Los Angeles Clippers point guard, Patrick Beverley has a supporter in Gary Payton.
“That is my little youngster and love him a lot and going to work with him a lot,” Payton told NBA writer Landon Buford over the weekend.
Payton, a nine-time NBA All-Star, nine-time NBA All-Defensive team selection and 2013 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee averaged 16.3 points and 6.7 assists during his career.
For those keeping score at home: The Glove holds the disctinction of being the only point guard in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Recently NBA Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neal told the TNT’s Inside The NBA crew that Patrick Beverley is a “modern day Gary Payton.”
.@SHAQ on #INSIDETHENBA: “Clippers’ Patrick Beverly is a modern day Gary Payton”
Fitting.
Comparatively, many NBA legends list Payton as one of the biggest trash talkers along with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.
NBA legend Sam Perkins told me that Payton’s opponents often took note on the basketball court. “He talks trash and I could not understand what he was saying on the court,” Sam Perkins, Payton’s Seattle Sonics teammate, told me last month on the Scoop B & Reg Podcast.
“Gary’s was a scowl and look at you and want to turn his head sideways,” NBA Champion and current TNT analyst, Steve Smith told me last week.
Beverley likes to talk junk too and he’s a defensive assassin like Payton.
Payton likes the comparison. “I’ll take that,” GP told Landon Buford.
If you’re tardy to the party: During the Clippers’ NBA Playoffs series against the Golden State Warriors, Beverley was active and on the prowl.
Most memorable was the Chicago native’s involvement in the Clippers’ 135-131 Game 2 NBA Playoffs win over the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. Beverley made key defensive stops to help the Clippers erase a 31 point defecit.
The game was essentially out of hand even before halftime, when Doc Rivers’ squad trailed 73-50, but it only got worse from there. Then, the Clippers flipped a switch after the score moved to 94-63 with 7:31 left in the third quarter, going on a 31-14 run to end the third quarter. By the 6:26 mark of the fourth quarter, the Clippers had cut the lead to single digits and were left with plenty of time to complete the comeback.
Worth noting: Beverley’s trash talk stood out not just duing Game 2 but throughout the whole series.
Remember when he and Kevin Durant were jawing during Game 1? They both got ejected from.
Charge it to their competitive nature.
The Clippers were something to write home about last season, too. “I think the Clippers are one of the best watches in the NBA,” ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“They play hard, they have a great system, they’re always working together.”
Gary Payton is excited for Beverley and the Clippers this coming season and Beverley has his support. “You guys will see me at a lot of Clippers games now that you mentioned it,” Payton told Landon Buford.
“So, yeah,he has that dog in him and I like him. I was watching film on him yesterday too about things he could do or change on defense and we are going to work that. I don’t care about the offense its, not the same. He has two players that are going to be really high profile on offense with Paul and Kawhi.
“So, I think if he can average 12 to 14 points, I think it will be really good. I think he should focus on trying to win Defensive Player of the Year because I am the only one ever to win it and he should focus on trying to become the second one, and I think he can do it.“
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Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard to Help Patrick Beverley Win DPOY Says Gary Payton