Patrick Beverley is the NBA’s peskiest mosquito

Patrick Beverley welcomed Lonzo Ball into the NBA by calling him a “weak m****** f******” after holding him to just three points on 1-of-6 shooting. To be more specific, on possessions Beverley defended Ball, the rookie did not score and had only three assist opportunities.

Rough opening night.

Thankfully, Beverley’s tough love isn’t unique to just Big Baller Brand’s finest. It’s merely the latest installment of a career’s worth of top-notch defense and trolling by one of the NBA’s more rugged personalities.

And it worked:

Beverley and Westbrook have been at odds ever since his excessive defensive intensity led directly to Westbrook’s torn meniscus in 2013. But that didn’t stop Patty Bev from raining on the league MVP’s 40-point parade:

”That’s actually the first time we’ve exchanged words this postseason,” he said via Fox Sports. “But it shocked me, because he looked up and said, ‘No one can guard me, I got 40 points.’ I said, ‘That’s nice. You took 34 shots to get it.’ I’m not out here trying to bash anybody, but I mean, men lie, women lie, but the numbers don’t. Collectively, as a unit, we’ve done a great job on him. We tried to make him shoot a lot of tough shots, and the numbers show it.”

In mid-September, Beverley made it known he was going to drag Lonzo through the dirt in his first game:

He stuck to his word:

Then after the game, Beverley darted over to the Lakers locker room and had some words for Ball.

”Weak ass m***** f*****,” he said according to ESPN’s Marc J. Spears. “Bring him out on the court with me and I will tear his ass up.”

Beverley grew up in the rough streets of inner city Chicago. He’s on record calling John Marshall Metropolitan High School “the worst high school in the area, which they called a mini prison.” His defense and edge was what set him apart.

Once upon a time, he was mentioned in the same breath as Derrick Rose, and the two have vastly different games.

Beverley now is a perennial First Team All-Defense candidate and one of the most tough-nosed players you’ll meet. He doesn’t discriminate either. In a beautiful Sports Illustrated feature, Lee Jenkins details a scene where Beverley is at a local Houston park, guarding little kids the full length of the court. “I gave them what I give everybody,” he says, “the full 94.

“Basketball players want to be comfortable, they want to be lackadaisical, they want to make the right passes and take the right shots,” Beverley said. “No. When you play me, I’m going to get right up in your grill and let you know it’s going to be a long day. It’s going to be physical. It’s going to be something you don’t like. It’s going to be hell.

“I hate being pressured. I hate when someone gets in my personal area. That’s why I do it to everybody else. If I had to play myself, I’d probably want to fight me too.”

So yes, Beverley may have been picking on the rookie in his first NBA game. But in the words of 21 Savage, it ain’t nothin’ new. Just ask everyone he’s defended in his career.