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Bradley Beal knew this was going to happen. That doesn’t mean he has to love her.
Once Giannis Antetokounmpo re-signed with the Milwaukee Bucks, and once James Harden was traded from the Houston Rockets, the Washington Wizards guard was well aware that his name would be the next to enter a seemingly endless cycle. of speculation on its commercial availability and satisfaction with the organization.
Only Beal doesn’t want the next one. He wants to chart his own course, not one dictated by a widespread gamers’ movement and the media that spotlight him, and that always means building a candidate in Washington.
“He doesn’t want to give up for something,” Beal’s agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment told Yahoo Sports. “He’s an incredibly loyal guy, and he always wants to feel like he’s done everything he can to help something or someone succeed. It’s how he was raised and what his values are based on. It’s anchored in him. That’s what makes him, in my mind, so unique. It’s all about the good stuff.
On the one hand, the scrutiny is a testament to Beal’s development into an elite talent. In the past three years alone, the rumor mill has passed through LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Antetokounmpo and Harden as the central focus of paradigm-shifting commerce and free agency possibilities. . To be included in this group is sort of a badge of honor, and Beal has earned those same stripes.
He scores 33.3 points per game, a career and league high, in 47/34/89 shooting games. No one is within three points of this average. Long established as one of the most powerful shooting threats in the game, Beal has also become a finely tuned driving machine and continuously improves as a playmaker every year.
On the other hand, the rest is largely beyond his control. Almost all of the big stars, but Beal, have either changed teams or signed a long-term contract extension in the past two seasons. He has one more year left on his contract after this season, and that leaves him in the right place for NBA rumors, like it or not.
Unlike Davis, Leonard and Harden, Beal did not fan the flames with commercial demand. There wasn’t even the same vague language that only greeted speculation about James, Durant, and Antetokounmpo.
“Brad was never someone to run away from adversity,” Drew Hanlen of Pure Sweat Basketball, Beal’s longtime coach, told Yahoo Sports. “While a lot of other stars have chosen to blame others and join another team where things are easier, Brad wants to make things stand out and help make the Wizards a winning franchise.”
In fact, Beal’s opposition to trade demands is recorded, as is his preference to retire in Washington.
“This is the team that drafted him, the team that invested in him, and he desperately wants to make him a championship contender,” Bartelstein, who has represented Beal since the 2012 draft, told Yahoo Sports. . “He wants to get there. This is how he is. He is not looking for the easy way out. He challenges himself. The evolution of his game says a lot about his commitment and hard work.
Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard were able to avoid the pitfalls of business speculation, in part because of similar public sentiment, but mostly because of the team’s success. The formula that determines the next star to become available – a combination of contract and conflict – is not calculable.
But Washington’s struggles haven’t helped calm the storm around Beal. They are 6-15 years old, owners of the third worst NBA record, although they are still a long way from being out of the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. No list has been hit harder by COVID-19. Russell Westbrook and Davis Bertans did not perform by past standards. Thomas Bryant, the team’s starting center, has ripped up his 10 ACL games this season. Nothing was easy.
It’s not unlike the past two years, when John Wall’s Achilles injury cost the Wizards a shot for a playoff berth. Washington is four years away from narrowly missing the conference final with a seasoned team that has since been torn apart. Where some might see a star wasted, Beal sees an opportunity.
“Of course Brad wants to win and doesn’t want his bounty wasted on a losing team,” Hanlen told Yahoo Sports in a text message, “but [second-year Wizards general manager] Tommy [Sheppard] has always been good to Brad, and he wants to give him a chance to build a winning team around him in DC ”
So when Beal dropped 60 points in a five-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this season, his initial thought was not to walk into Sheppard’s office looking for a trade. Instead, his first text to Hanlen after the game read, “Shit, I have to be better on the straight and close this game.” It’s a reflection not only of his drive to win, but of his desire to improve, Hanlen said, praising Beal’s loyalty to “a small circle around him.”
Wizards can be counted in this circle. That hasn’t stopped people from projecting a more dire version of Washington’s future onto Beal and drawing their own conclusions as to why he should want a trade. It is through this lens that Beal frustration visible in the field and the bench is visualized. Only, this is not a veiled public plea for the liberation of Washington. It stems from the desire to win with the Wizards.
As he told reporters after another recent loss, “I’m crazy to lose. If I was sitting there laughing and smiling, what would the media say then? “Oh, he doesn’t take this seriously. I just hate to lose. I hate to lose.
None of this can deter further speculation about its availability. Beal isn’t just the next in line for difference makers who fit the profile of the Age of Gaming Movement for those who might want to step out. He might be the only one doing it for a while. Less appealing names like Zach LaVine and Victor Oladipo will be mentioned in the coming months, but most of the superstars are consolidated on the suitors. Even Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Devin Booker – recent subjects of business speculation – have seen their situation improve dramatically.
Beal wants to see the same turnaround happen in Washington. So unless there is a change of direction for the Wizards, who would have “zero” to “no interest” in dealing with Beal, all speculation is more wasted time.
“Nothing is absolute. Things change all the time, ”Bartelstein told Yahoo Sports,“ but when he’s in it, he’s all in it. This is where he focuses. It focuses on raising their level and getting to that point. Much of what is happening in the media right now is unfair. Every facial expression, every movement, every time his eyes look somewhere, people read so much in every little thing. There is nothing in there to read.
“He’s someone who cares a lot about winning and wants to be successful for himself and his teammates. When that doesn’t happen, he’s frustrated, and not expressing it would be almost inhuman.
Yeah, Bradley Beal knew it was going to happen. That doesn’t mean he has to love her.
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