The Bradley Beal era in Washington hasn’t been pretty…

The Bradley Beal era in Washington hasn’t been pretty but it’s still worthy of appreciation

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So, after spending 11 years with the Wizards, the Bradley Beal era in Washington may finally come to a close.

To be frank about it, this is coming a few years too late. I’m not even talking about a trade — I’m talking about the mere thought of seriously considering trading Bradley Beal. The organization has tap danced around considering a full tear down and a rebuild for years now, but this is long overdue.

The fact is, the Wizards haven’t won anything significant with the 3-time All-Star as the face of their franchise. Since trading John Wall — which should be considered the start of the Bradley Beal era — the Wizards have a paltry record of 104-132. That’s not good. There’s no way to spin that. That’s why this is happening.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. Today, I actually want to give Beal a bit of appreciation. What he’s done in D.C. should not be frowned upon.

Let’s just look at the resume. If Bradley Beal is traded away from the Washington Wizards today, his 15,391 total points would fall just 160 points shy of Elvin Hayes as the Wizards’ all-time leading scorer. Only he and Hayes have eclipsed 15,000 total points for the team. He’s third all-time in minutes played (24,091), games played (695) and assists (2,972).

The Wizards haven’t won 50 games since the 1978-79 NBA season and have only won that many games 5 times in franchise history. But they came really close during the 2016-17 NBA season and Bradley Beal was a huge part of that team.

I’m not saying all of this to say that Bradley Beal should be absolved of the Wizards’ recent failures. No. Absolutely not. The team goes as he does and, well, the team has not gone anywhere. Even with poorly built rosters, part of that is on him.

He’s been injured in crucial stretches for Washington. He hasn’t shown up at points where the team has really needed him to. He’s very easily signed to the worst contract in the NBA (which isn’t his fault, by the way!). As a fan, watching Wizards basketball has never been more frustrating.

But Bradley Beal is still a really good player. He’s an All-Star who has done some incredible things in this league. And he’s absolutely one of the best Washington Wizards to ever touch the court in D.C.

He legitimately cares about this community. He wants to be here in Washington. He actually likes the city. He likes having his own team and he genuinely wants to win a title here. Though, ultimately, it doesn’t seem like he’ll get that shot to do that now, that’s a really cool thing.

No, he’s not John Wall. It’s always hard to follow up the first guy. But I think we can legitimately say Brad Beal has done his best here in Washington. And I think we should appreciate that.