Is it funny to me, as a Suns fan, that Patrick Beverley keeps getting traded to teams with a worse and worse chance to compete for a 2022 NBA Championship? Absolutely. Does Patrick Beverley deserve better? Probably.
Just days after the Los Angeles Clippers decided that Eric Bledsoe would be better for furthering their championship hopes than backcourt defensive pest Patrick Beverley, the Memphis Grizzlies shipped Patrick Beverley to basketball Siberia (Minnesota) for Jarrett Culver, the so-far disappointing 6th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Just over six weeks after throwing a giant tantrum and shoving Chris Paul from behind (for which he still has a one-game suspension to serve), Patrick Beverley has gone from a key cog on a legitimate contender, to stuck in a locker room led by the collegiate teammates and off-court best friends of his now-crooked-nosed basketball nemesis, Devin Booker.
Undoubtedly there must exist a Karl Anthony-Towns and DeAngelo Russell groupchat with Booker that contains several of the following memes:
I have to reiterate that there’s not a lot of sympathy on my end for a guy who mocked Chris Paul while he laid on the ground with a busted wrist, or who was so triggered that the same guy, busted wrist and all, gave him a 40-piece that ended his season, that he went full toddler and shoved Paul from behind.
HOWEVER- I can’t say with a straight face that I don’t enjoy watching Patrick Beverley pretend to be an NBA legend after every half-decent defensive stop, while ultimately getting destroyed on the biggest stage as he contributes a career average of two points per playoff quarter. America has joyously watched Bevereley get knocked out of the playoffs seven different times now, and you’re telling us that we don’t get that privilege any more?
It’s not fair.
Sure, as Russell Westbrook pointed out, those of us that think Pat Bev is actually affecting the outcome of games have been tricked… but some of us like magicians, Russell. We don’t actually believe the rabbit existed in some other dimension before the magician reached into his hat, but it’s fun to see nonetheless.
I’ll put it bluntly, I don’t want Patrick Beverley on some 20-62 roster as the elder statesmen for a bunch of Zoomer-generation players more interested in their pregame fits making on some hypebeast fashion blog than they are winning games. I want to see Patrick Beverley give up seven buckets in a row on an ABC broadcast, and then wildly pound his chest after deflecting a pass out of bounds.
Patrick Beverley deserves better than exile in Minnesota, and as fans, we deserve better as well. Until then, let’s laugh at the tweets:
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