Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers has responded to Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving, who says the return of the NBA would negatively affect the Black Lives Matter movement. Rivers says he doesn't see the correlation.

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"Us coming back would put money in all of our (NBA players) pockets," Rivers continued. "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."

Former NBA player Stephen Jackson says the league is jumping the gun with it’s return to action in July, claiming “now ain’t the time.”

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Jackson says the return of the NBA will shift the conversation away from social justice and police reform: “I love the NBA man, that’s my family,” Jackson told fans in a video uploaded to Instagram. “But now ain’t the time to be playing basketball y’all. Now ain’t the time. Playing basketball is gonna do one thing, take all the attention off the task at hand right now and what we fighting for.”

“Everybody gonna be worried about the playoffs, they gonna have that blasting all over the TV, and nobodies gonna be talking about getting justice for all these senseless murders by these police and nobody’s gonna be focused on the task at hand,” he continued. “None of these white owners have spoken up, none of ’em are taking a stand. Yeah, they might post a video when the season start of saying what we should do, but they ain’t doing nothing.”

Current NBA player Kyrie Irving has expressed similar sentiments, telling The Athletic, “I’m not with the systematic racism and the bullshit. Something smells a little fishy.”

“I’m willing to give up everything I have [for social reform],” he added.

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George Floyd’s daughter, Gianna Floyd, is well aware of the impact her father has had on the world, proudly declaring that he made a substantial difference in the way we operate as a people.

For the last week and a bit, there have been peaceful protests happening across the country as we fight against racial inequality. In places like Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Las Vegas, New York, and more, demonstrators have gathered to send a message. We will no longer allow people of color to be treated as second-rate citizens. Black Lives Matter.

The death of George Floyd was preventable but it has sparked outrage in the black community. It is the reason why we’re back outside during a pandemic, risking our lives so that change can be made. 

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The six-year-old daughter of George Floyd, Gianna, has been participating in the protests with her family and, yesterday, she sat perched atop Stephen Jackson’s shoulder, one of her late father’s best friends, and declared that her dad changed the way we operate.

“Daddy changed the world!” said Gianna, putting her arms in the air and smiling. Stephen Jackson posted the video, alongside his own caption.

“That’s right GiGi,” added the NBA star. “George Floyd the name of change.”

Rest in peace, George Floyd.

George Floyd's murder at the hands of police is a story that has become all too common in the United States of America. The video of Floyd's murder was posted on social media and the images sparked public outrage that has manifested in widespread protests throughout the country but more specifically, in Minneapolis which is where Floyd was killed.

Former NBA star Stephen Jackson actually grew up with Floyd in Houston and the two were friends. Today, Jackson made an appearance in Minnesota alongside NBA stars like Karl-Anthony Towns, where he delivered a moving speech about his friend. As Jackson said, he is saddened by his friend's passing and that he has had enough of cops dragging Floyd's name through the dirt. He also urged his white friends to stand up and fight the injustice with him.

People are outraged after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. Floyd was accused of resisting arrest, which has since been proven false, and an officer pinned him down to the ground and placed his knee on his neck, restricting his airway. After countless pleas, telling the police that he could not breathe, Floyd was pronounced dead.

A video has gone viral, which was filmed by a witness, and now, former NBA star Stephen Jackson is coming out to tell his own story about George Floyd.

“Twin. I promise I won’t let this BS ride,” said Jackson in a video posted to Instagram. In the video, he says that he was close friends with Floyd, referring to him as “twin” because of the bond they shared. 

“This is what I gotta wake up to, huh?” he said. “Floyd was my brother, man. We called each other ‘Twin,’ bruh.”

Jackson explained that Floyd was a good man, moving from South Texas to Minnesota to make a better life for himself. He was driving trucks to make a living.

It has been reported that four officers were fired for their involvement in George Floyd’s death. Protests took place in Minneapolis, which turned violent with riots breaking out. 

Rest in peace, George Floyd.

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Speaking to Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for their All The Smoke podcast, Lil Wayne revealed who his favorite players are in the National Basketball Association. He also touched on the current state of rap and his preferred spitters, including Young Dolph.

“All the homies, they just been super shocked. They love the way I love [Young] Dolph,” said Lil Wayne during his podcast appearance. Clearly very stoned, the words got stuck in Tunechi’s mouth for a minute but he ended up completing the sentence, praising one of Memphis’ finest. 

The leader of Paper Route Empire caught wind of the comments, bigging up his homie and officially crowning him as one of the greatest of all time.

Reposting the clip on his Instagram account, Young Dolph had this to say about Lil Wayne: “1 time for the Best Rapper Alive aka The Rap God @liltunechi.”

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He closes out the message by affirming that the new album he announced several weeks ago would finally be released soon.

“New project otw really really soon,” added Dolph.

Previously, Young Dolph claimed that the project was delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak but, now that he’s had a few weeks to get everything sorted out in his home studio, it looks to be ready to go.

In October 2006, several members of the Indiana Pacers were involved in a chaotic altercation outside a strip club, during which Stephen Jackson was run over by a car and several gun shots were fired. If you don't recall that infamous incident, you can read the old ESPN report here, or you can just sit back and listen to Jackson's version of what went down on the latest episode of his and Matt Barnes' "All The Smoke" podcast.

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According to Jackson, he was just about to pull out of the parking lot at Club Rio when he saw Jamaal Tinsley being chased out of the building by a group of men that they had recently argued with. Naturally, Captain Jack grabbed his gun and came to his teammate aid. Says Jackson:

"By the time I get over there it's like we about to fight, so I hit one of them with my pistol. We get to fighting, more dudes come up out the club. I been in that position to many times - I know before I get surrounded and stomped out I'm gonna let off some warning shots. I let two off. By that time, I was running to my car. Somebody got in their car and sized me up in the parking lot and hit me going about 35-40 miles per hour - Boom! Knocked me in the air, I hit the ground... my face just hitting the ground, I stand up all my teeth gone, my lips' shattered."

Jackson went on to describe how he came to his senses after one of his teammates started shooting at the vehicle, and then Jackson, too, emptied his clip until he passed out. Again, this is happened just weeks before Jackson, Tinsley and the rest of the Pacers were preparing to kick off the 2006 NBA season.

Check out Jackson's recollection of events in the video embedded below.

Kevin Durant recently chopped it up with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their “All the Smoke” podcast, as the trio discussed a range of topics including Durant’s time with Golden State, burner accounts, and his relationship with his former teammates. Barnes and Captain Jack also brought up the topic of marijuana in sports, and asked Durant where he stands on the matter. In short, KD is all for it.

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Durant explains:

“I just think it should be taken off the banned substance list. It shouldn’t even be a discussion nowadays. It’s just like, marijuana is marijuana. It’s not harmful to anybody. It can only help and enhance and do good things, you know. I feel like it shouldn’t even be a huge topic around it anymore.”

The two-time NBA Finals MVP noted how players around the league will routinely drink coffee, or wind down with a glass of wine or a drink, and thinks marijuana should be viewed in that same light. He adds with a smile, “It’s a plant that’s put here for a reason and it’s to all bring us together, man. Hopefully it happens, especially in the NBA.”

Check out his full thoughts in the IG video embedded below, and click here to see what Charles Barkley thinks of everybody’s favorite plant.

Kevin Durant and Kendrick Perkins have been embroiled in a bit of a beef recently. The two were teammates on the Oklahoma City Thunder although when Durant left OKC for Golden State, Perkins felt as though it was a weak move. In fact, Perkins recently said Russell Westbrook was a better thunder player than KD, which led to a bit of a spat on Twitter. Perkins has since apologized for the comments but now, KD is responding and he doesn’t seem to care for the apology.

While speaking on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Durant said Perkins is simply looking for attention and just wants to up his profile as a broadcaster. Perkins has been known as a hot take artist these days and Durant thinks it is all apart of his plan to get some notoriety on television.

Per Durant Heavy.com:

“Russell [Westbrook] going back to Oklahoma City was a great thing, but you [Kendrick Perkins] knew you announcing saying I’m going to announce why Russell [Westbrook] is the greatest Thunder player ever you knew that was a divisive statement. You know people would say that’s a shot at [KD] like you know that. So, my whole thing is you don’t have to do that in order to praise Russell you have to S*** on me because that is what the fans and the media in Oklahoma City made their money off of the last four years is S***ing on me. So, Perk you are just playing into that because you want a job and some notoriety in your profession, but we were actually friends before this.  We actually played basketball games before this and I know your family, so why are you trying to use that tactic against one of your so-called brothers.  That was my whole thing and then he called me out on Twitter about us losing in the second round I’m like Perk, you are on the same team as me. And you started and you didn’t play well.”

With this latest interview in mind, it doesn’t seem like KD is too interested in peacing things up. Durant is known as a sensitive player and Perkins should have known his comments would strike a cord.