Friday the Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics led a “Together We Stand” Juneteenth march to raise awareness against police brutality, systematic racism in Washington, DC. During the march, Wizards star Bradley Beal recalled an unpleasant encounter with a police officer while driving on Interstate 495 in the DC area two years ago.
“It happened here, two years ago. I got pulled over on 495 and the officer asked me to step out of the vehicle. I’m literally on the side of the highway … my wife, me and one of my friends, sitting in the median of the highway, on the side, and he comes up to me and says, ‘What if I f— up your Monday and put you on a headline and arrest you right now?’ I didn’t do anything.”
Bradley Beal said per ESPN’s Eric Woodyard
Despite being wealthy and a two-time NBA All-Star, Beal felt helpless in the moment. The police’s remark was unprompted.
“How am I supposed to respond to that? I would just be waking up on Monday morning with an ESPN headline: ‘Bradley Beal arrested because of interaction with police.’ But it happens. It doesn’t just happen to me, it’s everywhere. We just have to stop being ignorant to that fact that it exists.”
Beal continued.
Additionally, Beal brought up being pulled over in his hometown of St. Louis in a predominately white neighborhood while in high school. He had just finished playing basketball with three other black friends. He was startled considering he went to a predominately white school.
Those instances are why the Wizards were intent on marching Friday alongside the Mystics. The march started at Capital One Arena — the home of the Wizards — and finished at the Martin Luther King Memorial.
Both members of the “House of Guards” have been mainstays in the DC community with countless outreach. Leading the march was just another example of them doing their part for the same fans that cheer them on the basketball court.
