Former Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones was on Speak For Yourself on Wednesday to call Austin Rivers’s comment. Rivers said the other day that he:
“Can take 30 players right now in the NBA and throw them in the NFL. You cannot take 30 NFL players and put them in the NBA.”
James Jones played in the NFL from 2007-2015. He played for the Green Bay Packers and won a Super Bowl title with them in 2010. He wasn’t the top wide receiver on the roster, but he was able to contribute at the NFL level. Jones said about Rivers’s comments on Wednesday by saying:
“Austin Rivers, if you stepped on the football field homeboy, you wouldn’t make it. We know that right now, because you barely made it in the NBA.”
Rivers played in the NBA from 2012-2023 and was on several different NBA teams. The longest he stayed on one team was from 2015-2018 with the Los Angeles Clippers.
There have been some college basketball players in the past that have played in the NFL but some professional football players have never played professional basketball.
Former Green Bay Packers Wide Receiver James Jones Is Not the Only Former NFL Player To Call Out Austin Rivers
James Jones was not the only former NFL player to call out Austin Rivers on his bluff. Former Wisconsin Badgers star and NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt also called him out on Twitter. This is what he had to say about the matter:
You don’t got a job in either right now, go head and try it… https://t.co/9C5Y4oZyXZ
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) May 7, 2024
That was a major burn by J.J. Watt about Rivers. Austin Rivers last played for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2022-2023. Minnesota this season is currently in the Western Conference Semifinals as the number three seed and currently leads 2-0 against the defending NBA Champions the Denver Nuggets. The Timberwolves have a very good chance to be in the NBA Finals and win it all.
Maybe there is a reason why the Timberwolves are better without him on the roster at all. Would Rivers dare to play in the NFL and try to shut up J.J. Watt and former Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones? That is something he would need to decide, but this was all for attention and he wanted others to talk about him.
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