Austin Rivers Loved Seeing His Dad Doc Get Ejected
Happy holidays, Rivers family
ESPN
Doc and Austin Rivers have a complex relationship. Austin grew up in Florida (where the family settled while Doc coached the Magic) but his dad was mostly up in Boston coaching Celtics. Doc was also Austin’s boss for four years with the Clippers—until he traded his son away to the Wizards in 2018.
Things got a little more complicated last night in Houston, though in a good-natured way.
Austin’s Rockets played host to Doc’s Clippers in a game Houston won 102–93 behind a 47-point performance from James Harden. It was a hard-fought game that came to a boil in the final minutes when Doc got in a shouting match with the officials.
Rivers was upset with referee Tony Brothers over a discrepancy in the number of timeouts he had remaining. He berated Brothers while Austin stood nearby, begging to Brothers to issue his father a technical foul.
Doc got two techs, actually, and was sent to the locker room early. As his father walked to the tunnel, Austin taunted him by waving and telling him to call him. He even egged the crowd on as it jeered Doc.
Austin clearly loved the whole moment.
“I did,” Austin said with a smile when asked if he enjoyed seeing his dad get T’d up. “I knew it was coming. I could see it. I’ve seen that look before—many times. Once he starts blinking his eyes fast, and he starts [imitates Doc getting mad], that’s when I know he is about to level up. So I just started telling Tony to get him. They got him. He’s out of here.”
After the game, Austin had a fantastic tweet about the incident.
He also posted on Instagram and Doc hopped in the comments.
They won’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to smooth things over, though. The Rockets are coming to L.A. to play the Clippers next Friday.
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