Wizards' Bradley Beal: I'm Patient, But There Comes a Time to Draw a Line in the Sand

Bradley Beal's patience with the Washington Wizards may be wearing thin.

Beal revealed there is a limit to his willingness to wait for the Wizards to build a winner around him, telling Marc J. Spears of Andscape:

"I'm patient, but there comes a time where you have to be a little selfish and draw a line in the sand, for sure. So, I have thoughts in my head but at the same time I stay in the moment. I stay engaged with what we have and what we do and don't get caught up in noise and just go from there, take it a day at a time, control what I can control."

Beal has spent each of his 11 NBA seasons with the Wizards and signed a five-year, $251 million contract with the franchise last summer. His re-signing in Washington came after years of speculation about his long-term status as the team failed to surround him with talent to compete for a title. The Wizards have missed the playoffs in three of the last four years and have never gotten past the second round with Beal on the roster.

Beal says he feels a kinship with players such as Stephen Curry and particularly Damian Lillard, who chose to stick with the Portland Trail Blazers despite their struggles to build a winning roster.

Beal told Spears:

"We all think the same. It's just our commitment to want to win where we're at, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. We're just trusting the organizations that drafted us. They put that trust in us. They continue to invest in us, and we're just trying to pay that back. We're trying to give them our all that we possibly can, and I love it, man. I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. I take pride in that."

Washington is 28-30 coming out of the All-Star break, sitting in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards seem like a strong bet to at least earn a play-in berth, but peaking on a team that will be lucky to earn a first-round playoff exit isn't likely Beal's dream scenario.

Now that he has $250 million guaranteed on his contract, Beal could eventually wind up angling for an exit to a contender.

For now, though, Washington seems to still have his patience.