Trae Young dropped a 12-minute character assassination in response to Patrick Beverley's absurd criticism of Young. The beef had mild origins, with Young poking fun at Beverley's lack of All-Star appearances in a brief Twitter exchange.
Patrick Beverley then brought the comments up on his podcast and then went on a two-minute rant, saying, "I don’t think he’s in a position to speak. I don’t think he’s won enough to even speak to me like that or tweet me like that."
Young responded late last night with a 12-minute YouTube video, where he took many jabs at Beverley while remaining in a respectful tone. The funniest (and most meaningful) criticism was when he roasted Beverley for his infamous reaction to winning a Play-In game in Minnesota.
Young said, "You talk about winning and impacting winning,” Young continued. “How about we name some of these guys: LeBron, Giannis, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Ant-Man, and KAT. We’re not even gonna talk about how we celebrate a play-in win.”
“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’re standing on the scores table acting like it’s a championship. We celebrate wins different too." This is particularly rich when you remember that Beverley slandered Young's winning ability.
Pat Bev is another source of motivation for Young in a contract season
Young was not done with his criticism of Beverley, saying, "I promise you, anytime you was on the court with me, I was never scared of you. I was never scared of Patty Bev." He ended his rebuttal with the Drake song "Tuscan Leather," alluding to a famous line from the song, "Bench players talking like starters, I hate it," with the title of his YouTube video, "You know the bar."
Focusing only on the beef, Young slaughtered Beverley. He addressed all of Beverley's criticisms while remaining professional, even asking the defensive specialist, "Just don't be disrespectful." This was not a fair beef - Young is one of the best at talking smack in the league and consistently backs up his talk. Pat Bev. on the other hand, has never been able to walk the walk after talking the talk.
Young didn't have to respond to Beverley, but his response was encouraging. Young has always had a chip on his shoulder and performs at his best when all the pressure is on him. In this spat, he manufactured pressure and expectations he now has to meet.
If Young and the Hawks disappoint this year, these comments will come back to bite Young. Fortunately for fans, this outcome is less likely than it was just a day ago with Young's new external motivation.
This is the third component of a quietly successful media run for Young, previously joining Jeff Teague's Cluub 520 Podcast and ESPN's College Football Gameday in support of his Alma Mater, the University of Oklahoma.
Beverley will almost certainly respond, and Young almost certainly won't, barring a true low blow from Beverley. Add this to Young's impeccable record in his beefs, with opponents ranging from America's loudest defensive specialist to the New York Knicks.