“Was Like A Slap In The Face To Her”: Bradley Beal Reveals That His Mother Didn’t Speak To Him For Two Months Over A College Decision

As players tend to appear on more podcast episodes during this self-quarantine period, we get to discover a lot of interesting stories from their lives. In an episode of ‘All the Smoke’ podcast, Bradley Beal revealed that he and his mother gave each other the silent treatment for about 2 months before he attended college. 

Beal was extremely talented as a high-schooler and had quite a number of college options to choose from. However, Beal revealed that he committed to the University of Florida as early as his sophomore year. Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan got the assurance from Beal that he would join the team after his senior year. 

However, this remained a secret between the two. Beal didn’t mention a word about it to his mother or father or anybody else. It all came down in his senior year where he had to pick between five universities that included Florida. Beal’s mother had her choice as to where he should attend college. 

“I’m on the stand. I’ve got all my hats in front of me…so I’m giving my speech and I’m looking at moms and she’s like, ‘Boy, you better say the right school.’ She wanted me to go to Kansas,” Beal revealed on the podcast. Kansas is four hours from St. Louis—right down the street. Me, I wanted to get the hell away from St. Louis. I wanted to be as far away as I could possibly go and be on my own.

The reason why Bradley Beal angered his mom over a college decision

Having all these caps in front of him, only he knew that his commitment was to go play for the Florida Gators. His parents had no idea. “I’m on the stand, I said, ‘I’m going to the University of Florida,’” Beal continued. “She got up, walked out, didn’t say nothin’, didn’t clap. I didn’t talk to her for two months. Living in the same house.”

As she got up and walked off, her actions surprised Bradley Beal. The reason being that Beal’s mother was his number one fan since his early days of playing basketball. Knowing that she had to live miles away from her son struck an emotional chord inside her. “She never missed any of my games, from grade school all the way through high school, Beal said. She was at every single game, so for me to go 18 hours away was like a slap in the face to her. Even if I went to Duke, that was 14 and she was like, ‘Damn, that’s too far.’

After this incident, the two-time NBA All-Star never really engaged in conversations with his mother for two months while living under the same roof. She was so emotionally dismantled that she ignored her son’s apologies. However, the mom and son duo reconciled with a little help from Beal’s father and his two older brothers. 

Bradley Beal wanted to go as far away as possible after his high-school graduation. On the other hand, his mother didn’t want him to live 18 hours away from her. But, at the end of the day, Beal made his views clear and asked his mom to “let the bird fly,” and so she did. She let Beal join Florida, and the rest is history as the Washington Wizards star exclaimed in the podcast episode.