The greatest one-week player in Orlando Magic history is going in on the team this week.
Philadelphia 76ers guard Patrick Beverley became a trending topic online Thursday for the ruthless shot that he took at the Magic. Speaking on the latest episode of the "Pat Bev Podcast with Rone" for Barstool Sports, Beverley reacted to Orlando landing two players on ESPN’s list of the top 100 players in the NBA this season (Franz Wagner at No. 52 and Paolo Banchero at No. 30).
“Who?” said Beverley of both Wagner and Banchero, peppering in some NSFW language. “I do not agree with that … If you got two people out of the top 100 on your team, Orlando Magic, you should be winning games … You should make the f–king playoffs. Why are you so bad? If everybody nice, why are you so bad?”
Here is the clip of Beverley’s comments (but look out for the bad language).
The poor Magic were just minding their own business on a fine autumn Thursday and Beverley just … decided to ruin their day? Not cool, man.
While Orlando has indeed been rotting from the inside out over the last several seasons (including a 34-48 finish last year), the ESPN list is forward-looking. Wagner, an underrated two-way wing who flirted with 20 points a game last season and Banchero, a forceful athlete who was already a 20-7-4 guy as a rookie, have gotten just one year together so far. They should only grow from here in terms of chemistry and overall team success.
All things considered, this might be some salt coming from Beverley, who was sent to the Magic from the L.A. Lakers at last year’s trade deadline and got waived by Orlando just days later. But the Magic probably did him a solid since Beverley got to finish out the season with a better and more familiar team.
More must-reads: