There are very few players in the NBA as polarizing as Patrick Beverley. When he is on a team, his teammates and fans seem to love him, but when he’s an opponent, he is one of the easiest players to hate.
Beverley is known for his non-nonsense defensive style, and that has gotten him in trouble at times. The first big incident came in 2013 when a collision with Russell Westbrook led to a season-ending injury for the then-Thunder superstar. And as Beverley shared, it even led to him getting death threats.
“I had a ball boy threaten to kill me over the Russell Westbrook injury,” Beverley said on his podcast. “I go back to Houston, it’s my first f**king year in the NBA, I don’t even know what the f**k is going on. I don’t even know what the magnitude is of OKC, I’m just trying to win a f**king basketball game.
“Kevin McHale calls me and says, ‘Hey buddy, watch out for the media. Story has it Westbrook’s out. He tore his meniscus.’ I’m like, ‘Damn, what the f**k happened. They make a big story… I get to OKC the next game, there’s police officers in front.
“They put a police car in front of my house in Houston. I get to the hotel, I’m on the floor by myself, police guy at the door. They passing out papers of a young guy’s face on it… he threatened to kill me. Sh*t was real.”
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The collision occurred in Game 2 of the Western Conference first round in April 2013, and it derailed the Thunder’s postseason. They beat the Houston Rockets in six games but fell to the Memphis Grizzlies in the next round.
And the incident led to Beverley getting a reputation as a dirty player. He balled out in that series, though, averaging 11.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, eventually building a decade-long career as a tough-nosed defender.
Patrick Beverley And Russell Westbrook Had A Long Feud After That Until They Became Teammates
The situation led to a long-running beef between Beverley and Westbrook, leading to the iconic ‘Pat Bev trick y’all man’ line from Westbrook. Beverley also got his shots in, but eventually, they made up when they both became teammates with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2022.
Patrick Beverley getting hate is nothing out of the ordinary, but death threats are going too far, even if fans genuinely believed that he dove into Westbrook’s legs on purpose. The whole situation got a bit too out of hand, though, and thankfully, nothing serious happened at the time.
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