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Nuggets guard Austin Rivers isn’t happy with a pair of Warriors TV announcers for voicing “copout” and “disrespectful” comments about him and his teammate, Facundo Campazzo, during Denver’s 89-86 win at Golden State on Tuesday.
At the end of the second quarter, broadcasters Bob Fitzgerald and Kelenna Azubuike specifically poked fun at the Nuggets players and seemed to suggest Rivers was overpaid while being coached by his father with the Clippers from 2015-18.
After that, Fitzgerald and Azubuike laughed while they mocked the accent of the Argentinian Campazzo.
Rivers, a former Knick, fired back in an Instagram comment after the game.
“Think this kinda funny … especially since it’s coming from a guy who has never played a game of basketball in his life,” Rivers wrote of Fitzgerald under an Instagram video highlighting the announcers’ remarks.
“His comments on myself and Facu were beyond disrespectful. I averaged 11 ppg, 12 ppg, and 16 ppg of the bench for a loaded Clippers team. While being a two-way player … yet he called me overpaid?”
Rivers was at the free-throw line when Fitzgerald and Azubuike, who played five seasons in the NBA with the Warriors and Mavericks, struck up the conversation about his time in LA under his father, who is now head coach of the Sixers.
“He got a big contract extension when, oh wait, his dad was the coach,” said Fitzgerald. “Seemed to work out alright.”
Azubuike asked, “Are you saying there was some nepotism there?” to which Fitzgerald said, “I’m just saying, if you’re gonna give the money, might as well give it to your kid.”
Rivers continued to defend himself in his comment, writing, “Do u know how many guys in league made more than me while not doing half as much?! And still do now! But because my last name, it’s an easy diss and cop out. For sure unprofessional.”
Just a few minutes later, Campazzo was arguing a foul call when Fitzgerald said on the broadcast, “Campazzo likes to get scrappy and then look aggrieved all the time.”
Azubuike chimed in, adding, “See, this is how you lose your credibility. He cannot believe they called that on him. That was clearly a foul. He instigated it. He got up under Andre [Iguodala].”
Fitzgerald asked, “Well, what’s the main sport in Argentina?”
Azubuike answered, “Soccer, that’s what I was thinking. He looked like a soccer player there.”
Then, Azubuike mocked Campazzo’s accent and said, “‘How can you call this? I was wronged!’”
The incident came just a week after Rivers had a pair of fans removed from a Nuggets-Thunder game in Oklahoma City, after he said they were “talking about [his] family the whole night.”
Rivers and the Nuggets (17-16) host the Warriors on Thursday.
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