WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday night, in the hours after Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors, Patrick Beverley was camped out in Scott Van Pelt's "SportsCenter" studio. He wore a colorful striped sweater and black pants and had his hair in braids.
He already had been live with Van Pelt for four segments, sitting at a desk in the middle of the room, surrounded by three walls of big-screen TVs. He had called out Draymond Green's poor performance in the Warriors' fourth-quarter collapse. And he had joked that if he had won an NBA Finals game, he would be so excited that he would be on top of the rim.