Houston Rockets: Austin Rivers ‘feels terrible’ for not voting in 2016

With political activism at a high point, Austin Rivers took to Instagram to learn more about social issues and the importance of voting.

Tuesday was a historic day in the United States, with dozens of protests taking place to recognize racial injustice and bring awareness to a major issue in the country. That evening, Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers took to his Instagram Live to learn more about what’s at stake right now and why it’s never been more important to vote.

Rivers welcomed Van Lathan, an established media personality and host of The Red Pill podcast, to his Instagram Live to educate him and his followers on several important issues facing the country today.

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“I don’t even know what the statistics are,” started Rivers. “[But] the percentage of black people who don’t vote — I’ll be honest, I didn’t vote last time. I wasn’t aware of the situation.”

“Honestly, I didn’t even take Donald Trump seriously. As you’ve seen this [expletive] unravel — it is so important for people to get out and vote.”

Austin made sure to point out that he’s ready to vote this time around. “I just registered a couple of days ago. I sent in my paperwork,” said Rivers.

After Austin told Lathan that his registered state is Florida, Lathan had some advice for the 27-year-old:

“Florida is usually a state that, as Florida goes, normally does the presidency,” said Lathan.

“So not only do you have to vote this time, but you have to mobilize your vote in Florida in whatever way that you can. Utilize whatever influence you can to affect that vote in that state as much as you can because that’s a very important state.”

While Rivers might not have understood how important it was to vote at the age of 23, he looks back at that time with regret. “Trust me, I feel terrible,” said Rivers. “Because every vote counts — and then not even using my platform to get other people to vote. When [expletive] unraveled, I was like, ‘I can’t believe I was a part of this’. ”

Austin and Van covered several important issues in their conversation, which Austin currently has saved on his Instagram page for everyone to view.