Bucks guard Patrick Beverley had a very bad day yesterday. Not only did his team lose by a substantial margin, of which a large part can be attributed to his poor play, he also got into a massive fight with fans and reporters. Many people speculate that he will be suspended for some time, potentially up to 20-25 games. However, perhaps the bigger consequence for Beverley is that his burgeoning media career has essentially been sunk entirely. How did this happen?
Patrick Beverley In Hot Water With ESPN: Media Career Over?
Beverley Fights Fans
On Thursday night, the Bucks faced the Pacers in a decisive game 6. The Bucks went down early and never quite recovered, losing 98-120 in the end. The player who played the most minutes of either team happened to be Beverley himself at 39:45 of game time. Unfortunately for him, the level of his play did not quite match his minutes played. He only managed six points, two rebounds, and five assists. His efficiency was suboptimal as well, going 3-11 from the field. Five assists isn’t quite what you want from the starting point guard of a playoff team in nearly 40 minutes played. This is especially true when Beverley claimed after game 5 that: “I could give you [interviewing reporter] the ball for 41 minutes, you could have 10 assists.”
Beverley was already in a bad mood due to his poor performance and his team’s loss. However, when local Indiana fans began to heckle him, he really got ticked off. After a fan reportedly yelled at him: “Cancun… Cancun on 3,” Beverley chucked a ball at the fan. However, Beverley missed badly and reportedly hit a girl in attendance in the face. He then asked the fans for the ball back and tried again, missing again. The NBA frowns heavily upon fighting with fans, especially after the Malice at the Palace incident, which coincidentally also involved the Pacers. Many outlets speculate that the NBA brass will bring down the hammer on Beverley with a 20+ game suspension.
For most players, that would be bad enough, but Beverley’s bad night was only just beginning.
Beverley Fights Media
After the game, Beverley was addressing the media when a female reporter asked him a question. Beverley retorted by asking if she subscribed to his podcast. When she answered no, he told her to leave. When she refused, he pushed her mic away and told her to “get the mic out of his face and get out of the circle.” The reporter in question turned out to be Malinda Adams, a respected ESPN producer, who has been working for the company since 2011. The higher-ups at ESPN were reportedly outraged at Beverley’s treatment of Adams, who is highly regarded at the company. ESPN spokesperson Ben Cafardo had this to say: “Malinda is a well-respected colleague and a true professional. She has our full support.”
Later, Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reported that “Patrick Beverley is now persona non grata at ESPN.” According to McCarthy, he is now banned from making any appearances on ESPN shows such as First Take and Get Up. It is likely that ESPN will also either not discuss Beverley from now on or will put him in a very negative light going forward. Furthermore, it is also likely that other media outlets will be wary of engaging Beverley given his poor treatment of a respected NBA media producer.
This is a disaster for Beverley who has been open about his ambitions to become a media personality following the end of his playing career, which may be sooner than previously expected given his age and expected lengthy suspension. Beverley has previously made several guest appearances for ESPN, especially during his infamous “hater week” where he made the rounds on every media outlet discussing his hatred for NBA rival Chris Paul. That will be coming to an end now. He now only has his podcast: The Pat Bev Podcast With Rone, which is through Barstool Sports. This is not exactly a premier sports media outlet and Beverley’s post-playing media career may in fact be sunk permanently.
The Last Word
Perhaps the most frustrating part of this whole thing is that none of it had to happen. Fans heckle players all the time and players usually don’t let it get to them. Beverley in no way had to physically engage with the fans. Now, his playing career could be in jeopardy entirely because of a lack of self-control. Furthermore, the sinking of Beverley’s potential media career is entirely his own fault. All he had to do was show the bare minimum amount of respect to a woman who has dedicated her career to promoting and covering the sport that provides him a living, and he would have been fine. Beverley is a very charismatic speaker and easily could have parlayed that into a post-playing media career. Now, both his media career and playing career are in jeopardy and the only person can blame is himself.
