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Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards have played with a bit of a chip on their shoulders since the NBA All-Star Break. A major reason why is because Beal was not named to the All-Star Game this year. And many NBA All-Stars believed he was a big snub, though Charles Barkley begs to differ.
And now, we can add another set of snubs for Beal and the Wizards to feel slighted about. NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week awards.
Last week, between Feb. 24 and Mar. 1, Beal averaged 40.25 points and 6.5 assists per game, including his career-high 55 point game against the Bucks in a 137-134 loss last Monday. In most circumstances, Beal would have won the Player of the Week award.
Except that he didn’t. He lost that award to Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the win against Washington. He ultimately averaged 28.5 points, 14 rebounds and 5.5 assists in the same time period. Furthermore, Milwaukee won all four games. Washington was only 2-2.
Fred Katz of The Athletic wrote on Twitter yesterday that Beal wasn’t just snubbed for the award. He also wasn’t even in consideration to be Player of the Week!
Wanna see me ignite Wizards twitter? Watch this...
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) March 2, 2020
Bradley Beal, who averaged 40-7-4 on 50-54-85 shooting this week, was not a nominee. https://t.co/1GRLQ9pLCU
To me, I don’t think Beal deserved to win the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award since Antetokounmpo posted equally impressive numbers last week. But for Beal to not even be in consideration? That’s tough to take, especially since he hasn’t won the award yet this season despite his big numbers.
Beal hasn’t been the Eastern Conference Player of the Week since March 18, 2019. Maybe things will change soon as the regular season starts coming to a close.