For years, NBA media has tried to push narratives about how two stars can’t coexist or don’t like each other. That happened with Bradley Beal and John Wall during their days together with the Washington Wizards.
While one of the top-tier backcourts in the Eastern Conference, Beal and Wall fake to lead the Wizards to a deep playoff run. Eventually, Wall’s injuries made the team move on from him and let Beal as their franchise player.
That trade only cemented the narrative of Beal and Wall never getting along in the first place. That’s why the Wizards’ star finally took some time to shut down those rumors and clear the air about their relationship.
NBA News: Bradley Beal Wanted To Run It Back With John Wall
“I’m way better [now] than what I was when we were younger, playing Boston in [2016-17] and lost in the second round, way better player than that,” Beal said on the Draymond Green Show. “I knew John was pretty much climbing into his prime right around this time. I’m like, ‘well I’m a new newly tuned-up player waiting on this athletic freak of nature to come back, like, let’s give it one more shot. Let’s give it one more shot.’”
“We both hated that there was a picture painted that we didn’t like each other, that we didn’t like playing with each other,” Beal said.“Us being young guys at the time…we weren’t mature enough to just have a conversation. We would kind of read into it. So it’s just kind of a silent, ‘Dang you feel like that? Nah, he can’t feel like that,’ until eventually, it’s like, ‘alright now, boom, yo bro how you feeling?’ So once we had that conversation it was just, okay that’s dead. It’s just noise to kind of get us rattled or get us off our track.”
“I loved playing with John. John, I say to this day, is the best passer I’ve played with. He’s probably the fastest guy I’ve played with, with the ball,” Beal said. “The toughest part when we moved on from him was, he was injured. The toughest part was there was some stuff that went on in the summer that the front office didn’t necessarily abide by… they were like, ‘Okay, we got it. We’re done.’ It was out of my hands because I was coming to camp thinking John’s ready to go. Boom, next day he’s gone. So that was very tough and emotional because he never came back from the injury and we never got a chance for us to play.”
If it wasn’t for Wall’s injuries and the team’s failure to surround them with more talent, he and Beal could’ve done something special on the nation’s capital. Now, it’ll only be yet another big ‘What If’.
