Russell Westbrook’s beef with Patrick Beverley is pretty easy to understand. Westbrook has been a star basically since day one. Beverley made a mistake in college that derailed his career, and he had to claw through various European leagues to find his way into the NBA.
Once Beverley made the league, he was eager to keep his spot, and quickly developed a reputation as someone willing to exert maximum effort at all times, pushing and scrapping and generally testing the rules of the game to make an impact. That approach led to the founding moment of a beef in the 2013 playoffs, when Beverley’s ill-timed lunge toward Westbrook’s legs caused the superstar’s first ever serious injury.
That single moment aborted OKC’s last clear shot at a championship, put Westbrook under the knife multiple times, and kicked off years of beef.
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