Russell Westbrook's tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers is looking more and more like a nightmare. Despised by the fans, with his teammates desperate for his poor performance and with the board working on an exit that seems impossible, the point guard is going through the most uncomfortable moment of his career. The 2017 MVP, the man of the 'triple-doubles', has gone from being nicknamed Beastbrook to Westbrick, a play on words comparing his shots to bricks. With his performance on the floor and his fit in a project like the Lakers in doubt, this season he will have a new problem: he will have to deal in the locker room with Patrick Beverley, his biggest enemy in the NBA.
The former Minnesota Timberwolves player left in July for the Utah Jazz, as part of the gigantic move that ended with Rudy Gobert teaming up with Karl-Anthony Towns. Little has lasted his stage in what would be his fourth franchise, with which he has not made his debut. Instead, he will head to Los Angeles, in a trade that will send Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to the Jazz, according to ESPN journalist Adrian Wojnarowski. Darvin Ham, Los Angeles coach, is aware that his team must improve in defense (they finished the year ranked 21st in the league in defensive performance), which is why the arrival of Beverley, a point guard specialized in that facet and fierce like few others, makes sense.
In addition to being a positive addition at the game level, it is also from an economic point of view. His $13 million contract ends next summer, so it doesn't compromise future roster moves and leaves enough cap space for a possible rebuild. However, it remains to be seen how his arrival will affect locker room chemistry. The feud between Beverley and Westbrook goes back a long way, and there are many episodes that helped fuel it.
It all started in 2013, when, in a first-round playoff game between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the then-Texas franchise player caused a meniscus injury to Westbrook trying to steal a ball from him with his characteristic intensity. From there, the exchanges and clashes between the two took place, both on and off the track. The former Thunder player celebrated each basket over Beverley by pretending that he was rocking a baby, and the other responded by raising the level of aggressiveness in his defensive actions and using tricks to the limit of what was legal.
Before the microphones they did not hide their enmity either. "Pat Bev fools all of you, like he's a good defender. He just runs around doing nothing," Westbrook said in 2019, after one of many clashes. His now partner waited for this season to fight back on Twitter, taking advantage of the poor performance of the Lakers point guard. "I remember someone said that all I do is run around and fool y'all. Well I guess my boy is the real wizard this year," he wrote. The last episode occurred after a victory for the Timberwolves over the 'gold and purple' franchise. Westbrook said "no one on that team had ever done anything in this league," to which Beverley responded on Twitter with his collective accomplishments.
The two are now doomed to fight for a place in the starting five. Last year, Brodie played in 78 games, averaging 18.5 points, 7.1 assists and 7.4 rebounds. Pat Bev, for his part, played 58 games with the Timberwolves, in which he averaged 9.2 points, 4.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds, in addition to 1.2 steals. While Westbrook's numbers are superior, his poor fit on a team in need of defensive work leaves his competitor in a better position. In addition, Beverley is not a player who needs to have the ball for so long in his hands, which will make it easier for LeBron James and Anthony Davis to have the leading role in attack and help improve fluidity.
