Bradley Beal voices opposition to Wizards’ proposed move out of D.C.

After hearing the news that owner Ted Leonsis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have plans to move the Wizards out of the D.C. area, Bradley Beal has decided to speak up in opposition.

The plan proposed by the Wizards owner and Virgina’s governor would move the arena to a multi-billion-dollar sports and entertainment complex that would be located on the other side of the Potomac River. The massive project is expected to break ground in 2025.

Beal, who played for the Wizards for the first 11 seasons of his career before moving to Phoenix over this past offseason, expressed his disgust with the plan.

“There is no moving to Virginia. What is that, [Wizards owner] Ted [Leonsis]? We love you to death. We understand what you want to do and are trying to do. But you can’t take the team out of D.C. It’s Chocolate City. As a league, we need it. It has to stay in D.C. now. The money? Listen, it’s out of my hands and out of my control. I ain’t got nothing to do with that. Hopefully [Washington] mayor [Muriel] Bowser can work something out with you.”

This comes as no surprise, as Beal was a centerpiece of the Wizards for over a decade. When playing in Washington, he attended three All-Star games and was also named to the All-NBA team once.

Beal explained further to Marc J. Spears of Andscape, “I hope the team stays. It’s good for the city. It creates a little bit of a problem, just my personal opinion, if it moves to Virginia.”

The Wizards have played inside the Capital One Arena since 1997.