Wizards star Bradley Beal won't participate when the NBA's 2019-20 resumes in Orlando due because of an injury to his right rotator cuff.
“This was a difficult decision and one that I did not take lightly as the leader of this team,” Beal said Tuesday in a statement.
Beal won't head down to Orlando with the rest of the team, due to arrive Tuesday for the special season. But he said he looks forward to returning next season.
Beal first noticed the injury early in the reason. He's been working with team doctors to manage the injury, but his symptoms worsened while the season was on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Wizards said in a statement.
Wizards General Manager Tommy Sheppard said that the team wasn't comfortable risking further injury and Beal wasn't ready to perform at the extremely high level fans are used to seeing.
Before the latter part of the season was postponed in March, Beal was averaging 30.5 points per game. Weeks before, he had played back-to-back nights where he scored 50 points in a game, an accomplishment last met by Kobe Bryant in 2007, the Wizards say.
