Before his signature band-aid became a symbol of pop culture in the early 2000s, Nelly, the rapper from St. Louis and part owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, would apparently walk Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal to his elementary school.
This is one of those weird stories where two people you'd never guess knew each other actually have an interesting history.
Per The Washington Post:
Nelly was a former star athlete at University City High in suburban St. Louis, where Beal’s mother, Besta, was a physical education teacher and athletic director. So, Beal can’t remember the first time he met Nelly, only that it was “ages ago.”
“I knew who we was, but I didn’t know,” Beal said of the now 39-year-old Nelly. “He used to walk me to school sometimes, when I was a little kid. He wasn’t as big as he is now, but he was an up-and-coming rapper and eventually ‘Country Grammar’ came out” in 2000.
Nelly was in attendance for Tuesday's game between the Bobcats and the Wizards, and it was the first time Beal could remember Nelly watching him play.
"Yeah, I needed him to be able to show up to games," Beal jokes. "But nah, I just stayed with it. My teammates did a great job of setting me up. And I was shooting the ball with a lot of confidence and was fortunate to get a couple to fall."
There was an even a little bit of heckling from the rapper as Beal dropped 21 points on 10-of-18 shooting.
"He was telling me, 'Don't do 'em like that,'" Beal said. "It was cool. He owns a little bit of the Bobcats, so I was like, I couldn't really say too much. Couldn't shake his hand, but it was definitely cool."
