“White On White Crime”: Patrick Beverley Addresses Former Rocket’s Stance On Austin Reaves

Austin Reaves’ NBA journey has been really interesting. The guard went undrafted in the Draft in 2021 but found a way onto a team, irrespective. Although he was slated to be picked by the Pistons at 42^nd overall, Reaves declined and signed a two-way contract with the Lakers. Within a month, he signed a standard NBA contract and made his debut in October. Since then, he has not looked back.

As an undrafted player, there weren’t a lot of expectations riding on his shoulders, but Reaves was adamant about making his mark. Reaves showed immense progress in his first two seasons, nearly doubling his points per game average.

However, that was supposed to be his ceiling. On Run It Back, in October 2023, Chandler Parsons boldly claimed that Reaves wouldn’t get any better. He said, “He’s not a player who’s going to continue to get exceptionally better. It’s not like the potential is through the roof with him.” Parsons believed that Reaves was limited to being a 15/5/5 player.

This season, the 26-year-old has surpassed all expectations. He is averaging 20.1 points, 5.9 assists, and 4.5 rebounds in 66 games. In the last 10 games, Reaves has scored 25 or more points on seven outings. In the last game against the Grizzlies, Reaves led a team with LeBron James and Luka Doncic, scoring 31 points.

Following a string of great performances from Reaves, Patrick Beverley went on X to remind Parsons of his comment. He wrote, “White on White crime smh [Chandler Parsons] now apologize like man.”

Clearly, Bev doesn’t agree with Parsons’ assessment of the young star. But asking him to apologize for his take, which, although dismissive, seemed reasonable to many at the time, is unfair.

Patrick Beverley only wanted to guard Austin Reaves

These two were teammates for a brief period during the 2022-23 season in LA. Then Beverley was traded to Chicago. While there were no hard feelings between Reaves and Beverley, it all went out the window when the former did a “too little” celebration against the Bulls.

Although Reaves simply retaliated against Beverley, who’d hit the same celebration on LeBron James in a prior matchup, Beverley made it his mission to give Reaves a hard time every time they met.

“How dare you come to Chicago, in my hood, and hit me with the ‘too little’ and don’t think that I’mma come for your neck? It’s cool. He’s gonna feel wrath. From now on, I’m picking his a** up 94 feet, and it’s nothing personal; it’s just business,” Beverley said on his podcast.

He said that until the day he retires, he will give Reaves a hard time in every matchup. Beverley felt betrayed that after defending the young Laker publicly, he was disrespected by his former teammate.