It should be quite a birthday celebration for one young Bradley Beal tonight.
Not only will Beal get to celebrate his 19th birthday with family and friends tonight in New York, but he will also get a chance to shake hands with his new boss. That would be David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association.
The former Chaminade College Prep All-American will get to realize a lifelong dream when he gets selected as one of the top picks in tonight’s NBA Draft.
Beal will join other former St. Louis greats such as Jo Jo White, Steve Stipanovich, Anthony Bonner, Larry Hughes, Darius Miles and David Lee as NBA first-round picks.
The 6’4” Beal has been projected as a lottery pick since the beginning of his freshman season at Florida. However, his draft stock really went through the roof after several tremendous performances in the NCAA Tournament, where he led the Gators to the Elite Eight. He is rated as the top shooting guard in this year’s draft. He’s been most compared to Boston Celtics star Ray Allen and current New Orleans Hornets standout guard Eric Gordon.
Beal has been projected as high as the No. 2 pick by the Charlotte Bobcats. Many of the current NBA mock drafts have Beal going to the Washington Wizards with the No. 3 pick.
Whether its Charlotte, Washington, Cleveland, Portland, Sacramento or Golden State, that franchise is getting a top-shelf player as well as a first-class human being. He carried a 3.8 grade point average during his one year at Florida.
The NBA Draft will be televised on ESPN, beginning at 6 p.m.
