Patrick Beverley says he and Russell Westbrook have become best friends

Sep 26, 2022 - 10:47 PM

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To say that Patrick Beverley and Russell Westbrook have had an adversarial past would be an understatement. The two sides have been about as cold to one another as possible after Beverley had a role in an abrupt ending to a playoff run for Westbrook in Oklahoma City.

Although they’ve been anything but friendly to one another outwardly, it appears the resentment hasn’t run all that deep, particularly in recent years. And since becoming teammates in Los Angeles this season, PatBev says the two have become best friends.

Yes really.

At Monday’s media day for the Lakers, PatBev talked to Spectrum SportsNet about his relationship with Russ and the turning point in them going from enemies to friends.

So we play Houston, you know, he comes to me during the game like yeah man, I got your sister courtside tickets. But I’m in so much game mode, the only thing I hear is “my sister”. I’m turning around, like what the f***’s going on, but the play comes down to the free throw line, I absorb what he says. I look at my sister. She’s on the floor, he gave her her seats, don’t know me from a can of paint. I don’t know or think this is a story he hasn’t told, I haven’t told. Next play, I go to him during the game, free throw line, hey you know what, that’s real, that’s for real you did that.

From that point on, if I was to name a best friend, and so far I’ve been on the team four weeks, three weeks, whatever. But if I was to name a best friend, it’d easily be him, easy, easy. We’ve worked out together, we lift weights together, we chat all the time, easy. But that’s usually how it goes, in life. That’s usually how it goes.

Honestly, jokes aside, fair play to Russ. While there was plenty said about him buying Frank Vogel and his wife a bottle of champagne for their anniversary in secret before revealing it later, it’s clear Russ does these types of good deeds behind closed doors fairly regularly.

Russ did appear at PatBev’s introductory press conference and played his part of being a welcoming teammate. In no scenario, though, did I expect a potential Russ-PatBev buddy cop movie. Not a chance. It may become something more like a short film than a full feature-length picture but it won’t make it any less enjoyable for the time being.

PatBev is the type of guy that is probably hard to hate as a teammate considering how committed he is to the rest of the roster. He’s pretty much the epitome of someone you hate to play against and love to play with.

Or an enemy vs. being a best friend.

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