The Rockets Daily – February 24, 2014

The Fly – This piece by the guys at Hardwood Paroxysm is a few days old, but I had to pass it on, especially after last night.

After spending some time in Ukraine, Greece, Russia and the D-League, Patrick Beverley, a young guard from Chicago, Illinois, found a home in Houston and quickly made a name for himself by being a defensive pest. He can do other things, of course. His offensive rebounding rate happens to be higher than those of Draymond Green, Chris Bosh and David West. If you pay too much attention to any of the Rockets’ Big Three, he’ll make you pay by stepping outside and knocking down some threes. But it really is his ball-hawking defense that has propelled him into the starting lineup for this season’s Houston Rockets – a team with championship aspirations.

The rest article is about Beverley’s well-known defensive acumen (and even includes a highlight of some of his finer work from the Warriors game).  But as I was reading it last night while watching the Suns game, I couldn’t help but think about his path to Houston.  We all know about Beverley’s long trip to the NBA, but for those of you who aren’t familiar with some of the difficulties a black man can face in parts of Europe, you may not understand just how tough and resilient Patrick Beverley truly is.  I must admit that I don’t know much about the European basketball scene, so things may be different for black basketball players in Europe than they are for footballers.  But a as a longtime international soccer fan, I’ve watched many games from overseas and at times, in certain countries, the hate and stupidity directed at black players is sickening to say the least.

In soccer, Ukraine and Russia are two of the toughest, most racist and violent countries in the world for a young black player. Entire stadiums screaming obscenities, chanting racist songs and even going as far as throwing bananas onto the playing field.  Acts so deplorable that they have caused players to break down on the field and entire teams to walk off in disgust in the middle of competition as a protest.  That goes on in public, under the lights and with cameras catching everything.  I can’t even imagine what goes on in private or when just walking down the street.  And that’s just the racially-motivated hate directed at black players; everyone on the opposing team faces all different kinds of abuse, physical and mental.  That is the environment that bridged Beverley’s college days to his time now as the Rockets starting point guard.  It required grit and a resolve that is rare even in the sports arena.

So jump forward to last night’s game, and Markieff Morris is at the free throw line with an and-one opportunity and a chance to put the Suns up three with less than a minute left to go.  Morris missed, and that possession and the next three for either team ended like this: Beverley defensive rebound, Beverley made three-pointer, Beverley defensive rebound and Beverley two made free throws.  Rockets up three with 20 seconds to go.  D-Mo hit two big free throws to ice it at the end, but when the Rockets were down and time was running out, it wasn’t Dwight Howard’s cape, James Harden’s hero-ball or even Chandler Parsons’ hair that bailed the Rockets out.  It was the gritty, tough defensive-specialist.

To say that Patrick Beverley developed his toughness while in Europe would be foolhardy on my part; I’m sure any kid from Chicago that makes it to the NBA has such traits standard.  But the adversity and the struggle that he had to overcome to reach this point has no doubt hardened him and the Rockets are lucky to have that experience in their locker room.  For a team with aspirations as high as the Rockets, and knowing the high-pressure games that must be conquered to reach such goals, having a guy like Beverley is awfully reassuring.  Because after playing in stadiums in Kiev and Moscow, hitting a big shot in Chesapeake Energy Arena should be no problem.  

To be the best, you have to beat the best -

 

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Total comments: 12
  • feelingsupersonic says 5 months ago

    Just for a perspective on fans/supporters from countries outside the U.S.A. I suggest reading Among The Thugs by Buford. It follows soccer (English Premier League) fans and the havoc they create on match days. It's a pretty entertaining read if you like sports in my opinion.

  • ale11 says 5 months ago

    Mitchell, don't be so hard on Russia.
    As a huge fan of Rockets from there, I can assure you, that things in basketball are really different with football (soccer). And even in football it's not as bad as you say. There is certainly some real problem with racism, but that's only because of very few people, who are just uneducated freaks. And all the screaming and chanting at football games isn't directed to black players, just to opponent players. We, Russians are just not very kind and positive nation, that's why there is always some hate on sport events. But as for regular life, black people are treated as good as any others.

    Let this tweet from Patrick be the proof of it:
    Patrick Beverley ‏@patbev21 28 july
    I wanna play for the Russian National team so bad!!!! I guess I just miss Russia and my friends there!!!!

    Patrick was always loved there in Russia for his Bball skills, attitude and personality. And as for me, I'm just very proud and happy that our league gave a chance to this great young guy to play for my favourite team and to be succesfull.

    Is not that it is that bad, but in some countries like ours (I'm from Uruguay), you don't see fans from both teams in the same stand, there's not the same level of tolerance. We are more passionate about sports and most Americans are not used to that, that's why sometimes it seems like it's extremely hard to play somewhere else. Violence in sports are common in some places (and regretably, there has been deaths involving riots and fights between supporters). You don't see that in the US, at least not in professional sports.

  • JerryFinn says 5 months ago

    Mitchell, don't be so hard on Russia.
    As a huge fan of Rockets from there, I can assure you, that things in basketball are really different with football (soccer). And even in football it's not as bad as you say. There is certainly some real problem with racism, but that's only because of very few people, who are just uneducated freaks. And all the screaming and chanting at football games isn't directed to black players, just to opponent players. We, Russians are just not very kind and positive nation, that's why there is always some hate on sport events. But as for regular life, black people are treated as good as any others.

    Let this tweet from Patrick be the proof of it:
    Patrick Beverley ‏@patbev21 28 july
    I wanna play for the Russian National team so bad!!!! I guess I just miss Russia and my friends there!!!!

    Patrick was always loved there in Russia for his Bball skills, attitude and personality. And as for me, I'm just very proud and happy that our league gave a chance to this great young guy to play for my favourite team and to be succesfull.

  • thejohnnygold says 5 months ago

    I love how everyone is piling on Beverley. Clutchfans had an article come out about a month ago which makes it all pretty clear. Please, try to ignore the Lin comparisons and just focus on the Beverley part--no need to spark a Lin debate--we've already got one going in the Golden State recap thread :)

    ARTICLE LINK

  • PhillyCheese says 5 months ago

    Most of Dragic's damage came off of screens and in transition. To say that PB's defense was poor is probably stretching it. Dragic was hot from outside and aggressive inside, so give him props. If you have to criticise PB's game it was the few times he ventured into the paint and got a little wild. Overall great game by PB, who was the key to the win along with Dwight.

  • Opasido says 5 months ago

    We praise Beverley for his awesomeness and defensive intensity

    But then you realize Dragic scored a career-high 35 on him

  • thenit says 5 months ago

    Beverley grew up in southside Chicago to give an idea. Worst hell hole in the US. It's crazy America gets ridiculed for being racist when most of the world is much worst.

    There is a lot of places in the world that are better than US in terms or racial stigma and a lot that are worst. So don't call it that most of the world is much worst.

  • Texan Ensemble says 5 months ago

    I fell asleep at halftime, cause I am a degenerate and was playing online poker until almost 5:00am Sunday morning, and I am so mad at myself for missing this. Even though I did not see the game, from everything I hear, it was a GREAT win, one that only title contending teams pull out.

    To me the way we won it is what I think will determine how far we go. Free throws and turnovers. We turned the ball over a total of 22 times, but hit our free throws late. If we can keep the turnovers down and make our free throws, we are going to be VERY hard to beat, even when we give up 110 points.

  • Cooper says 5 months ago

    The clippers were very impressive against okc and if they get big baby as rumoured they will be a tough team to beat.

  • feelingsupersonic says 5 months ago Not too many fans talking about how Harden made the pass to Beverly so he could knock down the three. I am not surprised.

    Also, thanks for the link Felker.

    Hey everybody, how about the Rockets getting a number 4 ranking by SteinyMo! I think they are still flying under the radar and despite whether they win or lose how they play against the Clippers will be a big challenge.
  • John P says 5 months ago

    Buckko, lots of parts of the world didn't have widespread legal treatment of people as if they were dogs or furniture or worse. Maybe that is why they can get away with being horrible...they don't have any major historical event or past to teach the collective society how awful it is...or lead the international community to blacklist such behavior,... but places like the US, Germany, Japan, all have horrible history to remind us of how horrible we can be to others.

    I don't care when he came from. You can't help but love the guy. He and Chandler both seem to add more winning culture to the Rox as any superstar does.

  • Buckko says 5 months ago Beverley grew up in southside Chicago to give an idea. Worst hell hole in the US. It's crazy America gets ridiculed for being racist when most of the world is much worst.