Lakers News: How Patrick Beverley Feels About "Huddlegate"
With the dust still settling on NBA Twitter's Thursday drama, which we are not alone in calling "Huddlegate," some of Los Angeles Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook's teammates, past and present, have relayed their thoughts on the matter.
A refresher: after an otherwise uneventful night for Russell Westbrook on the floor in a 118-113 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, video footage started to circulate of Brodie seeming to avoid two huddles with his teammates -- one, during a pregame ritual, the other a third-quarter gathering led by Patrick Beverley. Although the web (including, yes, this website) got quite noisy about these supposed huddle snubs, Westbrook on the hardwood had a pretty quiet night. He scored five points on 1-of-3 shooting from the floor and 3-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe, plus five assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Westbrook laughed off the videos when asked about "Huddlegate" (copyright pending) during a practice conversation with reporters yesterday. "You can cut any video and make anything you want out of that," he said in part, mentioning that he had always maintained his pregame ritual away from the team during his decade-plus in the NBA, and that the second third quarter video had been edited unflatteringly.
Now, one of his most outspoken teammates, Patrick Beverley, is talking about the drama. Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register reports that Beverley claimed yesterday to not have known about the footage making the rounds, specifically the clip that appeared to show Westbrook disregarding Beverley's attempts to huddle up.
Per Goon, Beverley offered his thoughts on their relationship, which certainly don't seem to suggest there's any kind of chemistry issue, at least off the floor (they're a weird fit together on it, but that was always bound to happen). "Everything's great," Beverley said of their friendship. "I sit on the plane, he's right next to me. We get on the road, we hang out together."
