Patrick Beverley hasn’t played in an NBA game since May 2024, but that isn’t stopping him from stirring the pot.
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The 12-year NBA guard responded to Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young on Wednesday after Young replied to a post from Beverley last week. In that initial post, Beverley weighed in on a question on X about why players go all-out in open runs during the summer but often show less intensity in the All-Star game.
Beverley wrote: “Because All-Stars take the game for granted. Not 1 All-Star on the court. good bump,” prompting a response from Young — a four-time All-Star — telling Beverley to “relax” and let players speak for themselves.
Four days later, Beverley addressed Young’s response on his podcast, saying, “I don’t think he’s won enough to even speak to me like that or tweet me like that.”
“He’s been to the playoffs three times. I’ve been to the playoffs nine [times]. He’s been in the NBA seven years. My first seven years I didn’t miss the playoffs at all in the Western Conference,” he said. “His rebuttal’s probably going to be, ‘Yeah you weren’t the main player on the team.’ Absolutely right. But this is why it’s a team.”
Beverley added that he had spoken to players who’d played with Young in Atlanta — and they told him they didn’t want to play there.
“They don’t think he’s a good leader. They don’t think he’s a good teammate. … Trae, you could score all the points you want,” he said. “You could make all the money you want. You could have all the leading assists you want. You could do all that. If you don’t win, that s— won’t matter. If you don’t win, when you retire, they’re going to forget your name. Fast, too.”
Pat Bev kept it 💯 with Trae Young pic.twitter.com/kkbrTx0njY
— Pat Bev Pod (@PatBevPod) September 17, 2025
Young had his own response later Wednesday in a nearly 12-minute video on X.
The Hawks guard said Beverley “doesn’t know what it’s like” to be in his shoes, and he responded to Beverley’s claims that former Hawks teammates said it was the “Trae’s Hawks,” not the Atlanta Hawks.
“State your source. Which teammate of mine told [you] that it’s the Trae Hawks, it ain’t the Atlanta Hawks?” Young said. “Because I would tell you myself, I have a lot of teammates I keep in touch with. A lot. A lot that I know you know. So I want you to state your source.”
Young noted several of the All-Star players Beverley teamed up with during his career, before referencing Beverley’s emotional celebration after defeating his former team, the LA Clippers, in a play-in game with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2022.
“We not even gonna talk about how we celebrate play-in wins,” he said. “I win play-in games on the road, and I’m ready to get to the playoffs. You win play-in games at home, and you standing on the scorer’s table acting like it’s a championship. We celebrate wins different, too.”
You know the bar.. @fromthepointTY pic.twitter.com/I9ikBg812H
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) September 18, 2025
Young added that facing Beverley never intimidated him — and still doesn’t.
Young closed by saying he has “nothing but love” for Beverley and that Beverley could reach him through former teammates if he wanted to connect.
“Or if you want to just keep talking about it, you can keep talking about it,” he said.
The episode concluded with the early seconds of Drake’s 2013 track “Tuscan Leather.” In the song, Drake raps: “Bench players talkin’ like starters, I hate it,” a line Young seemingly referenced during the podcast.
“I know a lot of people wanted me probably just to listen to that Drake song and post that bar. We all know how that goes,” he said.
The Hawks added fuel to the fire Thursday by posting a compilation video of Young scoring against Beverley in prior matchups.
pic.twitter.com/rnz4crzH1y
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) September 18, 2025
Thursday night, Beverley posted a video on YouTube responding to Young, saying the guard puts up “empty stats,” suggesting his numbers don’t always translate to wins and pointing to defensive shortcomings.
“Humble yourself. Embrace the constructive criticism,” Beverley said. “Get better at that and move the f— on. We don’t have to keep going back like this a motherf—ing YouTube debate. Like it ain’t that deep.”
Beverley then doubled down on his take that players don’t want to play in Atlanta, highlighting the turnover in coaches and front office staff. Young has played for three general managers and three full-time head coaches since being drafted in 2018.
“Everyone that comes sees Trae Young, they get thrown out the building by their collar, you hear me?” Beverley said. “Players come. They see you, they get traded. Coaches come. They coach you, they get traded. GMs come. They govern the team and then they get fired. Everyone that sees Trae Young gets fired. That’s the truth. … People are scared to play in Atlanta.”
Beverley questioned Young’s leadership and claimed he never sees Young working out at a team facility, unlike Beverley’s other former star teammates, who Beverley saw work out at their respective team facilities.
“If I’m working out in Houston, James Harden is in Houston working out,” Beverley said. “Not James Harden is working out at another place. Every time we see you, you’re working out at another place. We never see you in the Hawks arena working out.”
Despite the criticism, Beverley hopes the exchanges have been productive.
“Regardless how it goes, it’s going to be good that comes out of this,” Beverley said. “Regardless. I hope this is motivating. I hope that you get to the end of the year and you fighting for a motherf—ing playoff. I hope, I hope that this is so f—ing motivating that this take you to the Eastern Conference [finals].”
In seven regular-season matchups, Beverley holds the edge with a 4-3 record.
Young averaged 25.3 points, 9.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1 steal when the two faced off, while Beverley put up 8.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
