“Need the Paychecks”: Houston Rockets Player Raises Monetary Concerns Over Kyrie Irving’s Call for Boycott

Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers supported Kyrie Irving‘s stance to show further support to the fight for social issues but contrary to the Brooklyn Nets star, believed NBA resuming would only support the cause.

Irving organized a conference call on Friday along with 80 other players. During the call, he protested against the league restarting. He believed that the NBA resuming now would take the attention away from the issues in the society that people are currently fighting against.

Rockets’ Rivers had a comment on Instagram saying the league restart would not affect the protests. In fact, he believed, the restart would give players money, which they can use for helping the ongoing protests.

“Trying to find the correlation. Us coming back would be putting money in all our pockets,” Rivers commented on an Instagram post about Irving.

“With this money, you could help out even more people and continue to give more importantly your time and energy towards the BLM movement. Which I’m 100% on board with. Because change needs to happen and injustice has been going on too long.”

Among those who were against the league’s restart were Carmelo Anthony and Los Angeles Lakers’ Avery Bradley and Dwight Howard. Lakers star LeBron James wasn’t present in the meeting, but reports suggest he does not believe in the league’s resumption causing any problems.

Houston Rockets’ Rivers praised Kyrie Irving supporting the movement but wanted the NBA to restart

During his long comment on Instagram, Austin further believed the NBA can become a source of entertainment for those stuck at home.

“Us (providing) entertainment and hope for kids is important. Also keeping some kids indoors and watching basketball games on TV instead of maybe going out and getting into trouble (due to the unfair and unequal environments a lot of African-American kids are placed in) is important too,” Rivers wrote. “Not saying basketball is a cure for that, but basketball can maybe provide a distraction.”

He added that the league not resuming could financially hit the NBA. While Rivers supported Irving’s stance supporting the movement, he believed it does not have to come at the cost of the NBA season.