Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacek
Featured Columnist IVDecember 23, 2023
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Bradley Beal played the first 11 seasons of his career for the Washington Wizards and still has plenty of love for the nation’s capital.
So much love, in fact, he does not want the Wizards to move to Virginia, which the Phoenix Suns guard explained as part of a diary entry with Marc J. Spears of Andscape:
“D.C., I’m here with you. I’m with you all. There is no moving to Virginia. What is that, [Wizards owner] Ted [Leonsis]? We love you to death. We understand what you want to do and are trying to do. But you can’t take the team out of D.C. It’s Chocolate City. As a league, we need it. It has to stay in D.C. now. The money? Listen, it’s out of my hands and out of my control. I ain’t got nothing to do with that. Hopefully [Washington] mayor [Muriel] Bowser can work something out with you.
I hope the team stays. It’s good for the city. It creates a little bit of a problem, just my personal opinion, if it moves to Virginia. It’s probably similar to how people felt when [the Washington Commanders] moved to Maryland. It is a tough thing. We just got to get everybody back to D.C. just rebuild RFK Stadium, rebuild Cap One (Capital One Arena). Keep it in the city. We can make it happen and they can make it happen.”
Beal was a franchise cornerstone for the Wizards, who selected him with the No. 3 overall pick of the 2012 NBA draft. He was a three-time All-Star and a 2020-21 All-NBA Third Team selection during his tenure.
In all, the guard averaged 22.1 points, 4.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game during his time with the Wizards.
He surely has plenty of memories associated with Washington D.C. and doesn’t want to see the franchise he is most familiar with in the NBA changing homes.
