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NBA All-Star 2021: Bradley Beal is having his “easiest” weekend before playing in today’s game

The Washington Wizards guard doesn’t have to do much this year due to the scaled back nature of the All-Star Game.

By Albert Lee

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Bradley Beal Twitter

The NBA All-Star Game is later tonight at 8 p.m. ET. In most games, players would be doing community service, holding practice and chatting with the media. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, the league is not holding charity events like it historically has.

Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal will be playing tonight. In a press conference on Sunday, he noted that this weekend was going to be easier than past All-Star Weekends, because his primary duty is just to play one game. Okay: he likes this All-Star Weekend the most.

And from time to time, he gets a question asking what part of his game makes him an All-Star. Beal responded with his scoring.

If I were him, I wouldn’t have been so nice. I’d say “THE NBA ELECTORAL COLLEGE CERTIFIED MY ELECTION, DAMN IT!” And in Beal’s case, he won the fan vote, the player vote AND the media vote, so he’s an all-around deserving candidate.

(That I want next year’s All-Star starting lineups to be solely based on fan vote just like it always has until recently. I miss voting for Ian Mahinmi just because of my fandom.)

Still, there are going to be some perks of being an All-Star. Players will likely get some gifts with sponsorships. Beal was no different when he showed a custom hotel All-Star robe, sponsored by Hotels.com, a booking site owned by Expedia.

So you know, Hotels.com nor Expedia are paying me for this article but one of their PR reps emailed me.

Beal also shared that he will give away the robe which he will autograph to a fan who replies to his tweet with an All-Star Game prediction between Sunday Mar. 7 at 10 a.m. ET through Thursday Mar. 11 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Yes, I read the legalese.

You can make a prediction AFTER the All-Star Game. Rules can change at a moment’s notice, so I’m saying.

I don’t know how that’s going to work, but my guess is that you can predict that Beal will be traded to another team, which seems to be the “cool thing to do” around the NBA — unless you’re a Wizards fan of course.

Anyway, a winner will be selected on Friday, Mar. 12 via Twitter DM by random.

If signing a sponsored robe is the biggest of Beal’s responsibilities this weekend, I can definitely see why this is his favorite All-Star experience by far, beside being a starter for the first time of course.