"No other team wanted to pay him, and his daddy paid him" - Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson talk about Austin Rivers's contract with the Clippers

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There are various cases in NBA history when family ties exist. Often, we see brothers make their way to the league and cousins make it to the league within the same era.

A rarer instance is a father being a coach and a son being a player in the NBA at the same time, which is what happened with Doc Rivers and Austin Rivers. If you ask Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, they think Doc helped Austin land his big deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Barnes sheds light on Rivers’ contract

Barnes was on the Clippers when Rivers was traded to the team in 2015. Of course, it was particularly noteworthy that Austin’s new coach ended up being his dad, Doc, so many fans believed that he pushed for the front office to acquire his son.

The front office wanted to bring in more help for their backcourt ahead of the playoffs, but Doc wanted to give Austin those minutes. When Rivers got his deal with the Clippers, Barnes believes that Doc played him more in an effort to help him maximize his earnings.

“Things got funny with the Clippers when Doc got in,” Barnes said on All The Smoke Unplugged. “Some would say Austin was on his way out, he comes in, gets a spot…We wanted to get Nate Robinson, and he didn’t want Nate Robinson to come before the playoffs because I feel like he wanted to give Austin that chance to shine, and then Austin did his thing against Houston in this one game, he was killing.”

“But what got funny was when he got the bread…Austin got way more money than me, Jamal (Crawford), and JJ (Redick), and we was the ones putting in all the minutes and a lot of the work…In the moment I’m like ‘What the f***?’, but now I’m like ‘If I had the opportunity to get my motherf***ing son some money like that too, Imma do the same motherf***ing thing.’ So I ain’t even mad about it.”

Jackson bluntly explains the Austin Rivers’ situation

You can understand why Barnes was initially frustrated to see Austin earn a three-year, $35 million contract with the Clippers despite not playing as big a role as some other guys. But looking back on it, he says he would have done the same thing if he were Doc.

On the other hand, Jackson, who was on the Clippers the year before with Rivers in charge, had a very different take. Capitan Jack said that Doc was the only guy who wanted Austin, so he stepped in to ensure his son got paid.

“He wasn’t on his way out,” Stephen Jackson said on All The Smoke Unplugged. “No other team wanted to pay him, and his daddy paid him.”

It’s hard to believe that the connection between Doc and Austin didn’t play a role in him landing his deal with the Clippers. Barnes isn’t upset about it anymore, but it’s clear Jackson has no problem stating what he believes to be the obvious truth.

Rivers played out his contract with LA, gradually getting a bigger role over time before he left. It’s pretty notable that he didn’t have a massive role with any of the other teams he’s played for. Whatever the case may be, Austin got paid, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.