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Bradley Beal revealed on the “All The Smoke” podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that he was nearly traded for James Harden on the night of the 2012 NBA Draft.
Of course, Beal was ultimately chosen with the third overall pick by the Washington Wizards. Ahead of the draft, Beal only worked out for three teams since he was projected to be a top-five pick but he was surprised to learn he nearly ended up with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Beal said the Thunder were interested in moving up to take him and were prepared to trade Harden in order to acquire him with a deal potentially coming together at the last minute.
We’re sitting in the draft room, sure enough, my agent is tapping me, he’s like, ‘It’s possible you might go to OKC.’ I said, ‘Damn, how am I going to go there, I ain’t worked out for OKC?’ I only worked out for three teams — Washington, Cleveland and Charlotte. That’s when Harden was still in OKC. The deal was to trade James to Washington … OKC was going to trade up to two or three, get me, trade James to Washington for me. I would have been in OKC with K.D. and Russ. That was a last-minute decision. It was almost done.
The potential deal between the Thunder and Wizards did not come together and Harden was eventually traded to the Houston Rockets prior to the start of the 2012-13 season. Beal has stayed with the Wizards since then and has become a two-time NBA All-Star and one of the best players in the NBA.
Based on how the NBA has played out, the Thunder certainly would have been wise to find a way to make the deal work with the Wizards to acquire Beal on draft night. Hindsight is always 20/20 but a potential lineup of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Beal would have been quite a trio.
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