Three-time NBA All-Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Beverley appeared on the season finale of the Gil’s Arena podcast. Bev engaged in many questions during the podcast. One of the questions raised was about his tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers and how LeBron James influenced him as a player. Beverley played for the Los Angeles Lakers for half of the 2022-23 season before being traded to the Orlando Magic. In the podcast, the 11-year NBA veteran spoke about how LeBron influenced his mentality
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Patrick Beverley was traded to the LA Lakers in 2022 from the Utah Jazz in exchange for Talen-Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson. However, this was a great fit initially. Still, the Lakers back office was unhappy with Beverley’s performance on the court. They immediately moved from him on the trade deadline originally to the Orlando Magic. After securing a contract buyout, he moved to the Chicago Bulls.
Patrick Beverley describes LeBron James’ influence
On the podcast, Beverley, in great detail, revealed LeBron James’ influence on the Lakers squad.
“When you work out you do two extra sprints. Why when everybody leave at 12:30 you leave at 1:00, you feel me? So like he gave me more of that and show me more of that. So I just took that and I added with with the s** I got. I average over 10 points in the NBA. I’ve been this for 12 years bro.”
Beverley also remarked:
“Apparently whatever f*** he [LeBron James] told me, it’s working! I’m still in this b* I’m still kicking,” said Beverley.
Beverley concluded by saying that the mentorship and leadership LeBron James showed was the ‘right influence’ for Beverley.
He also mentions how Bron encouraged him to take care of his body to have a lasting career in the NBA, and he has been following the journey laid down by James for the remaining part of his NBA career.
Not all things seemed right at the LA Lakers last season.
In a Pat Bev podcast, Beverley spoke about what did not click right at the Lakers during his tenure. Before the deadline day trades, the Lakers were far from the Playoff picture.
Everything wasn’t sunshine and rainbows in LA pic.twitter.com/FYs965EjBO
— Pat Bev Pod (@PatBevPod) March 22, 2023
He recalled that fans were quick to call out players for poor performances. He also gave inputs on how they should have incorporated his ideas in the way they should have. Unfortunately for Pat Bev, he was too far down the pecking order to make a noticeable difference.
“Yeah, we should do this on defense ‘Nah, we cool. We cool. … Nah, we gotta rotate.’ … Bron, what you mean we gotta rotate? You ain’t even playing. … They don’t listen to me… You gotta go through the first-year coach, the LeBron, the AD, the Russ, then it get to me. You don’t hear my s*** the way you should hear my s***.”
Most of the time, the team pointed at each other for failures. Eventually, they scapegoated Patrick Beverley and Russell Westbrook for on-court failures before trading both on deadline day.
