Can’t find way home
Guard’s home only 20 minutes away, but he’s sequestered from family, friends
Austin Rivers is a tantalizing 20 minutes from his house.
Rockets guard Austin Rivers need only step outside the confines of his Disney hotel to know he is home, or at least in the neighborhood. This is, however, a mixed blessing.
“I come out of my hotel room. I’m familiar with the air here, the humidity,” Rivers said. “It feels like I’m home, but I’m not home. It’s been really weird.
“I’m losing my mind a little bit. I’m just staying focused because I’m so excited to be here playing basketball. This has been very difficult for me. I’m 20 minutes from my home. I just got a home here in Orlando. It’s where my girl is, my family is. My son is right down the street from here. It’s been hard knowing they’re 20 minutes away. So close yet so far.”
His solution is the same as most others who committed to life at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex for the NBA restart, whether they arrived accustomed to summer humidity in Florida or not.
“Facetime a lot. Facetime, Facetime, Facetime,” he said. “It is nice, though. Once this is over — hopefully for us Oct. 13, 15, that’s when it’s over for us — I don’t have to go anywhere. I just have to drive down the street. It will be an easy moving process for me. That’ll be nice.”
That look at the bright side offered a reason why Rivers repeatedly described himself as excited about the return of the season.
A mixed blessing is perhaps the most that can come from the unprecedented circumstances amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Playing again requires being sequestered from friends and family, in his case just a few miles away. But Rivers believes it also offers a chance to achieve a goal that would be worth the sacrifice.
“My motivation is to win a championship,” Rivers said. “That’s what’s motivating me above all else. I’m … a part of the few teams that are here that have a realistic chance of winning. I know there’s 22 teams here. But we all know there are three or four teams that have a legit chance of winning. We all feel we’re one of those four teams. We’re happy to be down here.”
The greatest challenge, he said — greater than even the start of the season’s second training camp this week — was to stay ready. Having done that, going through the first workouts in Florida was not just manageable but a welcome return.
“When we didn’t have access to the practice facility, just finding ways every single day or every other day — every person is different — to stay in shape, stay active,” Rivers said. “Just being cautious about it. I have a son. My mom, people that I’m around who are older. I have to be careful. It was hard.
“Then as each month went by, it became a thing like, ‘Are we going to play soon? Am I doing this for no reason right now?’ I just stayed with it. So I’ve been in shape. I’m in shape now, actually, so I’m very thankful I took that time off very, very seriously. I feel really good. I got a lot of work in.”
He will not, however, be able to use the social justice message he preferred on his jersey. The NBA provided a list of phrases that players can have on their uniforms rather than their last names but did not permit names of victims, including Trayvon Martin, who at 17 years old was killed in nearby Sanford, Fla., in 2012.
“I’m going to use my name,” Rivers said. “I wasn’t able to put ‘Trayvon.’ I do like some of the messages they have. I’m very happy that players are using that. But I wanted to go a different route. Especially for me being from Orlando, Trayvon being right outside Orlando, that kind of resonated with me and my city and where I’m from. No matter where I play or where I go, I always represent Orlando, Florida. I wanted that. That couldn’t happen, so I’m just going to use Rivers.”
This will not be the first time his last name will be seen on those courts. Rivers played many high school games on the Disney campus, winning consecutive Florida 6A state championships with Winter Park High School. He played “thousands of AAU games” in those gyms.
There is no home-court advantage to any of that, he said. The arenas will be reconfigured for the NBA. But there is a familiarity Rivers has enjoyed, even if it comes with a reminder that as close as he is to home, he cannot cross those few miles to get there.
“It’s kind of nice, man,” Rivers said. “I think a lot of guys feel right now they’re far away from their homes and their family. I know mine is right down the street, but I can’t see them. Just seeing these gyms brings back a little bit of warmth, I guess, because this is where I grew up and played. So it’s kind of nice.”
Most will feel warmth, and then some, in Central Florida in July. Rivers won’t complain.