Patrick Beverley's path to the NBA is already one of the more interesting stories out there. He's famously known for his antics and lockdown defense, but before he even made the NBA, Beverley had to borrow $1.4 million from his mother just to make it to the league.
Back in college at Arkansas, Beverley was on track to be at least a future first-round pick. During his freshman season, he was SEC Rookie of the Year. A season later, he led his team in steals, rebounds, and 3-point percentage, second in scoring, and third in assists. However, in his junior season, Beverley's career took an unfortunate turn. In August 2008, Beverley was deemed ineligible to play due to academic issues that stemmed from cheating on a school paper written by his tutor.
Instead of waiting a full year, Beverley chose to hire an agent and play overseas to have money for his child who would be born two months later.
Patrick Beverley wanted to become an overseas legend.
Beverley's first taste of professional basketball was in the Ukrainian Basketball League (UBL) playing for BC Dnipro who didn't have a buyout clause in his contract. Once the 2009 NBA draft came, Beverley left the team and joined the combine. He was picked 42nd by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2nd round of the draft only to get traded immediately to the Miami Heat.
In an interview with Kevin Hart's “Cold As Balls,” Beverley revealed that when he was cut from the team two months later, he was convinced his NBA dream was over.
“I get drafted to the Miami Heat. Two months later, I get cut. I'm back depressed again. Now I'm saying, okay, cool. I said, you know what, forget about my NBA career, I'm going to focus on my European career. I'm going to make a ton of money over here, break every record,” Beverley said.
Seeing that his NBA dream was all but over, Beverley signed a 4-year deal with Spartak St. Petersburg in Russia in 2011. However, his contract had a clause that if he left for the NBA, he'd have to pay out the rest of his deal.
A year later, Patrick Beverley gets an offer from the Houston Rockets. The only problem was, he still had $1.6 million left in his deal. Since the NBA's policy only covers $250,000, Beverley had to borrow her mother's checkbook to pay the remaining $1.4 million.
Ten years later, it's safe to say Beverley's risk paid off. As per Spotrac, Beverley has earned more than $80 million from NBA contracts alone and continues to earn minutes on every team he's been on.
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