Even before John Wall left the Washington Wizards back in 2020, rumors about his alleged rift with teammate Bradley Beal were already circling. In fact, some believed that this was one of the reasons behind Wall's decision to move on from the franchise that drafted him first overall more than a decade ago. All of a sudden, after nine memorable years in Washington, John Wall walked away.

Since then, Bradley Beal has stepped up as the Wizards' cornerstone superstar. He actually took over the helm prior to Wall's exit. Beal got his first All-Star nod during the 2017-18 season. However, it was two years later that the 6-foot-4 shooting guard officially stepped into the role as the Wizards' No. 1 option on offense. Incidentally, this was when Wall sustained a major injury and was forced to sit out the entire season. That year, Beal's scoring average skyrocketed to 30.5 points per game as opposed to 25.6 points in the previous season. At that point, it was clear that Beal was going to be the future of this franchise.

It was easy to build a rather unscrupulous narrative around these two players during their time together as teammates, particularly during the rise of Beal to superstardom. Wall, who was forced to watch on the sidelines, was painted as a disgruntled star that was on his way down but was unwilling to concede his post to the young up-and-comer. All of a sudden, stories about a brewing feud between the pair began popping up.

In a recent interview on The Draymond Green Show, Beal opened up about these nasty rumors. For starters, Beal made it abundantly clear that while Wall was working his way back to injury, all Beal wanted was to get another shot with his backcourt partner:

“I'm way better [now] than what I was when we were younger, playing Boston in [2016-17] and lost in the second round, way better player than that,” Beal said. “I knew John was pretty much climbing into his prime right around this time. I'm like, ‘well I'm a new newly tuned-up player waiting on this athletic freak of nature to come back, like, let's give it one more shot. Let's give it one more shot.’”

Unfortunately, this never came to be. Wall ended up making the big move to the Houston Rockets after sitting out the 2019-20 season. Beal and Wall never got that chance they were hoping for.

Beal then got brutally honest about the rumored rift between him and Wall. Beal revealed that their inability to communicate played a key role in how the nasty narrative festered. However, they were able to hash it out eventually:

“We both hated that there was a picture painted that we didn't like each other, that we didn't like playing with each other,” Beal said. “Us being young guys at the time…we weren't mature enough to just have a conversation. We would kind of read into it. So it's just kind of a silent, ‘Dang you feel like that? Nah, he can't feel like that,’ until eventually, it’s like, ‘alright now, boom, yo bro how you feeling?’ So once we had that conversation it was just, okay that's dead. It's just noise to kind of get us rattled or get us off our track.”

It sounds like there was indeed a cloud of negativity between Beal and Wall. Apparently, it was their own fault for refusing to confront one another about the issue at hand. This clearly didn't help the situation and for the media, it was the perfect opportunity to strike.

beal wall
Getty Images

Beal then admitted that seeing Wall leave the way that he did affected him deeply. Beal still holds a lot of regret about not being able to do anything to stop his buddy from jumping ship. Everyone was taken by surprise by Wall's sudden decision to leave his beloved Wizards and apparently, Beal himself was also taken aback by the rapid turn of events:

“I loved playing with John. John, I say to this day, is the best passer I've played with. He's probably the fastest guy I've played with, with the ball,” Beal said. “The toughest part when we moved on from him was, he was injured. The toughest part was there was some stuff that went on in the summer that the front office didn't necessarily abide by… they were like, ‘Okay, we got it. We're done.’ It was out of my hands because I was coming to camp thinking John's ready to go. Boom, next day he's gone. So that was very tough and emotional because he never came back from the injury and we never got a chance for us to play.”

Bradley Beal and John Wall were without a doubt one of the most explosive backcourts we've seen in recent years. It's a shame that they never reached their true potential, or at least that they were not able to get another shot at proving their worth as a dynamic duo for the Wizards.

In spite of all that has gone down, however, Beal still considers Wall to be one of his best friends. Their bond goes way beyond the confines of the basketball court:

“It was tough, bro, because John is a brother—like, still to this day. I could pick up the phone and call John and if I need him, he’s here. And it's the same vice versa,” Beal said.