This a neat story coming out of the Washington Post.
Most of us know Nelly as the famous rapper who put St. Louis on the map, but to Washington Wizards second year guard Bradley Beal, the rapper is simply Cornell to him.
According to the Post, Beal and Nelly go back far enough where the smooth shooting guard can remember the Grammy Award winning rapper walking him to grade school.
Most know him as Nelly, platinum-selling rapper and part owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Bradley Beal also knows him as Cornell Haynes, the family friend who would occasionally walk him to elementary school before hitting it big.
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 wasn’t as big as he is now, but he was an up-and-coming rapper and eventually ‘Country Grammar’ came out” in 2000.
Beal admitted that his goal in high school was to get the now world famous rapper to show up at his games.
“Yeah, I needed him to be able to show up to games,” Beal said with a laugh, when asked about Nelly