Advertisement

The Washington Wizards briefly place 19-year-old rookie Bradley Beal in a team-sponsored beer ad

Kelly Dwyer

With star guard John Wall out for an extended period of time and the team's fortunes not exactly on the up and up, the Washington Wizards will have to scrounge and hype their way into bringing the fair weather fans into the home arena this season. Or, more specifically, they're going to have to attempt to loosen up those potential fans with macro-brewed pilsners before a random Saturday early season contest. The most recent plan involves a solid deal -- $25 buys you a ticket, and $2 Budweiser bottles at participating Wizards-helpin' locations hopefully situated real close to the Verizon Center.

One problem, sort of. The promotional company that put together the ads trumping up the Game 2 pub crawl, left with paucity of Wizards stars due to injuries to Wall and center Nene, placed Bradley Beal on its online ad. Beal, a rookie, is only 19 years old; and Americans that age can't legally enjoy a $2 Budweiser unless they have a really cool uncle or an older girlfriend from Canada. Wizards beat writer extraordinaire Michael Lee first noticed the iffy pairing, and Washington Post scribe Sarah Kogod dug in to research from there:

I reached out to the team to ask about the decision to use Beal. In this case, the ad was created by TiqIQ, who partners with the team on ticket promotions and who placed that particular ad on our site. There was an oversight in the approval process between the team and the ticket company, which led to the unfortunate placement.

I suppose the ad, since removed, is kind of "unfortunate," but it's also what happens when you don't really want to amp up the Bud-drinkin' brahs with an image of Emeka Okafor's steady low-post presence of Jan Vesely's looming potential. Beal was the team's lottery selection last June, he's an exciting off guard with significant touch and hops and yes, we admit it, we have beer on our mind right now and it's hard to get the suds out of our heads and away from our descriptive terms.

[More NBA: Chris Paul grew tired of waiting for Dwight Howard]

It's far from the worst thing in the world, and certainly understandable — Beal's probably the most entertaining thing in a Wizards uniform that will take to the court on Saturday, and the ad wizards behind this one probably weren't obsessing over age appropriateness when pouring over pictures of a sturdy 6-4, 207-pound NBA pro. Still, he's the only guy on the Wizards roster that is not of legal age to drink, and TiqIQ still went with Bradley.

I'd have gone with Kevin Seraphin, frankly. Recreational snake use and 5 percent-alcohol beer, for two bucks a pop, go hand in hand. If you really know how to party, that is.

Fantasy football advice on Yahoo! Sports:

Other popular content on the Yahoo! network:
• James Harden-Jeremy Lin looking like NBA's best backcourt
• Fantasy video: Eagles QB Michael Vick poised to break out in Week 9
• The most celebrated technical foul in college hoops (video)
• Y! Finance: Familiar name tops America's most dangerous city list