Last night’s Team USA Basketball showcase lacked a large amount of defense and saw a lot of three-point shots. That appears to be right up the alley for Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers.
Rivers took to twitter to express his opinion about not being involved with the Team USA Showcase, a game that was admitted by many players and most involved to be a glorified All-Star game, something for the fans.
Yet Rivers still felt like he deserved to be there.
Following from Austin Rivers twitter account.
Straight up better than a lot of those dudes playing last night…..
Have to prove that this year. M.o.a.M
MIP…..why not
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
Don't get my last tweet confused. EVERY player there last night was WELL deserved. As a competitor I just feel like I should be out there.
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
Nothing personal. All those guys playing last night are great players. Every single one. Just got to keep working to get out there is all!
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
At the End of the day…talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words. So that's that.
M.o.a.M Got to keep pushing
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
Didn't really mean it that way…I worded It wrong…it was me just being competitive and wanting to be out there. https://t.co/HaNbapYqRA
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) August 14, 2015
As a reminder, here are the rosters for the game.
USA Blue, coached by Monty Williams, featured Harrison Barnes, Bradley Beal, DeMar DeRozan, Andre Drummond, Kenneth Faried, Rudy Gay, Amir Johnson, Victor Oladipo, and Elfrid Payton.
USA White coached by Tom Thibodeau featured Arron Afflalo, Michael Carter-Williams, DeMarcus Cousins, Draymond Green, Blake Griffin, Terrence Jones, Kawhi Leonard, Mason Plumlee, Klay Thompson, C.J. Watson.
So I guess Rivers has a small argument to think he should be on the roster for this game. I suppose over C.J. Watson, if you want to be technical about it but even then, it’s close. Rivers confidence appears to be higher than ever before, even higher than when he did James Harden’s celebration in the playoffs, and that’s a good sign considering his confidence on the court has been an issue in the past. As Rivers continues to improve maybe he’ll get the call one day to help out.
On the flipside, you don’t know what some of these late invite players like Amir Johnson, C.J. Watson, Arron Afflalo or Terrence Jones did for USA Basketball in the pass so many Jerry Colangelo was just calling on some guys he could rely on to help him out in a tight situation. Maybe Austin wasn’t on the short list of guys he can rely on.
