Patrick Beverley: '50% of NBA players don't love basketball' / News - Basketnews.com

Patrick Beverley thinks at least 50% of all NBA players don't love the game of basketball. The love of the game comes in preparation, he thinks, and oftentimes the ones that don't love it are the ones who have the most talent.

Credit: Shanna Madison/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire - Scanpix Credit Shanna Madison/Chicago Tribune via ZUMA Press Wire - Scanpix

Patrick Beverley is known as one of the most energetic players on the NBA basketball court. He thinks that at least half of all the players in the league don't share the same excitement about being able to play the game.

Patrick Beverley

MIN:27.08PTS:6.06 (44.24%)REB:3.65As:2.88ST:0.91BL:0.58TO:0.88GM:69ProfileNBA2022/2023

In his The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone, Beverley reiterated the point he'd mentioned earlier. "50, and I was being nice," he said about the percentage of players that don't love basketball.

Asked to expand on his thought, Beverley gave an analogy.

"You think you like a girl? What'd you do for her? You're going to send her roses. That's being prepared. You buy her nice things, that's part of preparation. You go wash your car. She might not even have a car, you go wash your s--t though when you go pick her up. That's part of preparation," the player said.

"You call the restaurant already what you want to eat, that's part of preparation. You probably call the restaurant that she kind of likes anyway. Not the type of restaurant but the type of food, that's preparation. You have to go to the bank, that's preparation," he explained. "You do all these things before you even pick the girl up at 7 o'clock."

The same things about getting ready for an important date translate to the field of basketball, Beverley says.

"Now, can you have all that energy and put it into basketball? It's watching film, it's the extra shots, free throws, it's working on shots that you might not even use to have some in your back pocket," he told.

"It's 'ok, cool, every two days out of the week I'm going to make a 100, or every two days of the week I'm going to make 5 half-court shots'. Guys don't even shoot half-court shots, they don't want to f--k up their numbers," Beverley shared. "How prepared are you? You know the coach's philosophy, you know what the coaches want from you. It might be different to what you want from you."

Can you achieve greatness without loving the game of basketball? Beverley says it's possible but it's usually because of a tremendous amount of talent that the player already possesses. "

"Most teammates that I know don't love basketball are the really f---ing good ones. They are the most skilled. It's the wildest s--t in the world," Beverley said. "You have so much skill, it's free-flowing. You have a guy who can get all the girls, you ain't got to do the preparation, you ain't got to get your car washed, you ain't got to order the restaurant, you get all the ladies."

"Preparation is different when you have so much skill. You can show up to the game and get 30-40 but that might work against Orlando, no disrespect Orlando, or against other teams that are not that good, you can't do that in the playoffs," he concluded.

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