Duke’s Austin Rivers and His Stupid Quotes
Austin Rivers may be confused after benching vs. Wake. He might also need to re-think his post game comments.
After Duke Guard Austin Rivers was benched to start the game against Wake Forest January 19th, he then stuck his foot in his mouth with his post game comments. Not only did he slam, what appeared to be every other coach nationally, he also went on to say he would basically get away with multiple homicides on any other campus than the one in Durham at Puke University. Then add to it, it wasn’t as if the poor kid didn’t play a minute in the game, he came in shortly after tip, played a team high 32 minutes and still had 20 points in a blowout win. Maybe every player should get benched and put in like that. If I were him, my only comment would have been, “If I can come off the bench, play 32 minutes, and score 20 pts, I don’t need start a game again”.
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Here is some of his non-sense he said after the game. I will expand on how I feel he disrespected some other HOF coaches, who may have recruiting him.
"“He put me on the bench to get me going, I think” Rivers said."
This of course is several days after he was told he would come off the bench. How do you still not understand? So I’m very confident he knew exactly why he was disciplined by Coach K and came off the bench.
"Rivers continues: “I’m just going to play as hard as I can for the rest of the year. That’s all I’m going to do, man. Whether I play 30 minutes, ten minutes, or 5 minutes, I’m gonna go in there and give it everything I got.”"
Alright, now that wasn’t so bad. After that quote I’m considered that maybe he did at least learn something. Personally, I would want my players as a coach to answer any question with fire like that. He continued to answer the same questions just asked a little different. He threw out the Elton Brand benching as a comparison, of his benching under Coach K. Then he got cocky after explaining how angry he was following recent Duke practices. After being informed he would be benched to start the Wake game some 3 days later on the 19th. Then Rivers flipped the switch and went back to his “dummy comments” and he said some things I don’t think he quite understood himself.
"“I don’t think this would happen anywhere else. I think somewhere else they would just let me do what I want to do. But not here. In high school, AAU, you do what you kind of want. Here, this is Duke University, man.” Rivers said without hesitation. “I wanted to be able to handle situations like this. That’s why I chose Duke.”"
UH-OH! Ok Austin Rivers one can take at stab at what you meant. Yes there maybe a handful or more teams, you could have went to and did whatever you want, on and off the court. You comments called out every program and every coach, some who even recruited you. Roy Williams, along with several top name coaches, would not allow this young man free rains of his basketball program. In Carolina for example, UNC has no need for a guy to dominate the ball. With Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall. So in UNCs case, they didn’t need or even probably want Rivers. I take Marshall over Rivers everyday of the week. Secondly, I know of a few Top NBA draft picks that came off of Williams’s benches and did “daddgum” wonders with those teams. Austin’s one-and-done antics on and off the court may have proved poisonous for the UNC locker room.
Rivers, C’mon! Being the son of a former NBA player and current Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers , I would have thought you would have more respect for the NCAA overall than that. I could continue to name guys like Boheim, Thad Matta, and Bill Self. To say that only Duke would provide him with the basketball education he needed is an absolute insult to every other National Championship winning coach,player and program out there. It also goes to show how uneducated some young athletes are about the sport they play this generation.
I don’t think too many took offense to Rivers comments like I do. That’s OK, bottom line, the comment wasn’t necessary. One simple comment indeed but still unnecessary. Either way, if he feels as though Coach K is the only one who can teach him something, he will have a long and rough pro career ahead of him. The type of career that sees him leave his best basketball on the high school and college court.
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