"KD for sure; Low key, Luka Doncic" - Patrick Beverley names top 5 NBA trash talkers
Patrick Beverley gave the GQ Sports' Actually Me interview and answered a bunch of interesting questions. He has always had a very unique perspective of the league, and his takes on some of the players and organizations are quite entertaining.
Entering his 12th season in the NBA, Beverley has played for six different franchises and has had a plethora of superstar teammates. He's one of the gnarliest perimeter defenders in the league and has dealt with a lot of trash talk over the years.
One of the questions in the interview was about the best trash-talkers in the NBA. Beverley listed out his top five with no hesitation.
"Draymond for sure. KD for sure. Low key, Luka Doncic. Low key as hell. I'm definitely somewhere up there. Russ. Yeah, Russ up there. Cool little five."
GQ's "Actually Me" series features celebrities going undercover on the internet under their own name.
They create profiles on various popular social media websites like X (formerly Twitter), Quora, Reddit, Instagram, Wikipedia, etc. Patrick Beverley answered the question about trash-talkers on Quora.com, a website dedicated to questions and answers.
As per the Philadelphia 76ers guard, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Luka Doncic and Russell Westbrook constitute four of the top five trash talkers in the league. He included himself in the list to round up the top five.
Beverley instantly named Green and Durant, as they're infamous for getting under their opponent's skin. He added Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks but said "low-key as h*ll" to suggest that most people are unaware of the Slovenian's trash-talking prowess.
Draymond Green answered the same question a few months ago and gave a similar response.
He, too, instantly named Patrick Beverley and himself in the list along with Durant and Westbrook but chose Chris Paul instead of Luka Doncic.
Many players and pundits have shared insight on the culture of talking trash in basketball. It seems like the top four includes Beverley, Green, Durant and Westbrook by consensus.
Patrick Beverley shares thoughts on LA Lakers' 2020 Bubble Championship
Patrick Beverley once said what many fans and pundits have said over the last three years, that the LA Lakers' 2020 championship ring holds less value. The 2020 NBA playoffs took place in a bio-secure bubble in a Disney resort near Orlando, Florida, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Spectators were not allowed in public places at the height of the pandemic to curb the spread of the virus. With fans stuck at home, the NBA resumed the season in a bubble where all teams played on the same court in an empty gym.
With no away crowd booing the players and no home-court advantage, many fans and pundits declared the 2020 postseason a lesser version of the NBA playoffs experience.
In the GQ interview, Beverley answered a question on X, which challenged his position on the 2020 title.
"It counts. It does count. But, when you're playing in an environment where you're not going against any part of, like, crowd…So, for me saying the bubble ring doesn't count I think it's part ignorant, but at the same time the bubble didn't give you all the normal conditions that you would have on facing other teams. And I'll just leave that at that."
Beverley was in the bubble as a member of the LA Clippers. They were up 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets but squandered it and went out.
He shared his experience of the series and mentioned that the Nuggets wouldn't have come back from the deificit had there been a hostile crowd and travel involved.
There can be arguments made for both sides of the debate. Some say that the bubble wss the purest form of basketball with no external factors and just hoops.
Meanwhile others point out that playing in an empty gym is not what NBA playoffs are about, and removing the fans from the equation removed pressure from either side.