The Washington Wizards superstar Bradley Beal opened up on his decision to choose Florida over Kansas for his collegiate career. He revealed that his mom’s preferred destination was Kansas, but he instead chose to play in Florida.
Beal’s mother was so upset that she didn’t talk to him for two months, despite living in the same house. Here’s what Beal said on Showtime’s All the Smoke podcast, per Bleacher Report.
“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,'” Beal said (18:58 mark). “She wanted me to go to Kansas. 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.
I’m on the stand, I said, ‘I’m going to the University of Florida.’ 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.”
Despite Beal didn’t follow her instructions in order to be closer to home, the Wizards’ guard noted she didn’t miss a game of him in the one season he played in Florida under Billy Donovan.
“She never missed any of my games, from grade school all the way through high school. 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. Kansas is cold as hell, it’s four hours away, it’s too close. I said, ‘I just can’t do it,” Beal continued.
