Put the Taylor Swift album away because there’s no bad blood between Austin Rivers and Chris Paul.
In an interview with Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports that ran on Monday, Rivers revealed that he called Paul and they had a roughly 40-minute conversation to clear the air over Paul’s exit from the Los Angeles Clippers.
“I called Chris and was like, ‘Chris, what’s going on?’” said Rivers. “Chris is like, ‘This is the biggest bulls— I’ve ever seen in my life.’ Chris was just like, ‘This is a joke.’ So I asked him, I’m like, ‘You don’t need to come out and say nothing publicly, I don’t need you to do that. It’s just going to make it even more, now they’re going to drag it out two more days. I’ll take it. I don’t care. I’ve been dealing with this since I was six. I really don’t even care.
“What do I have to do with someone else’s move?” Rivers continued. “Chris wanted to move because he’d been [with the Clippers] for a while. He’s had great years there, but he wanted something new. A lot of players want that. It’s really that simple.”
Paul’s sudden departure for the Houston Rockets last month led to reports that he resented both Rivers and his father, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, over perceived preferential treatment. The elder Rivers had previously shot down those reports, and this should mark the end of that narrative now that it is apparently being refuted directly at the source.
