Westbrook’s 'Pat Bev trick y'all' Postgame Quote

On November 13, 2019, at Toyota Center in Houston, the Rockets defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 102–93 behind 47 points from James Harden. Postgame, Russell Westbrook addressed questions about Clippers guard Patrick Beverley’s defense against Harden and others. Westbrook delivered a now-famous assessment: “Pat Bev trick y'all, man, like he playing defense. He don't guard nobody, man. It's just running around, doing nothing. ... All that commotion to get 47” [1]. The line synthesized years of friction into a reputational critique—arguing that Beverley’s defensive persona outpaced his actual impact, especially in marquee matchups. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported the quote and the game context, highlighting Harden’s 47 as the centerpiece evidence Westbrook offered to support his view [1]. In the Clippers’ locker room, Beverley responded tersely when asked about Westbrook’s comments: “Don’t start that, don’t start that. I don’t care about that” [1]. The exchange quickly proliferated across broadcasts and social media, becoming the feud’s defining soundbite. The quote also reframed the long-running conflict from physical play into the arena of reputation and analytics-adjacent debate: whether Beverley’s relentless energy, on-ball pressure, and theatrics translated to real deterrence against elite scorers. Coming one season after the 2018 flagrant-1, the moment linked physical history to public narrative, with Westbrook proposing a lens through which to interpret Beverley’s style and Beverley declining to engage publicly that night [5][1].

The “Pat Bev trick y’all” line migrated instantly from a postgame scrum into league-wide discourse, becoming shorthand for skepticism about Beverley’s defensive impact [1]. It shifted the feud’s center of gravity from health-and-etiquette grievances to a reputational referendum—substance versus show. The quote aged into a cultural marker: in 2022, Beverley revived the phrase on Twitter to needle Westbrook during a difficult Lakers stretch, proving the line’s resonance and malleability as a talking point [7]. As part of the larger narrative, the quote codified Westbrook’s position in clear, memorable terms and gave Beverley a reusable counterpunch later on social media [1][7].

Within five weeks, the antagonism surfaced again on December 19, 2019, when Beverley was ejected at Staples Center and Westbrook waved at him, drawing a technical for taunting [6]. Over the longer arc, the quote lived on digitally. On February 10, 2022, Beverley tweeted: “I remember when somebody said all I do is run around and I trick y’all 😂 well my boy is The Real Magician this year,” explicitly invoking Westbrook’s 2019 phrasing [7]. Ironically, later in 2022 they became Lakers teammates, and Beverley publicly praised Westbrook at media day, signaling a more cordial coexistence despite the enduring cultural footprint of the quote [8].