In this day and age, fans have become accustomed to seeing NBA stars ask for a trade away from their current team if the franchise has not been successful. The era of player empowerment has given the best NBA talent avenues to improve their situation, and those that are the most outspoken usually get the most attention.
With a 22-point-per-game career scoring average to his name, Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal often flies under the radar. He’s been in the league for ten years and has only ever called Washington home. Despite the relative lack of attention, he’s one of the premier scorers in the NBA today and is still just 28 years old and in the prime of his career.
Bradley Beal – Childhood
Bradley Emmanuel Beal was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 28, 1993. His parents, Bobby and Besta Beal, both had athletic backgrounds that were certainly passed down to their son. The future NBA star’s mother was a basketball player at Kentucky State and can be credited with teaching the Wizards’ marksman how to shoot. Bradley’s father Bobby played football at Kentucky State. Beal has two older brothers, and two young brothers as the middle child of the family.
It almost sounds like a movie script, but as a child, Beal crossed paths with some other talented individuals in the St. Louis area who would go on to achieve great things. Nelly, a famous rapper who is well known for hits such as “Ride Wit Me”, knew Beal through a connection his mother had at a school she worked for. Before he went on to win Grammy awards, Nelly would sometimes walk young Bradley to school, forging a relationship between a music legend and an NBA All-Star.
Beal also had a close bond with future Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum growing up. Beal’s mom was also a key link in this friendship as well since she was Tatum’s mother’s volleyball coach back when the latter was in high school.
Beal is a few years older than Tatum, but Boston’s top scorer attributes a lot of his success to the example the Wizards’ star provided for him. Beal would take a personal interest in Tatum’s basketball development back in their St. Louis days, and even after Beal went to college. The two remain close friends to this day.
Bradley Beal – High School
When most aspiring players leave the comfort zone of their youth team or middle school for high school, they have to adjust to a new lay of the land. They don’t know the history behind the varsity team, have the chance to rub elbows with their future teammates, or know exactly what they are in for. Bradley Beal was fortunate in that sense, because Chaminade College Preparatory High School offered education from grade six through twelve, and he spent his middle school/high school years in one place.
That familiarity, along with a sense of dedication instilled in him by his family, had Beal ready to go when it came to playing sports at the high school level. The Wizards star would go through punishing drills with his older and younger brothers, geared towards improving his ability to make contact and finish in the lane.
The level of structure Chaminade provided, both on the athletic field and in the classroom, helped set Beal up for success in both environments. He finished high school with a 3.9-grade point average and was a McDonald’s All-American as one of the top basketball prospects in the United States. In his senior year, he averaged nearly 33 points per game, to go along with over five rebounds, over two assists, two steals, and two blocks per game.
He was also a large part of the United States Under 17 FIBA World championship team that won the tournament and a gold medal. One assistant coach on that staff called Beal “the MVP” of that competition.
Bradley Beal – College
With the amount of attention Beal’s career was getting, he basically could’ve gone to any university in the United States. The only players ranked ahead of him on ESPN’s top 100 prospect list in the 2011 class were Anthony Davis, Andre Drummond, Austin Rivers, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
Beal’s mom wanted him to play at the University of Kansas, due to its proximity to St. Louis. However, the future star would end up deciding to play for the University of Florida and head coach Billy Donovan. Beal thought it would be best for his development to leave his hometown and grow in a location that he didn’t know like the back of his hand.
It’s hard to argue with the choice he made. The Gators had a really well-rounded team in 2011-2012, and Beal’s arrival gave them additional firepower. He started all 37 games for Florida, averaging nearly 15 points per game, over six rebounds, and over two assists.
Beal didn’t really have one game that stood out as an explosive outlier, but he was extremely consistent throughout the course of the year. The Gators reached the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament but fell to Louisville and fellow future NBA player Gorgui Dieng. Individually, he would win SEC freshman of the week several times.
Even though the statistics he posted during his freshman year weren’t off the charts, there was very little doubt that Bradley Beal would take his talents to the next level as soon as he possibly could. As a result, he only ended up spending one season in Gainesville with the Gators.
Bradley Beal – Washington Wizards
After a run in the mid-2000s where the team made the playoffs in four consecutive years, the Washington Wizards had fallen on hard times since injuries caught up with star guard Gilbert Arenas. The franchise could have gone in a couple of different directions in order to rebuild their team but focused their attention on the backcourt in the 2010 and 2012 NBA Drafts. With the first selection in 2010, Washington took University of Kentucky guard John Wall. His talent was evident from the beginning, but the Wizards still needed to add more around him.
With the third pick in 2012, they took Bradley Beal, in hopes of creating one of the most dynamic backcourts in the NBA. There were instantly questions surrounding Wall and Beal’s ability to play with one another, considering that both were profiled to be such effective scorers in the NBA.
It did not help Washington’s cause that Wall missed several games early on in Beal’s rookie season, due to injury, preventing them from developing that immediate chemistry.
The former Gators star’s shooting stroke was his elite-level skill coming into the league, and it was clear that he would be able to fill up at the next level. He was named to the All-Rookie team in 2012-2013 for his initial performance.
While 2012-2013 was a transition year for everyone involved, Washington started to turn the corner in 2013-2014. Wall played in all 82 games, while Beal appeared in 73, and the Wizards qualified for the postseason for the first time in six seasons.
It didn’t seem likely that they would make much noise once they got there, but they actually dispatched a Chicago Bulls team with much more experience in five games. They ended up losing in the conference semifinals to the Indiana Pacers in six games, but the unexpected ascent was encouraging for Wizards fans.
The Wizards would turn out to be a factor in the Eastern Conference playoffs for a few years to come. Beal and Wall found a comfortable harmony playing together, each sacrificing some scoring opportunities in order to let the other, or other teammates, find their groove offensively. In the first four years of his career,
Beal would average a shade under 16 points per game, which seems low considering his talent. However, the Wizards were better off for it, as they made the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs again in 2014-2015, losing in six games to a loaded Atlanta Hawks team.
The lethal version of Beal that the NBA fans have come to know and love arrived in the 2016-2017 campaign. His scoring average leaped to 23 points per game, which coincided with an increase in the number of times he got to the free-throw line.
The Wizards won 49 games that year and had the best team the franchise had seen in a few decades. They defeated the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the postseason. In a classic battle, Washington gave the Boston Celtics everything they could handle in the second round but ended up losing in seven games. That would end up being the pinnacle of the Wall-Beal era.
After that, the shooting guard had his personal success took off, while Wall’s health and the team’s fortunes sank. The St. Louis native made his first career All-Star team in 2017-2018, the first of three such distinctions for the star guard. The Wizards entrusted Beal with more ball-handling and playmaking responsibility, which has led to a rise in his assist numbers over the past few years.
Although the Wizards got off to a promising start in 2021-2022, they eventually fell out of the playoff mix. A lot of that descent had to do with a left wrist injury Beal suffered, which he would eventually undergo season-ending surgery for.
Bradley Beal – NBA Future
Bradley Beal’s future in Washington is going to be one of the most influential storylines in the NBA for the remainder of 2022. His contract with the Wizards expires at the end of the next season, and his loyalty to the team will once again be discussed publicly.
Can the Heat get Bradley Beal?
The Miami Heat have been rumored to be a possible destination for Beal, but that fit is now questionable considering their playoff success. Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adebayo form a strong core that the team might want to run back for a couple more years.
The Dallas Mavericks may have also been a legitimate suitor for Beal, but their run deep into the Western Conference playoffs makes it more likely they will try to keep impending free agent Jalen Brunson.
Will Bradley Beal get traded?
Even so, there will still be plentiful interest around the league in hopes to acquire Beal. To this point, Beal played down any sort of speculation surrounding his future, but this will be harder to avoid in the coming months.
Are John Wall and Bradley Beal friends?
Bradley Beal refuted the rumors that him and John Wall have beef and that he considers him one of his best friends. There seemed to be an air of negativity between them. Both of them were too immature to face the issue and confront each other but once they did, it cleared out the atmosphere.
