NBA’s Feud: Pat Bev vs CP3 – Good, Bad, and downright Ugly

You might think that starting off a Monday morning covering the Minnesota Timberwolves might be a rather uneventful day, wouldn’t you? After all, the Timberwolves were pushed out of the NBA Playoffs in Round 1, beaten in the best of seven series by the Memphis Grizzlies 4-2.

The Timberwolves are also not part of the NBA lottery, although there are reasons for Timberwolves fans to pay attention and even hope for one outcome of the lottery over another. But this was not any morning. The Phoenix Suns were trampled on their home basketball court by the Dallas Mavericks in a must-win scenario for both teams. The Mavericks advance and the Suns are left to answer the question: “What went wrong?”

Well, one answer to that question was hand-delivered by Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Patrick Beverley on the GetUp ESPN morning show. He had a message to deliver to Chris Paul. That message was not about how to improve his game, or even about how he lost the game. The message was far simpler. It was: “I don’t like you, Chris Paul.”

So how did he deliver the message? On live television, without a filter. Some delighted at the video clips. Others took to social media to applaud the ‘truth’ of Pat Bev. For me? I saw a line getting crossed, a line we should not be crossing. And now that Pat Bev crossed that line, the NBA will have a hard time putting this toothpaste back into the tube.

But we’ll discuss that later. for now, what did Pat Bev say?

True or not. Fact or hot takes. Pat Bev just fired a shot over the bow of CPIII. And like many feuds, the Hatfields and the McCoys, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, the Campbells and the MacDonalds, Thomas Edison and Nikolas Tesla, even Joe Frazier and Muhammed Ali, the aftermath is that everybody watched, but only to see who comes out on the losing end.

But feuds have elements of good, bad, and ugly truths embedded in the tirades, altercations, and breathtaking outbursts. Since I didn’t know the story behind the story, let’s go back to discover the tale of why two NBA players seem willing to enter the octagon and settle this one once and for all?