Bradley Beal diary: ‘There are so many bright ideas, so much exploration in this world’

SAN FRANCISCO – Bradley Beal gazed in appreciation at the art on the museum wall for several minutes. JoeSam., a self-taught contemporary/mixed media painter and installation artist, creates art that focuses on African American activism. And as the Phoenix Suns guard explored all four floors of the Museum of the African Diaspora on this Feb. 9 night, it was JoeSam.’s work that he was drawn to the most.

On the rare occasions that Beal has some free time, the art enthusiast loves to spend time in a museum as he did on this recent Suns road trip.

“I’m a big arts guy. So, I’m very happy that we were able to fit this into our schedule,” Beal told Andscape. “To be able to see one of the different artists that I wasn’t familiar with is always promising and uplifting because there’s so much talent in the world. There are so many bright ideas. There’s so much exploration in this world.

“And it’s very awesome that MoAD is able decide between millions of inquiries every year to put into their gallery. And they’re able to handpick a few that are really powerful. And that’s up and down every level of this building. There’s just so many powerful pieces of Black culture, Black history that are really touching and educational for sure.”

Beal, his wife Kamiah Adams-Beal, and three young sons, Bradley “Deuce” II, Braylon and Braxton, moved to Phoenix after the Washington Wizards traded him to the Phoenix Suns in June 2023. The St. Louis native has acknowledged that he is joining his first true championship contender in his NBA career with fellow superstars, forward Kevin Durant and guard Devin Booker, and coach Frank Vogel. The Suns have never won an NBA championship.

During this 2023-24 NBA season, Beal, 30, has been sharing insights into his life on and off the court in the Valley of the Sun and on the road during his monthly video and diary on Andscape. NBA players Draymond Green, Vince Carter, Trae Young, CJ McCollum, Fred VanVleet, De’Aaron Fox, Cade Cunningham, James Wiseman and Josh Jackson have participated in previous diaries.

The 6-foot-4, 207-pounder was averaging 18.2 points, 4.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds for the Suns in 30 games entering the All-Star break despite being hampered by numerous injuries. The Suns’ Big 3 of Beal, Durant and Booker are slated to play against LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

In Beal’s fifth diary installment, as told to Andscape senior NBA writer Marc J. Spears, he talks about his love and knowledge of art, defending the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in James, returning to play in Washington in January for the first time since being traded, his wife coaching his sons Bradley and Braylon’s soccer team and much more.

LeBron is obviously one of the best to ever do it. It’s always surreal to play against him and see somebody you also admired and looked up to growing up. But it is cool, it’s uplifting, it’s encouraging. It’s motivating to just see what he’s doing in here in Year [21]. Still doing it at a high level … But it just speaks to his dedication to the game. His wanting to be the best. It’s always fun to play against him because he’s a true competitor, because he knows everybody that he’s playing against whether you’re a rookie or a 15-year player.

That part of playing against him makes young guys really gravitate toward him and really understand how cool he is, how cool of a teammate he is and how he’s at the level he’s at because of his competitive spirit. For him to know [players] one through 15, know your plays, know your system, it’s not easy to do. On top of going out and dominating the game — physicalitywise, IQwise — he’s very untouchable in a lot of ways.

It’s always an honor for me. I always take pride in that competition because he goes hard, he competes at a high level and it makes the game fun. It makes the game that much better. But I’m a fan, and his success and his story’s unlike anybody else’s ever to play the game.

The trade deadline is always a tough time of the year. It’s always a lot of anxiety. Guys don’t know what’s going to happen, who’s coming in, who’s going. This year we let four guys go, which is tough because it was four amazing guys. And I always believe that about all of the guys we had in our locker room this year. No bad ego guys. No bad character guys.

That’s what’s tough about our business: We develop these relationships and three weeks later they can be gone, and that’s always tough. But we got back two guys, David Roddy from Memphis, who’s a versatile wing, and [Royce] O’Neale from Brooklyn. I think those are two really good pieces for us to help push us forward in our run. I know Royce personally. Royce is a good friend of mine. Royce is a hard worker and a hoophead, so I’m excited to share the floor with him for sure.

Going back to D.C. was fun. I wasn’t nervous leading up. Everybody would ask me every single day, ‘How are you feeling about going back? How are you feeling about playing there again?’ And it didn’t really bother me. I’m like, ‘What are you guys talking about? It’s another game.’ But literally the day before we left to go there, it hit me. Everything just kind of hit me like an avalanche and just all the emotions. And just going back, seeing fans, friends and family and people from the organization and old teammates, old staff, people that literally have watched me grow up …

But to land that plane and step foot onto D.C. soil, it was fun, man. It was very kind of like a sigh of relief. It was a breath of fresh air. I got see my nephew, my brother’s son, spend time with family friends who I’ve developed over the years. I haven’t seen them since the trade. So, that was awesome to just be able to rekindle those relationships again and get out, eat dinner. My parents came, so it was fun. It was a very familylike atmosphere, man. I received a warm welcome from everybody and it was a game I’ll never forget, that’s for sure.

I didn’t get emotional. I was very surprised by that. I thought I was going to cry. I didn’t cry, but I did feel the love. I did feel the history just all replay in my head a little and it was a fun moment to be a part of this trip. I was just so locked into the game knowing I wanted to just get the game going. It was very cool to just see the video, see everybody there that I haven’t seen in a few months. Just to see them again, that was very cool.

I know the rims. I know the gym very well. I know the depth perception. I know the angles of the floor. I knew everything. So, it was just fun to be back out there, man. Just did like you said it felt like home.

Somebody said I sucked. That’s kind of why I gave them the ‘Brad meme’ again. Every time somebody wants to yell at out, I got to look at ’em like they crazy.

I was always kind of an art nerd since I was a kid. Math, science and art were always just like my go-tos. Art was just a way to. I kind of treated it like basketball in some ways. It was a way to get away from home. A way to get away from distractions. It’s like a level of peace that came with it and I think it kind of runs in the family. All of my brothers love to draw. We love to sketch. It’s always something fun to do as a kid.

It kills time. It challenges you to be better and it’s always about how it makes you feel. It doesn’t have to be perfect or doesn’t have to be a perfect straight line. It can be however you want it to be and mean whatever you want it to. And that’s something I love the most about it is just it’s expressive to however you want it to be.

It’s crazy that we’re in his [JoeSam.’s] space now. He’s from the Bay Area. He’s been doing this a long time. I want to say since the ’70s, just crafting up art. He’s really big in mixed art spaces, his ability to be able to depict history and how it made him feel during his experiences growing up and throughout his life. It really hits home with a lot of things we deal with today in society and even things we’ve went through in our lives. And I would say JoeSam.’s pieces in here, it hit home for sure.

I got a lot of pieces at home. I probably can’t go down a list. I’m always big on first impressions for sure. The piece has to stand out and really catch my attention and really draw me into wanting to just stare at it for a long period of time, and those are the more sentimental pieces for me. I’m a big abstract contemporary art guy as well. [I’m] moving more into the mixed art space, too, where you can get a lot of expression out of those pieces.

But for me, it’s about what draws my attention. Obviously, all different artists have different styles. And you can kind of decipher whose piece it is without even looking at their name. Sometimes, I say color. I’m big on it just being vibrant. The art colors are what kind of draw my attention the most to it.

I’m a huge Hebru Brantley fan. Hebru is one of my favorite artists. He does a little mix, man. Rashid Johnson is another one of my favorites. Kara Walker, who’s awesome. Frank Morrison is amazing. He has a lot of surreal pieces. Barkley Hendricks is awesome. He’s a basketball head and to see his visualizations of basketball be put into art, it’s crazy. I got to get my hands on his pieces.

I don’t regularly go [to museums]. I wish I did. I get invited a lot and a lot of times a lot of the exhibitions are going on during our season. It’s tough being on the West [Coast] now, too. A lot of ’em are in New York, some of ’em are in L.A. It’s tough to get to ’em a lot of the times. But when I can, I definitely do. I try to get to an exhibition and get to a show. My wife took me to [Jean-Michel] Basquiat’s exhibition in Brooklyn last year, which was unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Art for young people, those who don’t want to give it a chance, you should know that it can touch you. Touch you in ways that you don’t really see life, challenge you in some ways and make you appreciate a lot of things that we probably don’t.

Art is cool. Art is art is similar to fashion. That’s all fashion is. That’s all music is. That’s all movies are. Everything is a style of art in some ways, man, and art is all about you being confident in that piece, whatever it is you are being confident in — your work, your craft and you believe in it. It has nothing to do with the audience. It has nothing to do with the next person. It’s about what you make it out to be, and that’s life.

If it’s good weather [on the road], I’m outside. I’m outside trying to enjoy it. Always looking for good food spots. That’s a Big Panda, so we got to make sure Big Panda eats. But I’m more or less chill. I’m more relaxed. I’m always big on spending time with my teammates, so if there’s always an opportunity for us to go grab some food, hang out, go to a movie or whatever, we’ll try to make that time happen and make ourselves available for that.

But I’m big just on just being in an independent space, being alone, enjoying that time to think, reflect on my day, my life, my family, hoops, whatever it is. But if the city’s nice and it’s good weather, more or less, I’m going to try to get to enjoy the city a little bit.”

Probably Book and KD is who I go to dinner with the most. J-Good [former Suns guard Jordan Goodwin] is right there. J-Goody was right there with me. I’m down with everybody. That’s the beauty of this team.

Favorite cities, always the big cities. L.A. is always fun. It’s good weather, good arena. Miami, the same thing. New York, I have a love-hate relationship with. I love the food. I love them as people. I love the city. It’s so dirty, though. That’s one thing I just can’t get with. I just never understand what New York got with trash. It’s piled up on your block. I don’t like that.

But everything else about the city, I love. The architecture of the buildings, the food. Transportation is not great. But it’s a great city. It’s a great city. New York is great.

Hidden gem? Toronto. Toronto is a fun city. It’s very cold during our season, but Toronto, if you catch it in spring summer, oh, man, it’s amazing. It’s a beautiful city to be in. People are amazing. Good sport atmosphere for sure. Toronto is a sleeper.

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My kids don’t get upset that I leave. They do get upset if I leave and I’m not playing. That bothers them. So, if I’m injured or something and I’m not playing, that bothers them now. They can’t watch that. But usually now it’s kind of crazy. Their routine is changing. So, from 8 o’clock [a.m.] till 3 [p.m.], they’re in school and I don’t see ’em throughout the day usually. We will go to practice and leave shortly after that …

When I tell them I’m leaving, they understand it and it’s always tough. But, man, I have some big boys, man. They love dad and they understand what dad does and that’s a fun thing. Nothing is better than that.

My wife now coaches my boys in soccer. It makes me nervous. I’ve never seen her coach, but I know that she gets very fired up in soccer. So, I just hope she’s coaching in the right way. But they’re young. So, whatever she’s been doing, I’m going to just go ahead and let her do it. We take wins in our household any way we can get ’em, but I’m excited for it. Hopefully next week I can catch a game.

[Black History Month is] always fun. It’s always superuplifting this time of year when February is coming around. It just brings a smile on my face. And I love the fact that everybody recognizes our history. Our history is American history. And I’m just beyond proud of how we’re constantly growing it.

We still got some things to improve as a nation, as a world. But I think we do a really good job of just acknowledging our Black heroes and our Black culture and trying to put it on the forefront. I wish we had a [longer] month, but we make the most of it.