{"id":735273,"date":"2026-05-15T19:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/735273\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:30:28","slug":"i-had-to-go-through-the-same-things-austin-rivers-explains-why-there-was-no-nepotism-in-his-2015-clippers-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/735273\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI had to go through the same things\u201d \u2014 Austin Rivers explains why there was no nepotism in his 2015 Clippers trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two months after the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> controversially traded for him in 2015, Austin Rivers<\/a> was getting pummeled with nepotism criticisms. And why not?<\/p>\n

After his failed stint with the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, the team traded Austin to the Boston Celtics<\/a> on January 12, 2015. Three days later, he was traded again to the L.A. Clippers, where his father, Doc<\/a>, was in charge of making roster decisions as head coach and president of basketball operations.<\/p>\n

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For Doc, it was easier to answer because as an executive, he was willing to take a second chance on a former lottery pick who was only 22 years old and his team needed a boost off the bench. However, it was tougher for the younger Rivers because he had to prove that his spot on the team was earned, not a privilege.<\/p>\n

“For the guys who would say, oh, your dad, this and that, you’ve got to the league or here because of him … they’re hypocrites,” Austin said<\/a>. “Because I had to go through the same things that any son went through.”<\/p>\n

The Clippers saved him from landing on a guard-heavy Celtics team<\/p>\n

To his credit, Austin has an impressive resume. He led Winter Park High School to its first-ever state title in 2010. Rivers was the 2011 Naismith Prep Player of the Year and won a couple more HS player of the year awards.<\/p>\n

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In his lone season at Duke, he was the ACC Freshman of the Year and an All-ACC first team selection. He was selected 10th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n

Austin struggled in his two-plus years in New Orleans<\/a>, shooting just 39 percent from the field and 33 percent from 3-point range. Midway through Year 3, he was dealt to the Celtics. With Marcus Smart<\/a>, Avery Bradley<\/a>, Evan Turner<\/a>, Phil Pressey<\/a> and Marcus Thornton<\/a> in the Boston backcourt, Austin could have gotten lost in the mix.<\/p>\n

But the Clippers rescued him from purgatory. Austin dismissed it as anything but a business decision.<\/p>\n

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“There aren’t that many guys whose dads played who got to the league. I think a big part of that is that you’re born into a situation where you’re given a lot of things, your motivation to earn it may not be as great, or you feel a lot of pressure. I just never felt any of that stuff because my dad always kept me on my toes, always kept me hungry, and that’s why I’m here,” he added.<\/p>\n

Related: DeMarcus Cousins weighs in on the NBA playoffs: “The better teams have done their jobs”<\/a><\/p>\n

Draymond called Austin the biggest bailout in U.S. history<\/p>\n

That summer, Austin signed a two-year, $6.4 million deal with the Clippers, with Year 2 a player option. After averaging 7.1 points off the bench in 41 games for the Clippers in 2015, Austin upped that number to 8.9 points per game in 2015-16.<\/p>\n

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During the 2016 offseason, he declined his player option and signed a $35 million extension, a contract that remains controversial years after his retirement.<\/p>\n

Just recently, Austin got into an online war of words with Golden State Warriors<\/a> forward Draymond Green<\/a>. And after Rivers criticized Green’s comments about Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Dray brought up Austin’s Clippers contracts in their argument<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s ridiculous because the guy received the biggest bailout in U.S. history prior to President Trump bailing out the airlines when they needed it,” he said<\/a>. “Austin Rivers received the biggest bailout in U.S. history when his dad gave him $42 million. ‘Tip my hat to Doc. I pray that one day I can give DJ $200 million or give Deuce $250 million. I pray that I can do that one day,'”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Just as 10 years ago, Austin was put on the defensive. As he had before, he recited his resume from high school through the 2012 NBA Draft. Draymond hasn’t talked about it ever since. When Rivers gets into it with someone else in the future, nepotism will still be the first stone that his adversary will throw at him.<\/p>\n

Because no matter what he says he went through, he was still hired and coached by his dad in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Related: Austin Rivers challenges Draymond Green to a 1-on-1 battle to settle beef: “You can’t set picks”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 15, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two months after the Los Angeles Clippers controversially traded for him in 2015, Austin Rivers was getting pummeled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[3664,10726,7,75,559,200,15188,164,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,326,17891,6,478,470,20978],"class_list":["post-735273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-clippers","tag-austin-rivers","tag-avery-bradley","tag-basketball","tag-boston-celtics","tag-clippers","tag-draymond-green","tag-evan-turner","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-la","tag-la-clippers","tag-laclippers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesclippers","tag-marcus-smart","tag-marcus-thornton","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-phil-pressey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116580255225633773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}