Kelvin Creswell Rivers (born March 1, 1987) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

BC Samara BC Samara (russian: БК Самара) is a Russian professional basketball team that is based in Samara, Russia. History BC Samara (1976–2002) Club was founded in Tolyatti as BC Azot. Club was a silver medalist of the Russian Super League ...

of the

VTB United League VTB United League (russian: Единая Лига ВТБ) is an international professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that was founded in 2008. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus an ...

. Standing at , he plays at the

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guard's m ...

and

small forward The small forward (SF), also known as the three or swingman, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Small forwards are typically shorter, quicker, and leaner than power forwards and centers but taller, larger, and stronger t ...

positions.

High school career

Rivers attended high school at Oak Hill Academy, in Mouth of Wilson,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, where he played high school basketball. While there, he helped his team capture two

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

national high school basketball championships. In those two years, his team's record was a combined 72–2. He holds Oak Hill's record for the most three-point field goals made in a game, with 15.

College career

Rivers played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

, with the

Clemson Tigers The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...

, seeing action in 102 games, while starting 55 of those games. Rivers averaged 14.2 points, and grabbed 6 rebounds a game, in his four years at Clemson.

Professional career

After failing to be drafted in the

2009 NBA draft The 2009 NBA draft was held on June 25, 2009, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In this draft, the National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eli ...

, Rivers signed with AB Latina of the Italian

LegaDue Basket Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian basketball league system, Italian league pyramid, below the first ...

, the Italian second-tier league, in August 2009. In 10 games with Latina, he averaged 24.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, and in December 2009, he signed with Benetton Treviso of the Italian top-tier league, the LBA, for the remainder of the season. On June 30, 2010, he signed a contract with Chorale Roanne of the French

LNB Pro A The LNB Pro A, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is the top-tier men's professional basketball league in France. The competition has existed since 1921. Since 1987, the Ligue Nationale de Basket has governed the league. ...

for the 2010–11 season. In January 2011, he returned to Italy and signed with

Virtus Bologna Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...

, for the rest of the season. On July 29, 2011, he signed a one-year deal with

Lokomotiv Kuban PBC Lokomotiv Kuban (russian: ПБК «Локомотив Кубань») is a Russian professional basketball team based in Krasnodar. The club participates in the VTB United League. The team is one of the top tier basketball teams in Russia. T ...

of Russia. On May 30, 2012, he signed a two-year deal with another Russian team, Khimki Moscow Region. In July 2013, he parted ways with Khimki. In November 2013, he was acquired by the

Reno Bighorns Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

of the

NBA D-League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...

. In 47 games played in the D-league, he averaged 15.8 points and 4 rebounds per game, during the 2013–14 season. On August 7, 2014, he signed a one-year deal with the Spanish club

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. In the 2014–15 season, Real Madrid continued its successes in the EuroLeague from the previous seasons, advancing to the

EuroLeague Final Four The EuroLeague Final Four is the final four format championship of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague professional club basketball competition. The Euroleague Basketball Company used the final four format for the first time in 2002, f ...

for the third straight time. In the semifinal game against Fenerbahçe Ülker, Rivers helped his team to secure its third straight

EuroLeague Finals The EuroLeague Finals are the championship finals of the EuroLeague competition. The EuroLeague is the highest level tier, and most important professional club basketball competition in Europe. Title holders * ......1958 Rīgas ASK * 1958� ...

appearance, by scoring 17 points, on 5 of 6 shooting from the three-point line, in a 96–87 win. Real Madrid eventually won the EuroLeague championship, after defeating

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

in the EuroLeague Final, by a score of 78–59. Over the season, Rivers averaged 5.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game, to help his team win its ninth EuroLeague title overall, and its first in 20 years. Real Madrid eventually finished the season by also winning the Spanish League championship, after a 3–0 series sweep in the Spanish League Finals series against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. With the Spanish League title, they won the

triple crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Trip ...

. On September 8, 2015, Rivers signed a one-year contract with the German club

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. On December 22, 2015, he left Bayern, and returned to his former club,

, for the rest of the season. On July 24, 2016, Rivers signed a 1+1 deal with the Greek club

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

. On December 7, 2018, Rivers signed a deal with the Italian club

Pallacanestro Reggiana Pallacanestro Reggiana, also known for sponsorship reasons as UnaHotels Reggio Emilia, is an Italian professional basketball team based in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna. It plays in the LBA as of the 2022-23 season. History 1970s Pallacanestr ...

. He parted ways with Reggiana in February 2019. On February 11, 2019, Rivers signed for Serbian club

Crvena zvezda Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional Association football, foot ...

for the rest of the 2018–19 season. On August 20, 2019, Rivers signed a one-year deal with

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

club Coosur Real Betis. On November 22, 2019, Rivers signed with Lithuanian club Žalgiris Kaunas for the remainder of the 2019–2020 season. On July 6, 2020, Rivers signed with

BC Zenit Saint Petersburg BC Zenit Saint Petersburg (russian: БК Зенит Санкт Петербург), formerly known as BC Dynamo Moscow Region (2003–2007) and BC Triumph Lyubertsy (2007–2014), is a Russian professional basketball team that is located in Sain ...

for the 2020–2021 season. On July 9, 2021, Rivers officially parted ways with the Russian club. On December 10, he returned to Bayern Munich. Rivers parted ways with the team on January 25, 2022. On February 22, 2022, Rivers signed with

Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. Hapoel Jerusalem Basketball Club ( he, מועדון כדורסל הפועל ירושלים), known for sponsorship reasons as Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem (הפועל בנק יהב ירושלים‎), is a professional basketball club based in t ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. On August 3, 2022, he has signed with

of the

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2012–13 , style="text-align:left;",

Khimki Khimki ( rus, Химки, p=ˈxʲimkʲɪ) is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, 18.25 kilometres northwest of central Moscow, and immediately beyond the Moscow city boundary. History Origins and formation Khimki was initially a railway station tha ...

, 24 , , 17 , , 26.3 , , .445 , , .364 , , .533 , , 2.7 , , 1.5 , , .8 , , .1 , , 9.6 , , 7.5 , - , style="text-align:left;background:#AFE6BA;", 2014–15† , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 30 , , 16 , , 17.0 , , .432 , , .411 , , 1.000 , , 2.3 , , 1.1 , , .6 , , .0 , , 5.3 , , 5.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;",

Bayern Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, 10 , , 2 , , 23.5 , , .457 , , .431 , , .667 , , 2.3 , , 1.3 , , .5 , , .1 , , 10.8 , , 8.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;",

, 17 , , 4 , , 17.5 , , .609 , , .315 , , .778 , , 1.5 , , .8 , , .8 , , .1 , , 6.7 , , 5.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;" rowspan=2,

, 33 , , 5 , , 27.4 , , .488 , , .420 , , .780 , , 2.5 , , .8 , , .8 , , .1 , , 11.2 , , 7.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , 31 , , 4 , , 23.2 , , .500 , , .358 , , .656 , , 2.7 , , .8 , , 1.1 , , .1 , , 8.5 , , 6.5 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", , 145 , , 48 , , 22.4 , , .503 , , .386 , , .701 , , 2.4 , , 1.2 , , .8 , , .1 , , 8.7 , , 6.9

Domestic leagues

Personal life

Rivers is the nephew of former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player

Byron Dinkins Byron Stewart Dinkins (born June 15, 1967) is a retired American professional basketball player who played two seasons in the NBA, from 1989 to 1991. He played college basketball for UNC Charlotte. After his stint in the NBA Dinkins pursued a profe ...

. Rivers is married, and has 2 children, Maiyah and Micah.

References

External links