Patrick Beverley opened up on the realities of coaching in the NBA, primarily the relationship between superstar players and their coaches. When asked about the perception of coaches in the modern NBA as people who don't really coach, Beverley reacted by siding with the coaches and saying that most players, especially superstars, don't want to be coached and are scared of the coaches.
“There's a lot of players scared of head coaches, especially superstars. Some motherf***ers don't want to be coached. When you're a coach, especially a coach that won, and you're coming to a team with motherf***ers that ain't won before. ‘I don't have to listen to you motherf***ers, man. I won, y'all haven't!'… And you'll be wondering, 'Man, why didn't this coach come here?' Yeah, that superstar scared of that motherf***er, ‘I don't want him to coach me.'”
Beverley is likely speaking from his experience in NBA locker rooms for over a decade to deliver this insight. It's unclear who his frame of reference for this conversation is, given the sheer number of modern stars Beverley has been on teams with.
He's played alongside James Harden , Kawhi Leonard , Paul George, LeBron James , Anthony Davis , Russell Westbrook , Anthony Edwards , Joel Embiid , and Giannis Antetokounmpo , just to name a few. He could have seen acrimony between a player and a coach alongside any of these stars if not multiple times.
Coaching multi-millionaire basketball players is not easy but we're seeing a rise of man-manager coaches in the NBA, who manage to get elite results on the court because their players respect them enough to follow their coaching and expend energy to win regardless.
Patrick Beverley Is Done Being An NBA Role-Player
Roles in the NBA are almost always clearly defined across all 30 teams. Certain players have to abide by guidelines laid out by their coaches to keep themselves in contention for major minutes. Beverley has been treated as one for his entire NBA career, something he was happy to do all these years.
The 36-year-old guard decided this summer that he's done being a role player in the NBA , leaving the league to join Hapoel Tel Aviv and play as a featured star on the Israeli basketball team.
"This is what people don't understand, I get to play basketball. I used to put the ball in the hole, right? In my European career, I was MVP of the same league I'm going back to. Obviously, you get to the NBA and have to play different roles, but now I go back to a role where it's seven seconds to go, give me the ball, and watch me rock. Isolation step back, I get to hoop."
"I played a great role, I had a phenomenal NBA career while I was in the league. I don't wanna stand in the corner. I played with the Bucks, we win Game 5, ball in my hand, double-double. But in Game 6, we get a little healthy and the ball's out of my hands. Not because I did anything wrong but because it's hierarchy."
Beverley can return to playing free basketball without being asked to guard the toughest perimeter player daily while on a veteran's minimum contract. He averaged 8.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists over a seven-year career in the NBA. Thought he might be back on an NBA team in the future, but it looks unlikely at the moment.
Related: Patrick Beverley On Playing For Hapoel Tel Aviv: “If A Bomb Goes Off, I’m Gone.”
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