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Once again, three-time NBA All-Star Bradley Beal experienced a disrupted season due to injuries. The LA Clippers announced that Beal will have season-ending surgery to heal a fractured left hip. Although Beal played in only 106 out of a possible 164 games the previous two seasons with the Phoenix Suns, Beal’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, told Essentially Sports that the Clippers’ medical staff and outside doctors didn’t find any relationship between his latest ailment to his previous injuries. ADVERTISEMENT The Clippers limited Beal during training camp and on a minutes restriction while he built strength after having a right knee scope last May. But Beal’s latest injury happened during Saturday’s home loss to the Phoenix Suns. Amid those limitations on a new team, the 32-year-old Beal averaged career lows in points (8.2), rebounds (.8), and minutes played (20.2) in six games during his 14 season. After negotiating a buyout with the Suns last summer, Beal joined the Clippers on a two-year, $11 million deal with a player option in his second year. Despite Beal’s latest injury, Bartelstein remained bullish about his future. “Brad is an incredible talent, who’s got an amazing work ethic and incredible care factor,” Bartelstein told Essentially Sports. “We’re going to work really hard in rehab. I don’t have any doubt that he’ll be back at a very high level.” ADVERTISEMENT Bartelstein spoke with Essentially Sports about Beal’s injury, his appreciation for the Clippers’ medical staff, and his outlook on his recovery. Editor’s note: The following one-on-one interview has been edited and condensed. ADVERTISEMENT Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports Sorry about the news. How are you and Brad unpacking all of this? Bartelstein: “It’s devastating for him. He’s put so much work into his body and recovered from the scope this past summer. He was actually going to have his minutes restriction lifted. So everything was trending in the right direction. He was going to be able to get back to play his normal minutes. Then to have this happen is devastating. There’s no way around it. But the good news is that he’ll have a full recovery. It’s going to take a while, just as it takes a while for these fractures to heal. But talking with all the doctors, he’s going to have a full recovery. He should do great with the surgery. We got to put all of our energy and focus toward the rehab, which is what we’re going to do.” ADVERTISEMENT How did the doctors and team staff conclude that surgery is the best option as opposed to any alternative that could theoretically keep him available at some point this season? Bartelstein: “We looked into it. The Clippers have been awesome. Maggie Bryant and Dr. [Steve] Yoon have been awesome in collaborating with me and a number of different doctors around the country. The more conversations we had, it became clearer that this was really the only route to go with the goal of getting him back to 100%. Doing this would ensure that. That’s why you do your work and do your due diligence. You have lots of conversations and you talk to the very best people out there to get their opinions. By doing that, we came to this decision.” To what degree did they determine this injury had any relation to any of the injuries that Brad had last season? ADVERTISEMENT Bartelstein: “That completely has nothing to do with it. He went for a lunge on a steal and just took a bad step. The compression of that step caused a fracture in his hip. It has nothing to do with anything else.” So you didn’t get any feedback that Brad was dealing with other things to open the season? He was fully healed by that point? Bartelstein: “He had his knee scoped in the offseason. The Clippers have an amazing medical group and are very conservative. Their goal is to win the long game, not the short game. They were just taking the time with building up the strength. So that he could handle all the minutes that Brad would want to play. So he was doing great with that with building it up. He was literally going to have his minutes restriction lifted this week. This injury is completely unique with taking a bad step in a game. That can happen to anyone. It has nothing to do with anything he was dealing with, other than getting the strength back in his legs.” I’m aware this is a season-ending surgery. But did they walk you through the next steps on when they think he could start rehab? Bartelstein: “It’s a fracture. You got to let the fracture heal. Once the fracture heals, then he’ll start the rehab process.” This is tough news. But what perspective do you have on how Brad felt about playing with the Clippers so far? Bartelstein: “It’s an awesome organization. Everybody in the organization pours everything they have into the players. I deal unfortunately in my world with injuries all the time. This happens on a daily occurrence in the NBA and the NFL. So we deal with injuries constantly. But the care of the Clippers’ medical staff, their attention to detail and how purposeful they are in putting the players’ interest first and foremost has been as elite as it can possibly be. So, everything about Brad’s experience with the Clippers has been awesome, other than obviously, he had the minutes restriction to start the season. That is very frustrating. But they were doing that for his own good. And to have it finally get lifted and now have this happen, it’s devastating. But in terms of the way the Clippers have handled their business and the way they treated him and his family, it’s nothing but five stars all the way around.” Given you expect a full recovery, what are Brad’s hopes and expectations for next season? Bartelstein: “He wants to have a great year, the same thing as it was for this year. We just got to get him back healthy. Brad is an incredible talent, who’s got an amazing work ethic and incredible care factor. We’re going to work really hard in rehab. I don’t have any doubt that he’ll be back at a very high level.” What’s your optimism that you’ll have a lot of interest from teams? Bartelstein: “He’s a terrific player. But we’re not worried about that right now. Right now, we’re putting our focus on getting healthy. We’re going to do that in concert with the Clippers.” Understood. To cover my bases, what else do you think is important to address about Brad and his injury that we didn’t already cover? Bartelstein: “I think the main thing I want to get across is that the Clippers have done an awesome job here collaborating with us. It’s a devastating thing for Brad. He was so looking forward to this season with getting the minutes restriction lifted and being himself out there. To have this happen isn’t fun. But he’s so strong-minded and he’s incredibly competitive. He’s going to work his tail off. We’re going to get ready for next year.”
