Thursday saw the close of an NBA trade deadline that saw numerous big stars moved mid season, including the Wolves trading D’Angelo Russell to the Lakers.
On his podcast this week, Wolves guard Austin Rivers talked about the trade and what it means for both teams as well as his irritation with how players find out they’ve been traded.
Players getting traded shouldn’t have to find out via Shams or Woj tweets.@AustinRivers25 explains to @paush why this needs to stop: https://t.co/lWmJHeelZm pic.twitter.com/aMXyVForUB
— RingerNBA (@ringernba) February 10, 2023
As the trade deadline approaches we all hit that notification button on Shams (Shams Charania of The Athletic) and Woj’s (Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN) tweets, the two preeminent NBA news breakers. It seems like players have to as well to find out if they’re on the move.
“It’s always a reality check of how much of a business it is,” River said about the trade deadline.
“It does bother me that players find out on Twitter,” Rivers continued. “I would like to get to the point where the player itself who’s getting traded or moved can get a call from the front office first and foremost and be like ‘Hey the news is going to break in the next 10 minutes. We wanted to let you know first.’ Even if it’s a text or call. Whatever the f*** you got to do, I don’t know. But a player getting on his phone on Facetime and talking to his teammate and his teammate saying ‘Sorry you’re going’ and him not knowing what’s going on is absurd to me.”
River said that it happens “all the time” that players find out through social media, or a teammate, or a family member that they’ve been traded rather than the front office or their agent.
“The first call should be to the player,” said the 11-year NBA veteran. “A player should not be finding out through Shams or Woj. These guys know before the actual families and players that are moving and uprooting their whole lives. It’s just a flawed system to me. I think it’s bullsh**.”
Rivers goes on to say that Shams and Woj are the “best at it” and that he has no problem them being first to report the news but that when they report trade news it shouldn’t be news to the players, they should already know they’re being moved.
“If you’re going to trade someone that’s fine, it’s a business,” Rivers continued. “We shouldn’t be finding out through twitter and people breaking the news. Can you not call the player right away? Can both parties call the players involved, let them know? Leave a voicemail or at least tell the agent. And then release it at least.”
“I think it’s a little cold when they do it like that in my opinion,” Rivers said.
