There was a lot of excitement among the Los Angeles Lakers fanbase when the team traded Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz for Patrick Beverley. While including Johnson was asinine, Beverley was seemingly going to bring that defensive edge that the Lakers needed.
It did not take long for the excitement of acquiring Beverley to turn into fans looking at how the team could move Beverley at the deadline. Beverley struggled for the Lakers and with an expiring $13 million contract, he became a prime candidate to be dealt at some point.
That is eventually what happened as the team traded Beverley and a second-round pick to the Orlando Magic for Mo Bamba only for the Magic to instantly buy Beverley out and result in him landing on the Chicago Bulls.
Beverley quickly made it known that he wanted to end the Lakers’ playoff dreams when the Bulls play LA in back-to-back games down the stretch. That is not the only shot that Beverley took at his former team, as he also took a shot at the former fans that he was playing in front of in Los Angeles.
Pat Bev praises Bulls fans
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 22, 2023
“I play a bad game with Chicago, I aint gotta look on twitter and hear ‘he’s a bum, get him outta here!’ Like I was hearing that sh!t in L.A.”
(Via @PatBevPod ) pic.twitter.com/8eNKh7npXi
Perhaps Beverley is not hearing as much from Bulls fans for two reasons. First, there simply is not as many Bulls fans as there are Lakers fans. Second, it is probably safe to say that most Bulls fans are checked out as the chances of them making it out of the play-in are slim to none.
Patrick Beverley looks like a fake tough guy after this shot at Lakers fans.
Patrick Beverley’s entire brand in the NBA is being the tough-guy disruptor that plays hard defense and gets in the head of players on the other team. And don’t get us wrong, Beverley was undoubtedly one of the best defenders in the league in his prime and is still a quality defender today.
But it is also hard to put up this tough guy persona and then go to a new team (keep in mind, this is Beverley’s sixth team since 2021 with two of those teams instantly giving him away or buying him out) and complaining about the old fanbase.
Of course, there is a level that no fan should cross when it comes to giving criticism to a player. That’s obvious. But if someone is not playing up to their standards then the fanbase has every right to criticize that performance. When Beverley was in LA, there was a lot to complain about.
Maybe this is just an old-school heel move to get Lakers fans to boo him even more when the Bulls come to town on Sunday. We sure hope it is an old-school heel move because if Beverley actually cares this much then he is not going to like the reception he will get after these comments.