Beal was shocked when he heard he was leading in All-Star fan voting originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Bradley Beal had grown accustomed to being snubbed in NBA All-Star fan voting, having previously never placed higher than ninth among guards in the East, including last year when he led the conference in scoring. So, you can imagine what was going through his head when the first round of All-Star vote results were released earlier this month.
Like many Wizards fans were, he was very surprised to be in first.
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"I was completely thrown off by it. I was thrown off, shocked; whatever synonym you want to use. It’s just crazy. I don’t even know if I reached a million votes last year. I surpassed that the first go-around," Beal said.
"That was remarkable. But it’s a testament to the work I put in and staying me and constantly just trusting myself and believing in myself."
Beal was named an All-Star starter on Thursday night for the first time in his career. He swept all three categories of votes: fans, players and the media.
Beal ended up with 3,485,051 votes from fans after receiving only 805,276 last year. Only LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid got more total fan votes than Beal among this year's All-Stars.
Beal's 3.5 million votes were more than he received in the rest of his career combined.
"It’s kind of a popularity league and I guess I’m becoming popular," Beal said.
Beal, though, isn't exactly sure why he is suddenly exponentially more popular among fans and other voters. He has some theories, but none he is entirely sure of.
"I have no idea. Part of me wants to say it’s all the trade rumors, but I don’t know. I don’t know. I guess from me being snubbed last year to now, I think my name has just always kind of been buzzing around," Beal said.
"Granted, I’ve had a fortunate first half of the year. I guess people are just recognizing it more. It’s not like we’re on [national] TV more. It’s not like anything has changed for me from last year to this year. I don’t know."
No matter the reason, Beal is going to be an All-Star starter and just the sixth player in Wizards/Bullets franchise history to get the honor. Not bad for a guy who one year ago was considered an all-time snub.
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