SAN FRANCISCO — Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal called out Kent Bazemore on Twitter Monday night after the Golden State Warriors swingman appeared to take a shot at Beal while weighing in on Stephen Curry‘s place atop the NBA scoring race.
During Monday’s shootaround, Bazemore, a close friend of Curry’s, praised his teammate’s ability to remain humble no matter how many accolades come his way.
“49 points in 29 minutes, though, that’s unreal,” Bazemore said, referring to Curry’s output in a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night. “Then we got guys hurting hamstrings, trying to keep up. So — ya’ll gotta do some research on that.”
On the same night Curry scored 49, Beal finished with 50 points in Washington’s overtime win over the Indiana Pacers hours earlier. Beal sat out the end of regulation and overtime, however, after straining his hamstring in the second half.
Beal, who missed Monday’s game and is also out Wednesday because of the hamstring injury, took exception to Bazemore’s apparent dig and voiced his frustration in a series of tweets.
“You don’t know why I go out there and play and it damn sure ain’t for another man’s approval!!!” Beal wrote in a tweet directed at Bazemore. “You a straight LAME!!! But it don’t surprise me coming from you, thats what’s yo type do!!”
He continued, “it’s funny you say that because ya mans admittedly checked my numbers before the game, but IM CHASING!!!”
Beal concluded his Twitter thread with a GIF of a clown.
@24Bazemore 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/deRpNP4xcK
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) May 11, 2021
Curry is currently averaging a league-leading 31.9 points per game, with Beal close behind at 31.4 PPG.
While Beal was taking aim at Bazemore, the Warriors guard was in the midst of one of his best games of the season. He finished with 19 points in 34 minutes as Golden State beat the Utah Jazz 119-116.