Don't care whether Pop thinks Beverley's dirty. But glad to know he thinks Beverley's a great defender. Well, to be fair, Beverley does a lot of things fans hate Bowen for. But I would say a lot of defenders do them. Artest off the top of my head did it too, and I'm sure there are many others. I think Beverley gets the knock because he's doing it on a contending team and has the Westbrook incident that make him such a well-known player.
Beverley seemed a little bit out of it today. His spark was not there. I wonder if wed's OKC mentally affected him from his aggression on Westbrook in the first quarter. There was a lot of community backlash and craptalking because of it.
I think Pop's definition of a dirty player is a little too generous. Intent, yes of course. If you're taking cheap shots on purpose, of course you're dirty. But, I also think players who play out of control are also dirty. That's why Artest's elbow that laid out Harden was dirty even if it was an accident (which is debatable enough as it is). That's why it's tired to hear the defenses of Bruce Bowen or Karl Malone that their little incidents were just accidents that happen in basketball -- they have so many that either it's on purpose or else they do not have enough control of their bodies to be safe out on the court. Neither are acceptable. From what I can tell, Beverley doesn't play out of control. His collision with Westbrook wasn't clumsy or ill-considered, just unlucky. And, what other incident can people point to (with or without injury)? If I ask for dirty plays for Malone or Bowen, I'll get 100 video clips and stills in reply. For Beverley the only incident anyone will drum up is the injury to Westbrook, and that one's not a strong example.
