Wizards guard Bradley Beal on Marcin Gortat, above: “He’s black in my eyes. He has every character of a black guy. He’s just a jokester, he’s down to earth, humorous, that’s how he is. He’s just a natural comedian.” (Nick Wass/Associated Press)

On July 1, the first day of NBA free agency, Bradley Beal remembered an odd number coming up on his cellphone.

“Brad!”

“March?”

Marcin Gortat was calling from overseas with some very good news. The 6-foot-11, 240-pound center who was central to the Washington Wizards’ free agency plans had re-signed with a team and a town that came to embrace him last season. Now he was going to tell Beal why.

“Biggest thing that hit home with me is he actually called me from Poland this summer,” Beal said. “I was like, ‘Why in the world is March calling me?’ He says, ‘I’m in Poland with Coach [Randy Wittman].’ He said he did it because he really wanted to play with me and John. It was great just knowing that, knowing what kind of guy he is and how big an asset he is, that he wanted to play with us.”

The Post Sports Live crew analyzes the talent in the Eastern Conference and debates where the Wizards rank. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

Last week at Verizon Center, Gortat strutted out of the locker room after a 21-and-11 night against the Lakers, another double-figure evening in points and rebounds the Wizards have come to expect from the self-anointed “Polish Hammer,” “Polish Machine,” whatever works in that moment.

He wore Italian argyle wool, form-fitted, and when Beal’s family members affectionately commented on his stylish get-up — “You’re clowning guys right now,” one of his younger brothers said — Gortat shot back in mock seriousness, “The way you dress is the way you play.”

All four of them laughed with Gortat, who in a little more than a year with Washington has formed relationships that go much deeper than merely on the floor.

“He’s black in my eyes,” Beal said last week after practice. “He has every character of a black guy. He’s just a jokester. He’s down to earth, humorous. That’s how he is. He’s just a natural comedian.”

“I mean, one, he calls himself the Polish Hammer. That’s comedy in itself.”

Gortat: “Sometimes, I think it’s the way I carry myself, talk, make jokes. I think I have something from African American inside me. There is some kind of a black soul inside me that is fooling around with these guys and doing the same stuff they doing. Maybe they see some of that.”

He is 30 years old, in the first year of a five-year, $60 million deal. He is an anchor in the middle, Nene insurance in case the Brazilian center winds up on the injury list again. Even the nights he misses inside, he has the metabolism of a squirrel and he’s as tireless as a spinning instructor.

But it is “March” away from the game that has made him so indispensable to the best story in Washington sports right now — the 15-6 Wizards, their potential, their chemistry and all those eke-out victories in the final seconds lately.

Gortat is loud, proud, perpetually upbeat, his teammates say, the one guy who can always bring the Wizards up when they’re down. Introspective and a bit of a goofball off the court, all business on it, he has been made aware recently of all he brings to the table.

“The aura that’s around me, the positive energy around me, I guess, has influence on different people,” Gortat says.

Kevin Seraphin admits he wasn’t a big Gortat fan early on. The reserve big man from French Guiana wasn’t sure what to make of him last fall.

“To be completely honest with you, I don’t really like this guy last year,” Seraphin said. “He’s different. I think he was just guy who wanted to show off, a little arrogant. Not player on court but the guy himself.”

Then he got to know Gortat. They are now as close as anybody on the roster.

“Now he’s one of my guys,” Seraphin said. “He told me this summer I could get spot in rotation if I kept working out. He told me I could. He’s not the coach, but he told me if you working hard you can have a spot. ‘Don’t give up and think, oh, we have six big men.’ I didn’t. March made me think that way.”

Gortat says he got the charisma and his uber-positive outlook from his father, Janusz, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist as a light-heavyweight boxer for Poland. He says his entire existence is based on being happy about what he has because so many don’t have what he does.

When longtime Wizards employee Dolph Sand asked Gortat to fulfill a media request earlier this season, he responded: “What do you want me to do? I will do anything for you for paying me this much money.”

“Listen, you get paid $12 million a year, there is no way you can have a bad day,” Gortat said. “You can’t have a bad day. There is so many people having problems in the world. What it is your problem? Coming to practice and work out for two, three hours? Is this your problem?

“I mean, come on, man, let’s be honest. You know what I’m saying? There shouldn’t be any problems if you set up things in your private life and family environment the right way, then you don’t have problems with your team and your team is winning. . . . Life is beautiful. What else do you need?

Beginning as Dwight Howard’s backup in Orlando, his paychecks have steadily risen. “First year I made $400,000. Then $700,000, I think, was my second year. Then was $5-, $6-, $7-, $8-, $8 1/ 2 [million], I think, and now it’s more and more and more.”

On Nov. 15, a wire deposit of more than $1 million was transferred to his bank account. He had his contract set up for a dozen annual payments. It is still mind-blowing to him.

“It’s crazy, but again, I don’t see this money in life. It just sits in my account. Only thing I see is a house, a car. After I retire, maybe.”

No drama, all gratitude, a good mix of life and job, Gortat is a window into how good life is for the Wizards right now.

“He’s a better person off the court than on the court,” Beal says. “He’s always in great spirits. I think that’s what really helps this team. Sometimes when we’re down he finds a way to pick us up or help us relax with a joke. He’s always positive-minded guy. He says he wants to play with us. You know why that’s so flattering? Because deep down we really wanted to play with him.”

For more by Mike Wise, visit washingtonpost.com/wise.