Austin Rivers continues to get hammered by former football players for suggesting NBA stars could play in the NFL, but not vice versa.
Bounding Into Sports reported last week on Rivers’ comments. Comments that sparked a brief feud with former Houston Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt.
“Where the best athletes in the world are?” Rivers said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. “That’s us.”
“I can take 30 players right now in the NBA and throw them in the NFL. You cannot take 30 NFL players and put them in the NBA.”
It’s a fun exercise to debate. But the assertion that one group of players could adapt to a different league while the other could not is silly. Rivers knows it. He’s just fishing for attention.
James Jones Absolutely Torches Austin Rivers
Now, Watt had a relatively good comeback to the Austin Rivers take, noting that the former Los Angeles Clippers guard isn’t employed in either league.
But that all fizzled out a bit when Watt pulled back after admitting he hadn’t read the entire story.
Enter former Green Bay Packers wide receiver and Super Bowl Champion James Jones, who took the debate to a whole new level. He cranked it up to 11, as Spinal Tap might say.
“Let’s just get this straight, No. 1, they put a flop rule in the NBA because you guys are soft,” Jones said. “You guys started a trend of rest games. And now y’all want extra votes and all that type of stuff to win an MVP because you only played 22 games out of 82. Y’all started that.”
There’s no denying that the NBA has grown soft in recent years. If you put some of these guys up against Bill Laimbeer and the Pistons they’d end up in traction.
Jones, an FS1 personality, wasn’t content with torching the NBA. He went directly after Austin Rivers.
“And Austin Rivers, if you stepped on a football field homeboy, you wouldn’t make it. We know that right now. Because you barely made it in the NBA, and I’m just keeping it a buck,” he added.
“Try again, homeboy.”
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Rivers Fires Back, Gets Squashed Again
I’m not sure why Austin Rivers chose this fight. But he did. And he’s not letting up.
The NBA journeyman and former first-round pick opted, for reasons known only to him, to double, triple, nay quadruple down, in responding to James Jones.
Rivers called him a “little meathead” in an X post, and somehow suggested that 11 years in the NBA with 7 different teams is more remarkable than what Jones accomplished.
Just to reiterate what Jones accomplished: 5,861 yards, 51 touchdowns, receiving touchdowns leader in 2012, and of course, the aforementioned Super Bowl XLV ring.
That must have been Rivers’ version of ‘thank you sir, may I have another.’ Because Jones leveled him again.
“Alright, homeboy. Since I’m a meathead, I’m gonna stick with my homeboy, man, because we are on TV,” he said. “I see 11 seasons, seven different teams. Top-10 pick, I see averaging nine points a game over your career. Just two rebounds and two assists over your career. Top-10 pick, you know what that sounds like to me?”
“In the streets, we call you a ‘bust,’ homeboy.”
Yikes. 911? We’d like to report a murder.
“Maybe you should’ve tried football. You might’ve had a better career, homeboy,” quipped Jones. “Basketball was not your career from what I’m reading right here. So, I’m gonna leave it at that.”
We hope he reconsiders. Everybody loves a good feud.
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