Patrick Beverley called up LeBron James’ phone 12 years ago and stayed in the NBA because of it

LeBron James and Patrick Beverley are not teammates and according to the latter, the two share a brother-like connection with one another. 

LeBron James has had yet another year of his prime go to waste with the Los Angeles Lakers missing the Playoffs altogether. Despite being in Year 19, James went on to play as though he were in his late 20s instead of his late 30s. Regardless of whether or not some of his buckets came in meaningless minutes, it cannot be disputed that he’s still very much in his prime. 

Going into Year 20, ‘The King’ needs to have some serious retooling around and Rob Pelinka decided to trade away a guy he vowed to not trade last summer. Patrick Beverley is now a member of the purple and gold with Talen Horton Tucker and Stanley Johnson heading to the Utah Jazz. 

On paper, Beverley fits well alongside a player like LeBron James. James needs perimeter defenders with a high motor who can shoot the 3. these are three boxes Pat Bev checks off with ease, with his shooting actually being the best, percentage wise, from the beyond the arc than anybody else on the Lakers. 

However, when you bring in the intangibles in, it gets a bit dicey. Mainly with the fact that Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley have not been on good terms for close to 10 years now.

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LeBron James and Patrick Beverley go way back. 

Patrick Beverley may have a lingering beef with Russell Westbrook but his relationship with LeBron James is rock solid according to him. Back in 2010, he made the Miami Heat training camp after talking to one of James’s guys and ever since then, he’s stayed in the league due to his specific skillsets. 

While in an interview with Omar Raja, Patrick talks about the same and reveals that ever since that phone call with LeBron 12 years ago, him and the 4x champ have been ‘locked in’ together. 

Of course, the two have had a small rivalry before when he was on the Clippers as he even insinuated that he was cut from the Miami Heat solely due to the fact that James had shown up from Cleveland. Seems as though that’s water under the bridge however.

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