Pat Bev banned from ESPN after snubbing reporter over his podcast

Pat Bev played like trash, threw a ball at a fan, then insisted people sub to his podcast.

Updated May 3, 2024, 8:32 PM UTC

James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.

Patrick Beverly had himself a night on Thursday — everywhere but on the court. The Bucks were eliminated from the NBA Playoffs following a garbage game from Bev, and then he chose to not only to throw a ball at a fan, which will result in a suspension, but refused to answer questions from the media unless they subscribed to his podcast.

Wearing a knit hat that read “BELT 2 ASS — SUBSCRIBE TO THE POD,” Beverly not only refused to take a question from Malinda Adams of ESPN, a veteran producer — but later pushed her microphone away, saying she didn’t even have a right to record his words because she didn’t subscribe to his podcast.

Adams said early on Friday that Beverly had called her to apologize over the incident, and she accepted his apology.

The damage had already been done, however. On Friday afternoon a report from Front Office Sports detailed that Beverly has been banned from ESPN appearances by the network. In 2023 he appeared as a playoff analyst on the network, and has made appearances on First Take with Stephen A. Smith. That’s gone now.

ESPN management has banned Beverley from making further guest appearances on studio shows such as First Take and Get Up, according to sources familiar with the network’s thinking.

Was this all worth it? For the sake of research, I unfortunately sought out his podcast, and it sucks. Every question about basketball is predictably met with Pat Bev talking about why he’s great, why critics are wrong, and how he’s a “full-blooded hooper” without really offering anything illuminating at all. When the conversation isn’t about basketball he’s giving such sage advice as “if your girl is mad at you, take her to the movies.”

This insistence on people subbing to Beverly’s podcast has been a thing ever since he arrived in Milwaukee.

Forever a legend in his own mind, Pat Bev is putting his secondary job of being a mid podcaster over his primary job of being a mid NBA player. When the Bucks desperately needed him to step up on Thursday, Bev obviously missed the memo the rest of the Bucks’ starters got.