Those people who closely follow the NBA know that there is bad blood between point guards Patrick Beverley and Chris Paul. Beverley took the feud to ESPN earlier this week, discussing Paul and the Phoenix Suns’ playoff exit on Sunday. Part of his criticism was related to Paul’s lackluster play and inadequacies on the defensive end of the ball, calling him a “cone” since they always remain idle.
“Go get someone who’s not an elite defender and have him up here talking,” said Beverley on Monday’s edition of Get Up. “Y’all got Patrick Beverley up here; I’m going to give you Patrick Beverley truth. I can’t give you the next man’s truth.”
Tuesday morning, Paul Allen welcomed SiriusXM NBA Radio and Mad Dog Radio host Rick Kamla to his show on KFAN in Minneapolis. They discussed how Beverley stood out across ESPN programming.
“When you go on an ESPN panel show, do you go hard…or soft?,” asked Kamla. “They’re not going to ask you back if you go soft and Pat [Beverley] is trying to lay the foundation for a post-playing career with ESPN. He’s got a big mouth; he’s got a lot to say; he’s very provocative… so I think he’s going to do very well in that space.”
Throughout the week on First Take, Beverley has been debating Stephen A. Smith, and at times, has been able to silence him during their discourse. That is no small feat, according to Allen.
“Patrick Beverley found a way to silence or quell the audible nature of Stephen A. Smith, which is miraculous,” Allen said.
Paul has been selected to nine NBA all-defensive teams throughout his 17-year NBA career, and has been named an all-star 12 times. While Kamla affirmed that his defensive impact is not what it once was, he believes that calling Paul a “cone” was perhaps hyperbolic on Beverley’s part, he still said it was valuable to ESPN and the audience.
“We need provocative stuff; we need guys to get outside of the box and give us interesting stuff, so I’m here for what Pat [Beverley] had to say,” explained Kamla.
