Jayson Tatum and Bradley Beal will finally get the chance to play with each other next month in Tokyo. And the Washington Wizards star expects plenty of recruiting to take place.
In a media session Thursday, Beal said he expects members of Team USA to involve themselves in some tampering, though he stressed their goal is coming home with the gold.
“I don’t know. I mean, probably a lot,” Beal said, via NESN. “Depends on who’s a free agent or not but for the most part, we don’t, we can’t mix that in right now. We’re focused on one goal at hand and that’s bringing back the gold medal. And, you know, granted, we all have our respective individual goals and talents once this is done.”
Outside of this year’s NBA All-Star game, Tatum and Beal have never been on the same team. The two St. Louis natives have known each other since childhood, with Beal serving as a mentor for the younger All-Star. The Celtics are commonly floated as a possible landing spot for Beal, given his strong relationship with Tatum.
“We grew up five minutes from each other. And, you know, to have to have the same guys, from the same high school, on the same team, I don’t know if that’s ever happened for USA Basketball,” Beal said.
In a separate media availability, Tatum echoed Beal’s excitement about playing together. “We just want the extreme best for each other and just two guys that play at a very high level that always are pushing each other,” Tatum said, via Boston.com. “He scores 50 or something, I’m trying to do it and vice versa. That’s just kind of the relationship we have.”
With just one year left on his deal, Beal appears to be a prime candidate to get traded this offseason. The three-time All-Star is one of the most prolific scorers in the league, averaging more than 30 points per game in each of the last two seasons.
Of course, there will likely be multiple suitors for Beal, and the Celtics would probably have to pay a high price to acquire him. Any package would probably start with Jaylen Brown, who enjoyed his own breakout campaign in 2020-21.
But then again, Brown won’t be on Team USA. Who knows the recruiting he’ll miss out.