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

The Bad

The words used by Pat Bev just hours after a humbling loss by the Phoenix Suns to the Dallas Mavericks may be fun and entertaining, but it’s truly a bad look for the NBA overall. How bad did it look? Well, Patrick Beverley predicted that if the Phoenix Suns were on the way out to a loss, Chris Paul would suffer a questionable injury.

And then, with the game clearly out of reach for the Suns, Chris Paul suffered a questionable injury. So there’s that. But the band of Patrick Beverley was just getting warmed up. After that loss, Get Up ESPN had long-time Chris Paul critic Patrick Beverley on the show to talk about his nemesis – Chris Paul.

Let’s not sight of the forest for the trees here. Chris Paul may have a bad game. But go back to those 17 years of NBA play and the career averages of his career.  Of course, let’s not also lose sight of the fact that Chris Paul was trying to defend the Dallas Mavericks. And as NBA veteran Danny Green pointed out, trying to defend Mavericks Luka Doncic can make any NBA player look like a cone.

Being called an orange pylon just hours after a devastating loss? Hey, sometimes fun is fun. Other times, this type of beratement without any opportunity for Chris Paul to speak up for himself is just… uncalled for. It really doesn’t help promote the NBA. It really does nothing to make Patrick Beverly look good. And it doesn’t do much to make Chris Paul look good.

Patrick Beverley has a history with Chris Paul, and it’s not a positive history. The NBA is a professional sport. But it falls into the category of ‘sports and entertainment.’ The industry is about selling viewership. People want to want basketball games, football games, and go to the movies to be swept away for minutes or hours into pure and simple competition.

Pettiness and trash-talking on the court? Okay. Trash talking on live television to a national audience when the guy is not around to defend himself? Crossing the line.