If you watched President Obama's announcement at the White House on Tuesday, you may have noticed two familiar faces in the crowd: Bradley Beal and Alan Anderson of the Washington Wizards.
Hey, Wizards at the WH alert!!! NBA at the background check announcement. Beal and Anderson in the building pic.twitter.com/PDUF1YXTUM
— DavidDunn (@ImDavidDunn) January 5, 2016
To give you some idea of where they were, here's a wide shot of the crowd via the official White House feed of the announcement:
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Their presence at the announcement comes in the wake of the NBA's recent ads encouraging an end to gun violence, and it appears they were invited to represent the league at the event.
The #Wizards say The White House invited Beal and Anderson as NBA reps. They were sitting front row.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgeccastillo) January 5, 2016
Beal and Anderson were likely the ones picked because the Wizards play nearby, and both players would not have been able to participate at team practice, which was scheduled at noon, due to their current injuries. But clearly, both wanted to be part of the announcement:
Anderson and Beal said they accepted invite to WH w/o hesitation because they stand strongly with President Obama’s stance on gun control.
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgeccastillo) January 5, 2016
Anderson and Beal said the President's speech was exceptionally powerful in person. Carried a weight you can't get from home.
— Todd Dybas (@Todd_Dybas) January 5, 2016