As the NBA world continues to count down toward the trade deadline wondering whether the Los Angeles Lakers would hit the eject button on the Russell Westbrook experiment, Minnesota guard Patrick Beverley woke up and chose beef, taking to Twitter to hit back at Westbrook and continuing a war of words that began all the way back in 2019.
“My boy is The Real Magician this year,” Beverley said in response to Westbrook’s infamous 2019 quote about Beverley.
I remember when somebody said all I do is run around and I trick y’all
well my boy is The Real Magician this year.
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) February 10, 2022
Westbrook’s quote, of course, was in reference to Beverley’s energy on the court, which Westbrook seems to believe ultimately results in very little defensive value.
“Pat Bev trick y’all, man, like he playing defense,” Westbrook famously said at the time. “He don’t guard nobody, man. He just running around, doing nothing.”
This year, Westbrook is averaging 18.5 points per game on 43.5 percent shooting from the field as the Lakers have limped to a sub-.500 record. There are rumors Los Angeles may pull the trigger on a deal to ship Westbrook off just a few months into his tenure.
Beverley, on the other hand, has appeared in just 36 of the Timberwolves’ 55 games as he struggles through another year of injuries. However, while his ankle may be ailing him, Beverley’s Twitter fingers were working over time on Thursday morning.