On Tuesday, former NBA player and current NBA on ESPN analyst Austin Rivers made headlines for his comments on the challenges Bronny James would face if he played in the NBA with his father LeBron James. Rivers certainly has some background there, with him spending four of his 11 NBA seasons to date playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, then coached by his father Glenn “Doc” Rivers.
But Rivers’ remarks drew remarkably critical backlash from former NBA player and current All The Smoke co-host Stephen Jackson. That saw Jackson deliver a “you trash” remark, with that coming in comments on a Sideline Sports Instagram post Tuesday. First, Jackson said “And your daddy not LeBron. Shut up.” He then later said “Difference is you trash, Bronny not. You can’t compare to him scrub.” Here’s a screenshot of that first comment:
That’s remarkably harsh from Jackson, especially considering that Rivers didn’t really criticize either LeBron or Bronny James here. He was just pointing out the challenges of spending part of your career associated with a big name you’re related to. (It should be noted that much of Rivers’ career took place outside of his father’s orbit, though, including the then-New Orleans Hornets drafting him 10th overall in 2010.)
And yet, Jackson came in with notable personal insults against Rivers. And he did so not directly at him, but in the comments of a third party aggregating Rivers’ comments. However, Rivers’ response Wednesday was more muted, simply thanking those who stood up to defend him:
All smiles…I didn’t even have to fight my own battles with ignorance, yall corrected it for me!! Thank you for not siding with delusion. Have a blessed day.
— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) February 7, 2024
“All smiles…I didn’t even have to fight my own battles with ignorance, yall corrected it for me!! Thank you for not siding with delusion. Have a blessed day.”
Look, Jackson does have a point that there are notable differences in the potential pairings of Austin Rivers and Doc Rivers and Bronny James and LeBron James. But Rivers wasn’t saying those situations were equivalent; in his role as an ESPN NBA analyst, he was offering his own perspective on how he felt about the coverage of his time playing for a team coached by his father. And for that, he got attacked in very personal terms, but in a very roundabout way, by a former NBA player turned pundit. It’s far from the first controversy Jackson has sparked, but it is an interesting further one to see.
[Austin Rivers on Twitter/X]
