Phoenix Suns star guard Bradley Beal found himself on the receiving end of a surprising comment by his old boss in an article released this week.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!In an interview with Bethesda Magazine’s Mike Unger, Ted Leonsis, the majority owner of the Washington Wizards since 2010 through his company Monumental Sports & Entertainment, discussed his failed proposition to move his Wizards and Washington Capitals to a new entertainment district in Alexandria, Virginia. The plan fell through 15 weeks after his announcement of it at a press conference in December, and the teams instead reached a $500 million deal with the city to keep them at an eventually renovated Capital One Arena in downtown Washington D.C. until at least 2050.
After the news of the original plan to move out of D.C., Beal, who played for the Wizards from 2012-23, commented on it in an interview with Andscape‘s Marc Spears.
“D.C., I’m here with you,” Beal said. “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 happen.”
Leonsis was asked about some of the public criticism on the move and singled out Beal in his response.
“But I understand that some people in the media felt this was a juicy subject to go after,” Leonsis said to Unger. “I have to live with it, and I have to live with these people and communicate with these people. And everyone has their problems.
“I’ll use, as an example, Bradley Beal. He was one of our [Wizards] players. He had a no-trade contract, and he wanted to be traded. He went to Phoenix. When we announced we were moving, he found it necessary to get online and say, ‘You’re making a big mistake. You shouldn’t be moving.’ I thought that was gratuitous, but I didn’t say anything. They made the playoffs and got swept in the first round. And there’s a lot of criticism of Bradley Beal. That’s how life is, right? You can criticize. Can you take the criticism back? It’s the world we live in.”
Beal, who was drafted No. 3 overall by Washington in 2012, is the Wizards’ all-time leader in 3-pointers made (1,514), second in points (15,391) and third in assists (2,972).
Leonsis defended giving Beal a no-trade clause back in 2022 when he signed a five-year, $251 max contract with the team. Beal is now heading into the third year on this contract and retained his no-trade clause when he was dealt to Phoenix in June of 2023.
Beal faced a lot of criticism over the summer after he played poorly in the Suns’ Game 4 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in April that eliminated them from the playoffs and had a very up-and-down first season with the Suns as he had to overcome various injuries.
At media day on Monday, Beal said his “main focus and goal this year is have fun” after reflecting on last season. Meanwhile, the Wizards enter this year trying to improve on their 15-67 record in the 2023-24 season.
The Suns and Wizards will meet for the first time this season in Washington on Jan. 16. Beal had a season-high 43 points in his first game back in D.C. last season.
Bradley Beal preaches having fun going into 2nd season with Suns
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
