them mourned the death of Kobe Bryant, they could smile again. They could find solace in the game of basketball, the game they’ve played their entire lives. They could laugh. They could joke. They could win. “For sure, it was a big momentum game for us,” Austin Rivers said. “As a team as a whole, the past two weeks, we haven’t played our best basketball. We’ve been very inconsistent in our effort. Then we come in here tonight with our two best players and our starting center not playing, I’m sure Utah came in here like, ‘This is going to be an easy win.’ And that’s just natural for any team, but we have a lot of good players on this team.”
Austin Rivers: Hurting badly. True role model! Not just for being a goat, or being one of the most Competitive athletes to ever compete. Not just because you were iconic in every form and defined excellence in so many ways…but because of how great of a father you were as well. True Icon. KB24
Alykhan Bijani: A very emotional Austin Rivers was just shown on NBATV. Absolutely gut-wrenching league-wide.
Salman Ali: Austin Rivers will play tonight.
Parsons suffered a traumatic brain injury, disk herniation and a torn labrum in a crash on Wednesday, according to his attorneys. Parsons was hit by a driver, who the attorneys say was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. “I called and talk to his friends and family last night,” Rivers said. “It’s scary what happened to him. It’s very unfortunate what happened. They seemed in good spirits last night about the fact he’s doing better. I didn’t talk to him, obviously.”
Jonathan Feigen: Rockets guard Austin Rivers is out against the Lakers tomorrow with a sprained right thumb.
Tim MacMahon: With Russell Westbrook resting, Austin Rivers will start for the Rockets. “Someone is gonna have to chase Ja Morant around, and I’m gonna let Austin do it,” Mike D’Antoni said. Eric Gordon will come off the bench.
A year in with the Rockets, he knows the roster well, and he is unsure how confident to be in a fourth-place Western Conference team that for a second consecutive season has yet to figure itself out through the first half. He mentioned the Rockets’ embarrassments since Christmas: their losses to the Warriors, Pelicans and Thunder — inferior teams. “Point blank, the Thunder’s a good team, but they’re not better than us,” Rivers said.
Austin Rivers: Rough games/nights like tonight….are the nights I especially pray to a God to say thank you. As bad as feel..I know there are people out there with real life issues and problems. I pray for y’all always and especially. Thankful
Jonathan Feigen: Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers starting for Rockets vs. their former team.
When Gordon returns, backup guards that have been playing well — Austin Rivers and McLemore – can remain roughly in their roles as Gordon takes the load of others while working his way toward his 30 minutes. “That would be definitely possible,” D’Antoni said. “We have to bring (Tucker’s and Capela’s minutes) down. It should help everybody. It should help James. Thirty minutes are a lot of minutes. We should come down to good levels, hopefully.
Harden, 30, remains disciplined with receiving treatment, lifting weights and completing shooting workouts. He has strict, albeit unspecified, eating habits. “You look at his body and it doesn’t look like he’s in the greatest shape. But he’s in incredible shape with his size and weight,” guard Austin Rivers told USA TODAY Sports when talking about Harden’s 6-5, 220-pound frame. “For him to be able to do that on a nightly basis takes being in incredible shape and focus.”
Cayleigh Griffin: Austin Rivers joined the team here in Orlando and is expected to play tonight. Tyson Chandler is still not with the team. #Rockets
Jonathan Feigen: Guard Austin Rivers planning to join the Rockets in Orlando, could come back from flu symptoms tomorrow in limited minutes. FWIW, I can now confirm with certainty that whatever got in that locker room will knock you down hard.
