Pat Beverley.
One of my favorite players in the NBA. Great story grinder, shit talker, extraordinary, officially an LA laker.
We've talked about that, how is it going to work?
We wanted to know, how is he going to assimilate into this very dysfunctional team.
We wanted to know.
Well, it hasn't taken him long to start rattling some cages. Traded from Minnesota to Utah then flipped to LA. At his press conference, a reporter asked him or scrum I guess, asked him what's it gonna be like to play with Braun and ad his response, what they're gonna be playing with me.
I made the playoffs last year. They didn't. That's the difference.
Oh god, oh my goodness. If you don't remember, this is the one who stood on the table like his name was Jalen Suggs after hitting a half court shot to go to the National championship game. That was the energy that Pat BEV was bringing to the room. And I get it the Wolves. This was a playing game too. This was still one more playing game to go to get into the playoffs. Jumping on the table screaming, some
people can't stand Pat Bev. A lot of people can't stand him, but that's because he's actually never played for a team that they root for.
Pat Bev.
If you are a fan of the team that he's on, you love him. He's a pest, He's a troll, a world class troll. And over the last five seasons, here's a stat that I did not know until today. He's allowed the second lowest fuel goal percentage as the closest defender in the entire NBA minimum two thousand shots defended at forty one point nine percent, only six tenths of a percentage behind the number one.
Who's the number one? Yannis? What maybe the most surprising stat in the entire NBA.
If you haven't spent too much time evaluating Pat Bev, maybe Pat Bev should give those stats to Russell Westbrook because Russell Westbrook, if you remember, through serious shade at him, and that's that right there, probably one of the least why, one of the least likely people in the league might just be the one to change the culture of the Lakers. And it started not just in that scrum, but pretty much the second he got off the train.
And Pat Burt Bev's first huge.
Media availability session where all the reporters coming into a room.
There's a desk, there's water, there's cameras.
He walks into the room and says hello, everybody, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, and just as a quick aside, reporters are miserable. It's probably like eight am. And usually when athletes speak to you, it's just kind of like not real. They don't actually mean anything by it, they just do it. But Pat Bev, when he got crickets back, was not having any of that bullshit.
No he was not.
So he said it again and said hello everybody, and then proceeded as he got up to the post. This is him walking in the door as he got to the podium. He decided to school them on the etiquette of just being a human being. Hey, when it's good it's morning, we say good morning. When it's night, we say good night. Understand, So say hello. We're a family, right, okay, so say hello. Holy shit. And I saw the actual
footage of this. Some of the other reporters were taking phone the phone footage and one of them responded.
Sheesh, so things are getting a little uncomfy already.
In day two, But the big question is how were Patrick Beverly and Russell Westbrook going to cohabitate because they pretty much hate each other. It dates back to twenty thirteen, if you don't remember, when Beverly crashed into Russ's knee trying to play a swiper in a late April game and that actually ended westbrook season, and I took.
That personally meme. Beef then ensued.
Beef then got worse in twenty eighteen in the playoffs when Russ did the hole rock the baby gesture every time that he scored on Pat Bev, and Bev then try to take out his legs also kind of whacked it Russell Westbrook rock the baby because he did that to Dame too, and then Dame sent his ass home. So fine anyway, escalated again in November twenty nineteen when Russ was asked about Beverly's d's defense not the other D, in a postgame presser and gave us this gem, Pat
Beverly trick y'all man like he plays defense. He don't guard nobody, man, He's just running around doing nothing. And Pat Bev waited to respond, waited to respond until this last offseason when he finally did oh boy. In the midst of Russ's famous struggles banging shot after shot after shot after shot off the side of the backboard, Beverly tweeted, I remember when somebody said all I do is run around and trick y'all? Well, my boy is the real
magician this year. Then, to top it off, he tweeted, ain't no fun when the Rabbits got the gun?
Yikes.
And right before he got traded this off season, Pat Bev went on JJ Reddick's podcast and said that Russ damaged his career. Coaching staffs, players, fans, they look at me way different now, he said, So the first question, obviously in the presser is not hey, Pat Beth, how much do you love la Now? It's really what's up with you in Russell Westbrook now that you guys are
team mates. Very diplomatic non Pat Bev answer, He said, well, I was asked the same question two or three years ago about someone that I always wanted to play with.
Russell Westbrook was the first name.
A player with that competitive spirit, that fire, that will, that dog, that nastiness, that grit. To have a running mate like that, I've never had that, so I'm super excited to see where it goes. You've never had that you play with Kawhi Leonard, You've never had that you.
Play with Aunt Edwards. Pause, que up and that's a lie, And that is just a lie.
Pat Bev trying to change cultures everywhere that he goes, and in a lot of ways, Pat Beverly, you could see as like a veteran line cook brought in to change a failing restaurant filled with superstar chefs. He's not gonna put up with any of their bullshit. He's gonna make sure they're always sharp, no packets of cigarettes.
On the oven.
He's gonna bitch when their stations aren't clean, and he's damn well gonna make sure that they're all there for family dinner. He said, Yes, I've been watching the Bear. Back to the Bear, been watching the Bear. Tremendous series.
He says this.
If you can't have those tough conversations amongst each other ahead of time, you're damn sure not gonna be able to have them in front of twenty thousand people when the crowd is going against you. So my thing's always been camaraderie, team, team, team, and if you do that and play hard. You just let the dominoes fall wherever they fall. From there, and if the Lakers can convince Lebron James and Russell Westbrook to play.
Defense, I don't know. All I know the Lakers aren't gonna be good, we know that, but
They did get way one hundred percent more interesting