Austin Rivers explains why he supports Rockets’ protest

In a new interview, Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers explains why he supports management’s decision to protest the loss in San Antonio.

Game protests are rare in the NBA, and successful ones even more so. But Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers thinks his team’s current bid is worthy of that rare status.

Speaking Friday night to Fox 26 Houston’s Mark Berman, Rivers described the play — James Harden‘s made dunk in Tuesday’s fourth quarter at San Antonio that didn’t count — that led to the fallout.

Yeah, that was ridiculous. I don’t know how they didn’t see it. I saw it. That’s their job, right? The refs, you’ve got one thing to do, and that’s watch the ball go through the hoop.

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When Berman followed up by asking Rivers whether he agreed with management’s decision to formally protest the game, the 27-year-old reserve was direct in his response.

I do. Why wouldn’t we? Hopefully we can run that back. That was a big difference in the game. But it’s not why we lost, so we’ll see.

The Rockets were on a two-game road trip to San Antonio and Toronto this week, so Rivers’ comments late Friday were the first by any member of the team to local media since arriving back in Houston.

Rivers spoke at a holiday shopping charity event for local children from the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program. All children in attendance (with their mentors) received a meal, shirt, and Adidas backpack filled with Rockets items and school supplies.

Rivers also met and took photos with the children and presented each with a $200 gift card for a personal shopping spree at Target. He then joined them at the store to help pick out gifts, as did Rockets’ reserves Isaiah Hartenstein and Gary Clark.

Rivers and the Rockets (14-7) return to basketball Saturday at Houston’s Toyota Center, where they host the Phoenix Suns (10-11) to kick off a two-game homestand. Rivers, who has quickly become a fan favorite in the Houston community since his arrival to the team in December 2018, is averaging 8.5 points in 24.9 minutes per game this season.

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