Austin Rivers isn’t just a second-generation basketball player, he’s also a part of one of the biggest active NBA families today. However, during his recent interview with Overtime, the 32-year-old revealed how a Playoff series loss to Stephen Curry once got in the way of his vacation plans.
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“We had a huge family trip in Fiji. It was all the Currys and all the Rivers. I didn’t go,” Austin shared with Overtime’s Megan Patricia. “We had just lost to the Warriors. I’m like, ‘Steph, you not about to fly me out on vacation after just knocking me out of the Playoffs bro.’”
The Chef was in celebration mode when he booked out an island in Fiji for the Rivers and the Currys, but Austin was still fuming over the postseason loss to his brother-in-law. Callie Rivers, Doc Rivers’s daughter and Austin’s sister, is married to Seth Curry, making the Curry-Rivers the biggest joint NBA family today.
But during that summer vacation, not everybody in their family was celebrating. This was in 2022 and Austin had just faced Steph during the first round matchup between the Denver Nuggets and the Golden State Warriors.
Curry averaged 28 points en route to a 4-1 gentleman’s sweep, eventually finishing the season with the Larry O’Brien trophy and his first Finals MVP award. As such, he was in generous spirit when the families were planning their summer vacation.
“He paid for the whole thing — flights, island rented out. This dude just had like 40 on my head top. There’s no way I’m getting on a flight and just be like ‘Hey Steph’, hell no,” Rivers explained.
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Austin’s father Doc Rivers was probably in Fiji that summer though. After all, he was coaching the Philadelphia 76ers at the time and had no reasons to be frustrated with Steph’s fourth championship run. However, for Austin, the relationship with the Chef was competitive long before it became familial.
Austin Rivers once wanted to slap Stephen Curry
Last year, during an appearance on the ‘Ringer NBA’ podcast, Rivers revealed how different the dynamic between him and Steph was before they became in-laws. He particularly recalled a moment from his Lob City Clippers days when the Chef’s on-court dominance irked him the most.
“I was on the Clippers when he did the thing, where he dribbled through the whole team and turned around, shot the three,” Austin recounted. “I was at the game where he did the behind the back, and Chris [Paul] fell.”
These are among the top highlights in Steph’s career, but being on the receiving end is an understandably frustrating experience. For Rivers though, more than just his performance, it was Curry’s playfulness as an opponent that infuriated him the most.
“I don’t like when he’s doing his little dancing s**t. I wanted to slap the s**t out of him when he was doing that s**t. Now that I’m watching it [as a fan], I love it,” he added.
After 11 seasons in the NBA, Austin is currently working as an analyst for ESPN. He hasn’t officially retired but he’s put enough distance between himself and the hardwood to enjoy the Chef’s brilliance without remembering all the times that it burned him and his teams.
