Straight up better than a lot of those dudes playing last night…..
Have to prove that this year. M.o.a.M
MIP…..why not— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
Austin Rivers had a nice little resurgence in his career last season after he went over to play for the Clippers and his dad, Doc.
But Rivers, is at best, a spark off the bench who can give you some instant offense. He is not, say, good enough to represent Team USA in the 2016 Olympics – as he claimed Friday on Twitter.
“Straight-up better than a lot of those dudes playing last night,” said Rivers, referring to the exhibition game played Thursday night among many of the Team USA mini-camp invitees.
We’ll give Rivers the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t saying he was better than the true stars in last night’s game like DeMarcus Cousins, Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, and Blake Griffin (even bigger stars like LeBron James, Steph Curry, James Harden, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant didn’t play). We’ll assume he was referring to the likes of Elfrid Payton, Amir Johnson, Mason Plumlee, and Terrence Jones.
Rivers tried clearing up his stance with more tweets after some initial backlash.
Don't get my last tweet confused. EVERY player there last night was WELL deserved. As a competitor I just feel like I should be out there.
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
Nothing personal. All those guys playing last night are great players. Every single one. Just got to keep working to get out there is all!
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
At the End of the day…talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words. So that's that.
M.o.a.M Got to keep pushing
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
The thing about it is, even if Rivers was referring to some of the lesser players invited to Team USA’s mini-camp, he’s still wrong. With all due respect to Rivers, there isn’t one player who played in the game last night that an NBA GM would pass up at this point for Rivers. He is still woefully inconsistent on both ends, and often times looks straight out of place.
When he’s on, like he was in Game 3 of the Clippers playoff series against the Rockets last season, he proved he can still be a valuable player in the league, which is more than could have been said about him a year ago.
I’m sure Rivers isn’t the only delusional NBA player who believes they’re better than they really are. You have to be that way on some level to make it to the league. But the difference is, other players aren’t tweeting about it, allowing themselves to be criticized. Maybe Doc should have Blake Griffin teach his son some Twitter lessons for the future.
[Via Austin Rivers]
