Patrick Beverley Reveals More Than He Intended About Life In Israel

As it stands now, the last moments of Patrick Beverley’s NBA career might be him throwing a tantrum as his team was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, then refusing to answer a question from a reporter until she subscribed to his podcast. The 36-year-old guard started a new chapter in July when he signed with Israeli basketball team Hapoel Tel Aviv. Through his podcast, he’s established that he does not have a sense of where he is.

Like many other guys who built their personas on blunt honesty in the media sphere, Beverley’s “unfiltered look into the NBA lifestyle” gets cloudy when he has to discuss Palestine. On an episode of The Pat Bev Podcast from early August, co-host Adam Ferrone asked Beverley about his decision to play in Israel and, without ever getting into specifics, whether he felt an obligation to be more aware of the fact that an hour’s drive south of him, Israel is massacring Palestinians every day in Gaza. Here’s how that conversation went:

Ferrone: Do you feel a responsibility to know more about what’s going on in the world, if you’re going to that part of the world?

Beverley: Yeah, of course. I mean, that’s anywhere, right?

Ferrone: What’s your understanding of it?

Beverley: I had an understanding before. I have an understanding now. I know who the alliances are, meaning who’s whose homie and who’s not, and that makes me sleep a little bit better at night.

Ferrone: Do you feel like you have to pick sides?

Beverley: So, we could speak freely, because I don’t really like speaking about politics and religion because it’s a very sensitive subject. So when I signed, obviously, I read all my comments—you know, it was a bunch of stuff, like “You took blood money,” “Why would you take that money”—this, that. And I want people to know: You make a decision, the decision is always based on basketball, right? Always based on basketball. I get a lot of stuff from people like, “OK, cool. What did you sign for? Is it worth it?” But I don’t think I’m a minimum player, but I’m a minimum player if Kyle Lowry takes the minimum and Russell Westbrook takes the minimum. So obviously that makes me minimum without a doubt, no matter what I do in a basketball season.

Ferrone: The mark, it’s been set.

Beverley: Yeah, so I don’t think that’s fair to me. I work on my craft, shit, harder than a lot of motherfuckers in the NBA. I feel like from a compensation standpoint, based on the previous season of play … once you take one minimum, a team’s gonna offer you another one. That’s just how it goes.

From there, the conversation turns into Beverley complaining about how he was better than other point guards in the NBA last season, which isn’t worth anyone’s time. Listen to any other 10 minutes of a Patrick Beverley podcast episode for that grievance.

Since that backyard chat with his co-host, Beverley has started his season for Hapoel Tel Aviv. He’s posted occasional short videos about his time overseas, meeting fans and his teammates, and taking part in the nightlife. In an episode released earlier this week, Beverley gushed about how much he enjoyed playing basketball in Israel. “I’m waking up in paradise, every day,” he said. “They’re giving me private beaches to go to. After practice, I sit on a beach for six, seven hours a day. I literally see the sun at the top of its peak and I see it setting. I’m eating watermelon and Caesar salads all day. I go swimming, I’m staying at this big-ass mansion, huge villa. Probably one of the best places I’ve ever played basketball.”

Beverley is just part of a long line of American athletes who have helped to sanitize the image of an apartheid state. Over the years, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has planned trips to Israel with many NFL players, who return with glowing reviews about the food, culture, and weather. What goes unmentioned is the subjugation and bloodshed that’s required to make a city like Tel Aviv so attractive to Western visitors. A washout like Beverley now joins this tradition, bragging about his life in paradise while Israel continues to kill Palestinians. He inadvertently shows that what’s being called a war by the Israeli government and its allies is more one-sided than that. Somebody in Tel Aviv can eat Caesar salads unbothered while famine spreads in Gaza.

At this point in his life, Beverley seems to be better at shilling for Israel than he is at basketball: In Hapoel Tel Aviv’s preseason loss to Crvena Zvezda this week, Beverley reportedly scored seven points on 3-of-7 shooting. He played 17 minutes before fouling out.