Patrick Beverley has made a career out of being a defensive pest and an irritant who, more often than not, gets under the skin of players he gets entangled with. One player who has crossed paths with Beverley is All-Star guard Damian Lillard, who has admitted in the past how much of an irritant the former can be.
As fate would have it, the two are now teammates on a Milwaukee Bucks team, and they've had to mend fences and put their friction behind them for the team's sake. In a recent interview on his podcast, Beverley shared how he was able to let bygones be bygones with Lillard.
Broke bread with Dame
On his podcast, Bev admitted things got so bad between him and Lillard that the latter had wanted to beat him up.
"I've never had a player in my career that I ever beef with, has smoke with, defended well, say he wanted to whoop my as*," Beverley shared.
"Dame was the first."
Things tempered down when they got together at the birthday bash of Bucks forward Bobby Portis. According to Beverley, he and Lillard began to hash out their differences.
"We go to Bobby Portis' birthday party. [Damian Lillard] goes, 'What's up Pat?'… I'm like, 'What's up Dame? He said, 'We need to sit down and talk.' I'm like, 'F*ck talking. Let's go out to dinner,'" Beverley narrated.
Encouraging Lillard to keep on shooting
Beverley is one of those players you want to have as a teammate but hate to play against. He has a relentless, never-give-up attitude on the court that can intimidate opponents. But despite their past beef, Pat still recognizes Dame's talent and skill as a player and is in the latter's ear, encouraging him to shoot whenever he feels comfortable.
"I tell Dame, 'All those 40-foot shots you shoot when we skeleton offense, you gotta shoot that sh** so the team can see it. The team needs you to shoot that sh**. Why? Because we need to see if you miss, how to f**** get those rebounds,'" Beverley remarked.
"I don't f***** what we got going on, I'm trying to win a championship, bro."
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