Former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Patrick Beverley described the feeling in his Israel-based basketball team as Iran fired missiles at Israel.
Speaking Wednesday from Tel-Aviv, the co-host of “The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone” said on the podcast that he had just returned to Israel, persuaded by some of his Israeli teammates who assured him it was safe to return. He flew back to Israel from Samokov, southwest Bulgaria, after his team, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, recorded their first win of the EuroCup season Tuesday night.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv won 89–84 against the Vilnius, Lithuania-based BC Wolves Twinsbet.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv play their home games in Samokov because of regional security concerns, Beverley said.
“Real quiet,” he said of Tel-Aviv. “Obviously wasn’t quiet yesterday [Tuesday].”
“We get to the gym normal, in like 30 minutes, 40 minutes, you hear about it, stuff might be happening, but then you just see it on my Israeli teammates’ faces,” Beverley said, recounting the pre-game reaction to the start of Iran’s missile attack on Israel. (RELATED: Iran Fires Roughly 200 Missiles At Israel As Middle East Reaches Boiling Point)
Once he turned off his phone’s airplane mode, “I just start getting a whole bunch of sh—,” Beverley said. “So I’m like, Oh, what the f— happening?”
He then learned from a U.S.-based basketball player-friend that Iran had fired missiles at Israel.
“So now I’m looking at my Israeli teammates like, Y’all cool? Y’all family’s cool?” he recalled.
“I just got a teammate who just had a baby, like, a week ago,” he added. Yet, “250 missiles getting launched, and they showing this sh—, look like Fourth of July… It’s so tense, the locker room is so tense.”
Beverley sprang out of his seat, saying he heard a sound, leaving his co-host Adam Ferrone worried. “My neighbors were loud, they playing music and sh—, I’m safe,” Beverley said when he returned to the podcast, but Ferrone would not be immediately convinced.
“I talked to my mom, she’s like, Why’re you going back? I’m like, ‘Cause I wanna go back,” Beverley said.
“I’m from Chicago, and I say that to say this: when I signed here, I got a ton of awful sh— said to me via Twitter…I got literally people telling me, “Y’all make another round, Pat Bev there, send some more missiles,” he added, recounting hate messages he received.
“Ain’t nobody speaking on all the deaths in Chicago, but when I go play for another place, just to play basketball, I get all the hatred,” he said.
Bemoaning Chicago’s longstanding insecurity, Beverley added that it made him familiar with living in hostile environments. His teammates had also been accustomed to volatility in the Middle East, he added.
Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel while the game was underway—in response to the fatal Israeli airstrike that killed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the terror group Hezbollah, and Israel’s mounting conflict with the group. Israel successfully defended its nearly 10-million-strong population with help from the U.S., but one missile killed a Palestinian in Jericho in the West Bank.
“War isn’t good for anybody,” Beverley said.
“Unless you’re a missile company,” Ferrone deadpanned.
Having joined the NBA’s Houston Rockets from Russia’s BC Spartak St. Petersburg, Beverley played for various NBA teams for 12 seasons. His last team before moving to Israel was the Milwaukee Bucks.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
