Patrick Beverley believes Lakers would make Western Conference Finals with his leadership

By Jonathan Sherman
Updated: May 18, 2022

Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Veteran point guard Patrick Beverley started the week off by getting a lot of laughs when he hopped on the air to clown Chris Paul after his Phoenix Suns lost in embarrassing fashion in their Game 7 matchup versus the Dallas Mavericks.

Since then, Beverley has seemingly become intoxicated by the attention and seems to be making more outlandish claims as he goes along.

On Tuesday, Beverley seemingly tried to recruit Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James to the Minnesota Timberwolves, citing taxes as a prime reason to leave L.A. for Minneapolis.

Another claim of his is even more puzzling. While speaking with sports pundit Stephen A. Smith on his show, Beverley said that the Lakers would make the Western Conference Finals with him as their leader.

Beverley seems to believe that if he were on the Lakers, he would be the one to lead the four-time MVP.

“No discredit to LeBron James, but he’s doing so much,” Beverley said. “… Who’s their leader? Who’s telling LeBron, ‘Hey LeBron, you gotta be low man, bro. That ain’t your help out. You gotta X-out.’ No one’s telling him that. Not on a consistent basis. I’m gonna tell everyone that because I want to win.”

The idea of someone of Beverley’s caliber ever being the leader on a team that James is on is pretty laughable. Beverley has certainly made a name for himself by being a pest on defense, but that is pretty much his strongest attribute as a player. The chasm that exists between his level of talent and James’ is immense.

With each passing day, Beverley’s statements seem to just get more and more absurd. Perhaps he is doing a bit of trolling to help pass the time now that his season has come to an end. It is also possible that he is taking advantage of an unofficial audition to one day be a sports pundit himself once he decides to hang it up as a player.

Another possibility is that Beverley is being totally genuine in his statements this week. Though, that is arguably the oddest option of them all.