The New York media swiftly descended on Clippers guard Austin Rivers and Coach Doc Rivers at L.A.’s shoot-around Wednesday, seeking answers to the trade rumors revolving around Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and their team.
As The Times and others have reported, the Knicks called the Clippers about two weeks ago and talked about a trade that would send Anthony to L.A. for Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford.
The Clippers were interested, as long as the Knicks knew L.A. wasn’t going to trade Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin or J.J. Redick.
Doc Rivers told The Times on Monday night there was “nothing going on” recently involving deals between the Clippers and Knicks.
But that didn’t stop the media from asking both father and son about Anthony before the Clippers practiced at the New York Athletic Club.
“Obviously when it happened, it was new for me. But then after that, it’s whatever,” Austin Rivers said in his first interview about the trade talks. “I just focus on playing basketball and helping my team. That’s it.”
He said he understands how the business of the NBA works.
“It’s always a business first and it’s always about winning first, no matter who’s on the team — whatever can help the team win. … I know it’s part of the business,” he said. “It didn’t disturb me at all. You can only control what you can control anyway. I can only control what I can control. When I heard it, I heard it. I was focused on just getting better. That’s it.”
Doc Rivers said he was “amused” by the trade stories.
But when he was asked if trading for Anthony was still an option for the Clippers, he grew angry.
“I didn’t know it was an option,” Doc Rivers said. “I don’t know. Call them [the Knicks]. We don’t have Carmelo. I swear to God we don’t. He plays for the Knicks. So that’s your story and that’s the way we leave it. You can ask us about our guys. Carmelo is not on our team.”
broderick.turner@latimes.com
Twitter: @BA_Turner
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