Bradley Beal was moving through the slowest time of his offseason in late June, spending much of his days assisting his then-pregnant girlfriend Kamiah, when he received not one but two phone calls from the Wizards' front office.

One was from team president Ernie Grunfeld, the other was from vice president of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard. Each had the same question.

The Wizards were about to pull the trigger on a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers to acquire shooting guard Austin Rivers. They didn't just want Beal's general thoughts, they sought his blessing.

This wasn't your ordinary check-in with an NBA star to gauge his opinion on a potential teammate.

Grunfeld and Sheppard were well-aware that Beal and Rivers were longstanding adversaries dating back to their days on the AAU circuit, and they weren't entirely sure how that dynamic would play out in the Wizards' locker room.

Beal signed off on the deal, and feels grateful they reached out.

"I was like 'yeah, I understand it. And I definitely appreciate you guys asking me first,'" Beal told NBC Sports Washington.

Rivers joining the Wizards has brought one of the most contentious and legendary AAU rivalries in recent memory to full circle. Both players are well past their differences, but the memories remain fresh.

Beal and Rivers recall years of being compared and pitted against each other. They were the two best guards in the 2011 high school class, each top five overall players on lists put out by ESPN and Rivals.

They played head-to-head twice in AAU while Beal was with the St. Louis Eagles and Rivers with Each One Teach One. The rubber match was set to take place at the Peach Jam, but their teams lost in the previous round, much to the dismay of AAU fans.

Rivers recalled the two times they squared off and, in particular, the raucous atmosphere when they played on ESPNU in the AAU Super Showcase in Orlando.

"[The game] was sold out, packed. Everybody would just wait for us to just catch the ball, do our move and every time the ball would go up everyone would be like 'yoop.' The whole crowd, that's what it was," Rivers said.

The other clash featured 37 points from Beal and 34 from Rivers, and it produced a famous mixtape that has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

Those battles became the stuff of legend in recruiting circles.

"I remember that there was always a debate about whether Beal or Rivers was the best guard in their class," Eric Bossi, national basketball analyst for Rivals.com, said.

"I wouldn't say they disliked each other, but I never got the impression they liked hearing about each other or being told which one was better because I'm pretty sure Brad thought he was the best and I'm just as sure Austin felt the same way about himself."

Beal and Rivers were often compared because of their similarities, but they saw their differences and dwelled on them. At the time, Beal viewed Rivers the way many opponents did and still do to this day.

"All of us, the AAU kids, we always hated Austin because we felt like he had an unfair advantage," Beal explained.

"Your dad, [Doc Rivers], was an NBA coach, you've been able to work out with Paul Pierce and [Kevin Garnett] and Ray Allen and all that. We felt like you had the upper hand. He had the NBA socks when we were playing. We were thinking about all of this stuff. You had access to all this stuff and we didn't. We were kind of envious of it. His game was like super far advanced from everybody else; his handle, his floater, everything. In a way, we were like 'man, this dude.' We were kind of jealous of him for a little bit."

"Everyone was coming at my neck because I had everything," Rivers said. "In high school, that s— was definitely a thing and then I became the No. 1 player, so I had the juice back then. S—, I've still got it."

Rivers feels he's been fighting that perception his entire life. Bring it up and his already-animated personality will take on new forms. His voice will raise, his delivery quickens and pent-up energy will release in rants and hand gestures.

"First of all, he wasn't around as much. Secondly, you had to earn everything," Rivers said of growing up as Doc's son.

"At the end of the day, any player talking s— is a hypocrite because that's the same thing their kids are gonna have. They're gonna have what I had growing up. Isn't that what you want? Isn't that why you work hard, so your kids can have everything? That's a bad thing that I come from a guy who worked his ass off in the South Side of Chicago?"

Though Doc indirectly played a role in the rivalry, he wasn't at the games Rivers played against Beal. The contrast in their families instead played out in other ways.

Rivers remembers parents of all AAU teams being just as competitive, if not more competitive than the players themselves. And Beal's mother, Besta Beal, was a very vocal supporter of her son and his team.

Rivers says his team also had one mom who often let her presence in the gym be known.

"Definitely, off the court, the parents did not like each other. All of them," he said.

Beal and Rivers' rivalry took on new life when they both happened to commit to the University of Florida coming out of high school. Beal was heading there from Missouri, while Rivers was planning to stay close to home in the state of Florida.

The situation resolved itself when Rivers revoked his commitment to attend Duke, but for a while, they faced the prospect of being college teammates.

"I think it got to the point where it was like 'there is no way, there is no way we can both be able to go to the same school.' We're one and two and something's gotta give," Beal said.

Both one-and-done players, Beal and Rivers never faced off in college. Though they have played against each other in the NBA, the intensity of their battles has died down. Enough time has passed for them to make amends and now even laugh at the irony of how life has brought them back together, this time as teammates.

"The first thing I thought when I got traded was 'damn, I'm playing with Brad?' All my friends were like 'yo, you're about to play with Brad,'" Rivers said.

"I would never have imagined we would be on the same team. It's amazing," Beal said.

The two are former enemies turned allies, and as luck would have it, they are set up to have a symbiotic relationship on the Wizards. Beal has long needed help behind him with a capable shooting guard off the bench, someone who can lessen his workload and take pressure off him at the position.

In Rivers, that guy may have finally arrived.

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