Things might get awkward at the dinner table for the Rivers family this Thanksgiving.
Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers, 27, put team over family on Wednesday night when he gestured for the referees to give a technical foul to the Los Angeles Clippers head coach, who happens to be his father, Glenn "Doc" Rivers.
The elder Rivers was arguing vehemently with the officials about an issue with timeouts when Austin began making the "T" hand gesture for a technical foul in the background.
The argument ended with Doc Rivers getting two technical fouls and being ejected late in the fourth quarter of Houston's 102-93 win in a showdown between two of the Western Conference's top teams.
As Rivers was leaving the floor, his son whooped it up with the crowd and then gestured for his dad to call him later.
He then had some fun with it after the game.
"Welp.... thanksgiving is going to be weird....,'' he tweeted.
Rivers is like any son who has learned over the years to be on the lookout for signs of when his father is about to get really angry.
"I knew it was coming,'' he told reporters after the game. "I’ve seen that look before many times. Once he starts blinking his eyes fast that’s when I know he’s about to level up. I just started telling Tony (the referee) get him and they got him. He’s out of here."
The younger Rivers couldn't help but have fun as he sat back and watched his dad's meltdown.
"He actually is sensitive about stuff like that,'' Austin told reporters. "I love him. It was a really good moment. I enjoyed it a lot. I’m not gonna lie to you. I really did enjoy that."
Austin also knows that look as one of Doc's players. He is the first player in NBA history to have ever played for his father after suiting up for the the Clippers from 2015-18 before he was traded to the Washington Wizards.
The younger Rivers admitted in 2016 that the two weren't particularly close off the court.
"He doesn’t really share his life outside of basketball with me," he told ESPN. "He and I don’t know each other like that. We know each other as strictly basketball. A lot of people on the outside don’t understand that because people think we have a relationship like every other father and son. We just don’t. That’s because he’s been gone my whole life, and that’s fine."
However, Austin Rivers did acknowledge their unique family accomplishment in 2018 when he was traded to Washington.
"I know the scenario of me playing for my pops wasn’t easy for people to understand and accept ....some never will, but to the ones who did... I can’t thank you enough,'' he wrote on Instagram. "Me and pops did something that has never been done in our sport!! Which was hard for a lot of people to understand but I am grateful for the time I experienced playing for him and the Clippers."
The Rivers are the definition of a basketball family, as Doc's three sons have all played Division I basketball and his daughter, Callie, is married to Austin's former Duke teammate, Seth Curry, a guard on the Dallas Mavericks and the brother of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.
Austin and Doc will be on the same floor again when the Rockets and Clippers have a rematch on Nov. 22 in Los Angeles, less than a week ahead of Thanksgiving. Here's hoping nobody gets ejected.