After not being voted in as a starter, Bradley Beal lay his All-Star Game chances in the hands of the Eastern Conference coaches as a reserve. Surprisingly, those coaches opted not to name the Washington Wizards guard as one of the seven reserves for February’s NBA All-Star Game.
This is despite the fact Beal being sixth in the NBA in scoring with 28.7 points per game.
His agent, Mark Bartelstein, voiced his displeasure with the coaches choice of not voting for Beal. He went as far as saying coaches are holding Beal re-signing with the Wizards and not be a “bandwagon jumper” by requesting a trade to a contending team (h/t Candace Buckner/ Washington Post).
“I think the coaches sent a horrible message,” Bartlestein said his statement. “I think the Eastern Conference coaches have become robotic in thinking they just have to reward players that are on the winningest teams. The idea of the all-star game is to reward the very best players and Brad made a decision this summer to be loyal to a franchise, to be patient with a franchise and to go through the rebuilding.
“He could’ve made the choice to be a bandwagon jumper and just go on and join a higher-level team and he would’ve been guaranteed in the all-star game,” Bartlestein continued. “But, he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to be loyal to his organization and the coaches in the NBA are holding it against Brad that he was loyal to his organization.”
Unless Beal is named as an injury replacement, he will become the first player in 41 years to average 28 points or more per game and not make an all-star team, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
The Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young is the only Eastern Conference guard to average more points than Beal this season. And Young was voted as a starter.
Beal, on the other hand finished second among East guards in the players’ portion of the all-star voting behind Young. However, with the fan and media voting Beal finished a eighth among East guards in the starters vote.
“There’s a reason why the platers voted him No. 2,” Bartlestein continued in his statement. “The players know and these coaches — if they’re being honest, there’s nobody in the Eastern Conference, other than Giannis, that they game plan for harder than they game plan for Brad.
“That’s the reality of it. They game plan so hard to try and take him away. The Wizards are in a rebuilding situation and this wasn’t going to be a year where they were going to be a playoff team, and everyone knew it. Yet, he has gone and played his heart out every single night to try to make them as competitive as they can be and coaches have held it against him that he decided to stay the course with the team instead of jumping ship and joining someone’s bandwagon and I think that’s a terrible message.”
Following a 121-107 win over the Charlotte Hornets Thursday, Beal called the all-star snub “disrespectful” in a post game interview with NBC Sports Washington’s Chris Miller.
Beal led the Wizards with 34 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in the win.
