The Washington Wizards have struggled to compete at a high level in recent seasons, but the point guard Bradley Beal has never asked the team for a trade.
However, that doesn’t mean that the idea didn’t cross his mind. It existed at different points in Beal’s career.
Beal has revealed that, at first, he considered leaving the only team he defended in the NBA at every possible opportunity.
“I’m human, so I thought about leaving. I thought about what it would be like to be on different teams and thus see the options that were available to me.” Beal said.
“The market, however, was not very promising. I guess I never wanted to leave either, after all. I ended up deciding to stay because I felt it was the best decision for me.” Beal added.
Of course, in recent times, it’s almost impossible to ignore the spread of rumours and speculation. Because social media spreads any rumour, information travels faster than ever before.
Beal has been a frequent target of them, in particular, over the past couple of years. He doesn’t hide that he’s been “rocked”, here and there, by people projecting their impact onto other teams.
“I live in the present, so I have a phone like everyone else. So I see people telling me to go to other franchises.” Beal said.
“Of course I thought about what it would be like to play with [Jayson] Tatum, in Brooklyn, in Denver or in Los Angeles.
“I’m not going to sit here and try to lie to anyone, because I know they would be great scenarios.” he added.
Beal can say whatever he wants, but he never asked for a trade with the Wizards. Finally, he was happily rewarded for his loyalty. He just signed a five-season $260 million extension.
“Changes certainly don’t happen overnight. It takes some time for these trades and, on top of that, you have to offer a lot of assets for them to be closed.” Beal said.
“There are two sides to weighing, so when you study other scenarios. This is part of the game, in short. But I definitely thought about these possibilities.” he added.
