The NBA released their 2024-25 schedule Thursday, and the Phoenix Suns featured heavily. Not only will they be on national television screens twice during an exciting Opening Week, but they will also have to contend with playing one superstar four times in the month of October.
After the summer heroics of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant with Team USA in Paris - both instrumental in that gold medal win - it should come as no surprise that fans will want to watch them as often as possible. Durant looking as good as ever, while Booker proved he belongs out there with the best of the best.
Don't forget about Bradley Beal though, their third star who just did the Washington Wizards a solid.
Beal was limited to just 53 regular season games in his first campaign in The Valley, and it would be fair to say he is no longer the draw he once was. Now 31-years-old, the next generation of exciting superstars have ensured that never again will Beal be an All-Star.
His former team in the Wizards are also going nowhere fast, and will once again be fighting it out at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. As a result of employing both Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma, you're more likely to catch this team on TikTok than anywhere else on a given night. Credit to their front office though, they're making moves to try and get better.
Beal has chipped in with one, final parting gift over a year after leaving Washington too, as the Suns and Wizards are due to meet in a nationally televised game on January 16th. What's the signifigance of that? Well - if you take out NBA TV games which also fall under the national television umbrella even though it's just not the same - then this is the only time casual fans will see the Wizards.
Clearly the league thinks Beal going back to most likely beat down on his former team is worth tuning in for, although it's not likely to be the same as LeBron James going back to Cleveland that first year with the Miami Heat, and absolutely obliterating the Cavaliers. Maybe they believe Beal is going to get an extreme reaction, either positive or negative.
But if you take a look arounds Wizards X (we did this so you don't have to), you'll notice that there's a general feeling of meh towards Beal. He was there, now he's gone, he'll get a nice tribute video and everybody will move on with their lives. It could be a long time before a casual fan sees these Wizards again though, so they better make use of this air time.