Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal retold a story he briefly mentioned a few weeks ago during a Juneteenth march to the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Washington D.C.

Speaking as part of a Zoom conference call with local reporters, the league's second-leading scorer recapitulated how it all went down, sparing no details:

Via Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times:

“I was pulled over and it was an unlawful search,” said the Wizards talent. “He said my tint was too dark, and so I guess that gave him a reason to search the car. I was being respectful. We stepped out of the car — my wife and I and one of my friends at the time. We all stepped out and sat on the side of the highway, whatever that cement block thing is on the side of the highway. So we're sitting on that… and I asked the officer if I could put my hood up because I'm literally on the side of the highway and there's traffic and people slowly driving by, looking at it like ‘What's going on over there? Who's that?' Seeing that, I'm like, alright. I asked the officer if I could put my hood up. He said ‘For what?' I said I would just like not to be seen out in public. He goes on to say, ‘Well who are you? What do you do?' And I say, ‘Sir, you've seen my license. I hope you would know that my name is Bradley Beal. But I play basketball for the Washington Wizards.'”

Following that request, things didn't get much better for the Wizards star:

“And so, a complete left turn, his next question was ‘Well how much money do you make a year?' Well, OK. I didn't want to be smart***. ‘Officer, I don't want to be a smart***, but I think I make more than you per year.' And then he said, ‘I can arrest your a** right now and f*** up your headline and have you on SportsCenter on Monday.' For what? You know? Because I had too dark of a tint? That's a ticket and let me go. And instead it was one, get out of the car. Searched us. Sit on the side of the highway. Search the car. Find nothing. Then proceed to say ‘I will arrest you — just to f*** up your Monday headline.' Not arrest me because you found anything. Not arrest me because I did something wrong. But arrest me just because you can.

“That's the s**t we deal with in everyday life. I don't tell it because I'm not the only Black person who's went through that. I'm not the only athlete that's been in that situation. And he let me go. I didn't go to jail for it. So…”

Sadly Beal isn't wrong here. Nearly every Black athlete has a similar story of an encounter with police. Their status or profession often does little to free them from the abuse other African Americans face on the daily.

The policeman that nearly arrested Beal likely didn't want his only 15 minutes of fame to be some from wrongfully arresting a citizen that could well afford to sue his a** into court. But that didn't keep him from trying to give the Wizards scorer a scare first.

Beal also mentioned the policeman tried threatened to put him in a headlock, just in case you were wondering if this story had any police brutality coupled with the dose of racial prejudice.