If you thought the NBA offseason was wild, Bradley Beal just gave it the plot twist of the summer. The man didn’t just switch teams—he escaped a situation that had more red flags than a clearance sale. And thanks to some family business that sounds straight out of a sitcom, we’ve now got the full picture.

Let’s kick this off with Mark Bartelstein, Beal’s agent, who casually revealed that Suns owner Mat Ishbia was, well… kinda over it. “Matt Ishbia was frustrated with the team. He wanted to kind of rebuild it and potentially go in a different direction,” Bartelstein said. Basically, Mat realized spending half a billion dollars for a team that couldn’t win a playoff game was the NBA equivalent of buying a sports car and never leaving the garage.

And Beal? He wasn’t feeling the vibes either. Mark continued, “We wanted to make sure that Brad could get back to being in a position where he could be the best version of himself.” So they started cooking up options—either find a trade or consider the NBA’s most awkward breakup: a buyout.

Turns out, those conversations had been marinating since literally the end of the season. But things really heated up when the Suns traded Kevin Durant to Houston. The Beal era was entering its third act… and it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster hit.

The three-step Bradley Beal exit

New head coach Jordan Ott tried his best sales pitch on Bradley Beal, fresh off a season where Beal’s usage rate dropped lower than your phone battery on a Zoom call. Ott presented Beal with a game plan, but the writing was on the wall. After chats with Mark Bartelstein, Beal knew it was time to pack his bags. “We couldn’t take the chance [of another lost year],” Mark admitted. “This decision was about basketball. Bradley wants to play in big games and in big moments.”

On June 22, KD headed to Houston, and the Suns picked up Jalen Green, who Phoenix now sees as Devin Booker’s shiny new backcourt buddy. The Suns even tried a deal with Minnesota involving Rudy Gobert and Donte DiVincenzo, but Durant wasn’t having it. After that fell through, Beal and Bartelstein got the green light to explore other teams. Over 20 teams showed interest, and Beal even took Zoom calls with six of them.

The real game-changer came when the Clippers dealt Norman Powell to Miami and suddenly had a starting spot open. Owner Steve Ballmer, head coach Ty Lue, and even James Harden got in on the pitch. Harden reportedly lobbied both the Clippers’ front office and Beal himself—talk about the NBA version of “phone a friend.” Harden even had a chat with Mark Bartelstein, which is about as common as a unicorn sighting in pro sports.

Mark later said, “No one wants to be released. There’s heartache with that. But Bradley wants to be in a position where no one remembers he got released, that they’ll remember how he plays next season.” That’s some all-time agent wisdom right there.

But wait, it gets better. You know those family BBQ jokes about mixing business with pleasure? The Bartelsteins lived it. Mark, representing Beal, finalized a $99 million buyout with… his own son, Josh Bartelstein, CEO of the Suns. And just to keep the sitcom energy alive, they wrapped up the deal right before Josh’s 36th birthday and his sister’s wedding weekend. As Josh told ESPN, “Yeah, there’s going to be some jokes when I get the mic. My mom and grandmas are going to love it.”

So why did the Suns waive and stretch Beal, knowing they’d be eating $99 million over five years? Simple math. It saved them $175 million in luxury tax this season alone—enough to buy a small country or at least a lifetime supply of courtside tickets.

Yes, it’ll cost them $20 million per year until 2030, but compared to the $210 million they dodged this year alone, it was a deal Ishbia could stomach. And hey, Jalen Green looked like a decent prize for the Suns’ reset button. Oh, and the buyout almost hit a snag when Beal only agreed to leave $13.9 million on the table—the absolute minimum required. Mark Bartelstein called it out, “There were some intense conversations.” No kidding.

In the end, Bradley Beal joined the Clippers on a $5.3 million deal, less than what some stars spend on wristwatches. With a player option next summer, Beal’s betting on himself to bounce back. The Clippers, meanwhile, turned Norman Powell and some midlevel exception cash into Brook Lopez, John Collins, and Bradley Beal. Not a bad haul for a team trying to make one last run with Kawhi Leonard and Harden both eyeing big seasons.

So yeah, this saga had everything—family business deals, awkward agent-player-owner talks, and NBA stars playing recruiter like LinkedIn power users. But in the end, Bradley Beal got his fresh start, the Suns got their financial breathing room, and we got the NBA drama we didn’t know we needed.

And somewhere, at that Bartelstein family wedding, you just know someone’s making a toast that starts with, “So about that $99 million buyout…”