Building careers the hard way
Beverley and Temple of the Clippers are used to being underdogs.
As then-Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins watched in a Memphis gym, guards Garrett Temple and Patrick Beverley went at each other in a one-on-one early in their careers.
They competed as if a job depended on the workout because, as free agents, it was true.
“He barely let me get the ball past half court,” Temple said Monday.
“I blocked you,” Beverley said.
Beverley smiled, searching for more details, but they’re hazy. Beverley, 30, and Temple, 32, took the long way to becoming NBA veterans, taking part in numerous workouts under similar circumstances as they scratched and clawed to carve out careers.
Perhaps it is fitting that Temple and Beverley are working together to help the Clippers fight for a Western Conference playoff berth and impress a potential future employer in the process. When they look across the locker room, as they did Monday in Minnesota, they recognize a kinship.
“It’s not that everybody else takes it for granted, but we know that [teams] got guys that are trying to get our spot just like we were guys trying to get spots,” Temple said. “I think that has a lot to do with why we play the way we play.”
Temple communicates Clippers’ coverages on the court but is hardly effusive, and the only thing moving more intensely than Beverley’s feet is his mouth. When a play is blown dead, he lobbies officials with a verve that would make a lawyer take notes.
Each, however, has the competitiveness and seriousness that link those who know what it is like to play overseas, in the G League, and on 10-day contracts. “NBA survivors,” as coach Doc Rivers calls them.
A standout at Louisiana State who played in a Final Four, Temple was undrafted in 2009 and has signed 10-day contracts nine times in his nine NBA seasons and played for eight teams. Beverley, who played against Temple while at Arkansas, was a second-round pick by the Lakers in 2009 after playing in Ukraine. He almost played on a dynastic Miami team with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in 2010, but Beverley was cut at the end of training camp.
“We call it ‘the grind,’ ” Beverley said. “I feel like my path, I got more out of it going through the back door, in the window, crawling up the wall, than through the front door. I appreciate it more.”
A player’s uneven path to the league is reflected in how he plays, many within the Clippers’ organization believe. Players able to rise from basketball’s lower ranks fight to stay in the NBA and doing so requires one or two skills that also serve as a business card.
Coaches point to Temple’s professionalism and Beverley’s drive.
“Garrett is the nicer version of Pat,” Rivers said. “He plays with an edge.”
Said Beverley: “I’ve been at the bottom of the bottom, and been fortunate to be blessed to stick through it and make something out of nothing.”
Nothing much was expected from the Clippers until they were in first place in the West after six weeks of the season. They fell percentage points behind Sacramento for the eighth and final playoff spot after Monday’s loss, meaning the arrivals of Temple, forward JaMychal Green, rookie guard Landry Shamet and center Ivica Zubac last week via trades came at a crucial juncture.
There is also something personal on the line. The contracts for Beverley and Temple expire after this season. The Clippers hope to build a championship contender in 2019, and every performance from here until the end of this season is another data point as the front office weighs who to keep around next season.
But that’s down the road. Now they pull in the same direction. Monday night in Minneapolis, no one quite figured out who held the upper hand during their oneon-one workout.
What was undisputed is this: The edge each saw in the other then remains now.
“You remember the guys that grind to get up the same way,” Temple said. “It’s a mutual respect.” Harrell is f ined $25,000 by NBA
Center Montrezl Harrell was fined $25,000 by the NBA for “directing inappropriate language toward a fan” during the Clippers’ loss at Minnesota on Monday, the league announced.
Harrell was not assessed a technical foul at the time of the incident, which occurred with 7 minutes 57 seconds to play and the Timberwolves leading by six points.
It is the second time this season a Clipper has been fined by the NBA for an interaction with a fan. Beverley was fined $25,000 on Dec. 4 for bouncing a ball at a spectator at Dallas.
TONIGHT
VS. PHOENIX When: 7:30. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 570, 1330. Update: After scoring 45 points at Minnesota, Lou Williams is averaging 19.7 points, the second-highest average by a reserve in the last 25 seasons behind the 21.9 points Williams averaged last season in that role. The Clippers have trailed by 20 points or more in their last six games. Phoenix has lost its last 11 games against the Clippers.