The bond between a father and son is a special one and one that has created great basketball players in the NBA. One of these duos includes Los Angeles Clippers’ head coach Doc Rivers and Clippers’ guard Austin Rivers.
After losing their best two players to injury, the Clippers now find themselves down 3-2 to the Trail Blazers heading back to Portland with virtually zero chance of making it on to the next round of the playoffs.
In the midst of all of the chaos and disappointment, Austin Rivers took some time to reflect on his relationship with his dad and how it may differ from what most would expect.
“My father's a very private person,” Rivers said, according to ESPN's Arash Markazi. “He doesn’t really share his life outside of basketball with me. He and I don't know each other like that.”
“We know each other as strictly basketball,” Austin said. “A lot of people on the outside don’t understand that because people think we have a relationship like every other father and son. We just don't. That's because he's been gone my whole life, and that's fine.”
Austin has received a lot of flack since joining the Clippers back in January of 2015; mostly from people saying that he doesn’t deserve his spot on the team and only has it because his dad is the coach.
Despite the odds, Austin still believes they can win the series and knows Doc has the coaching ability to lead them there.
“He's a hell of a leader,” Austin said. “He controls the room when he talks. He's the most positive coach I've ever played for in my life. We're going to try to fight as hard as we can for him and each other. We still believe we’re going to win this series.”
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