Patrick Beverley says he ‘wouldn’t even hesitate’ at chance to play for Lakers, with LeBron James

A villain in the Lakers story for much of recent history, Patrick Beverley revealed his desire to play for the Lakers while on ESPN on Monday.

Patrick Beverley is pretty much the epitome of a player that fans hate if they’re on an opposing team and love if they’re on their favorite team. Unfortunately for the Lakers and their fans, Beverley has been not just not on their team, but on a number of teams competing directly against the purple and gold in recent seasons.

His time with the Clippers will perhaps be the era of his career that will be remembered most by fans in the future. Beverley spent those years making it loud and clear what he thought of the Lakers and irritating Lakers fans in the process. Most recently, Beverley has found a home in Minnesota and, again, was very loud and clear in his thoughts on the Lakers and Russell Westbrook.

Beverley’s trash talk, along with the rest of the Timberwolves, was so outlandish that it led to a back-and-forth with Westbrook after the game. And yet, after all of that history rivaling the Lakers, Patrick Beverley could hardly contain himself when asked if he’d like to don the purple and gold one day.

While on ESPN’s show “This Just In” on Monday, Beverley was asked if he would want to play with LeBron on the Lakers, Beverley said he “wouldn’t even hesitate” to come back to Los Angeles. Here’s a full clip of Beverley’s answer, which also includes him making the case for why free agents would sign up to play for the Lakers.

There is minimal history of the Lakers and Beverley joining forces. Technically, Beverley was a draft pick of the Lakers, but they traded away his rights. There were rumors of interest between him and the Lakers in 2019, but that obviously never amounted to anything.

While there has been drama on the court, away from the court, LeBron and Beverley have been far more cordial and even friendly. Recently, James and Beverley hung out last week as part of an event with James’ Tequila company, Lobos Tequila.

Beverley also has leaned on James for advice during his career, as he noted many, many, many years ago on Twitter.

Also recently, Beverley was asked which superstar he wished he could play with and he gave a similarly flattering answer.

Now, Beverley has pretty firmly entrenched himself with the Timberwolves franchise, highlighted by his noteworthy celebration with the fans after their play-in game win. He’s so valued by Minnesota that he recently signed a one-year extension for $13 million to stay with the franchise through next season.

That would pretty much rule out the chance in the short-term of him coming to LA, short of a very unexpected trade. But he will enter free agency in 2023, the same year LeBron’s current contract is set to run to. James could potentially sign an extension with the Lakers this summer, but it’d be hard to turn down the opportunity to leave Anthony Davis and team up with 34-year-old Patrick Beverley next summer.

Jokes aside, it would be quite the pill to swallow for Lakers fans to welcome Beverley back to the city. Dwight Howard might have laid down the blueprint for how to win a fanbase that disliked you over and perhaps we’ll find out in the future if Beverley would be able to match that.

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