Bradley Beal’s time in DC ended over the weekend, a few days shy of 11 years to the day he was drafted No. 3 overall in 2012 – and there’s been a lot of wonder about what his legacy will be in the District, and whether he made it a better basketball city.
Danny Rouhier, flying solo on Tuesday, was joined by Michael Lee of OUTLET and asked him that question: how should we view Beal’s time here, especially after the Wizards basically gave him a ‘don’t let the door hit you’ goodbye after Beal gave an emotional one of his own in the Players’ Tribune?
“It's kind of tough because he is such a unique figure, but also I think a lot of it was that the Wizards were so desperate for something to make them relevant and they felt that it was Bradley Beal,” Lee said. “And I don't know if the fans ever viewed Brad the way the organization viewed Brad and what they needed him to be. The fact that Brad couldn't be that, I think that skews the way a lot of fans look at him.”
Beal came to DC on his 19th birthday and is someone who changed the organization as he got better, so that is something people have to consider.
“He was a great player and he got better, and the organization changed with his arrival,” Lee said. “Before Beal got here, with John Wall, the Wizards were stinky, but when John got healthy and he played with Brad, they went to the playoffs that first year and had a decent run of success.”
But….
“There were so many mistakes made by the organization that put so much pressure on Brad to play a role that he wasn't capable of carrying,” Lee said. “After drafting Otto Porter, the organization did nothing in the draft of significance. They traded away picks, whiffed on picks, and blundered in a lot of ways to try to build a full team you can win with. And, by the time Brad was by himself and John was traded away or hurt or whatever, he was asked to be a leading man and he learned that it was a lot harder than it looked.”
That is partially, Lee says, why Beal never pushed the Wizards past a certain point no matter who was with him, as he just wasn’t comfortable – or capable – as a leader.
“While he was struggling to try to figure out who he was as a leader, the team around him just kept getting worse, and it just made it look worse on him,” Lee said. “But, I think overall, he was a great player who gave all that he could give. I don't think you could say that he came up short in terms of his talent. I think he maximized and squeezed out every ounce that he had, and he was a great player for it, and the Wizards benefited from that.”
But, Lee says, they also failed him in the same way.
“They failed him by not ever trying to build a complete total team around him, to where he could only be asked to do what he's being asked to do right now in Phoenix: score, defend when you have to, but don't have to carry us,” Lee said. “Asking him to carry the organization was an unfair responsibility that they placed on him, and I think that we should put the eyes of fault more on the organization than him.”
Listen to that clip, as well as Lee's entire segment with Danny, above!
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