Bradley Beal talked in detail about his perspective on his trade from the Washington Wizards to the Phoenix Suns in June 2023 with the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat also in play at the time.
“First off, Phoenix wasn’t really in the picture for me to go to. It wasn’t,” Beal said on the Run Your Race podcast with Theo Pinson. “That was a fly ball that came out … I’m in left field. I’m waiting on Miami to give me a grounder, Milwaukee. Those were kind of my two. Miami didn’t want to do it for whatever reason, didn’t know why. Milwaukee I was like – I was straddling the fence.”
Beal revealed that Khris Middleton would have been sent by the Bucks to the Wizards, but it would have required the participation of the Milwaukee veteran to exercise his player option.
“I don’t know many people who are going to opt in, get traded to D.C.,” Beal said. “The loyalty part in that, like, trading somebody who won y’all a championship the previous year, who was a key piece to winning a championship, it didn’t sit right for me.
“We competitors. I can fill that role very nicely. (But) I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the look.”
Middleton re-signed with the Bucks as a free agent in the 2023 offseason on a three-year, $102 million deal.