John Wall misses 2019-20 due to achilles injury. Update: Wall scrimmaging 5v5 and shooting

mastermind

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Michael Lee story
To fans of Washington’s professional basketball team, John Wall is the latest symbol of the bad luck that always seems to cut in whenever they dance briefly with what appears to be good fortune. To the petty, he’s now nothing more than a bad contract, an immovable salary cap albatross handicapping the foreseeable future for the Wizards. To those who know him, Wall is a scrapper in for a fight that will test his character like never before.

It’s a shame what becomes of the discussion whenever a player on a guaranteed, long-term contract suffers a career-threatening or potentially debilitating injury. Rarely is the humanity of that individual invoked. Rarely is that pain viewed in the prism of more relatable suffering. The cold, often callous world of professional sports doesn’t allow for perspective that doesn’t involve speculation, trade scenarios and financial implications. Enough of that will be ingested over the next few weeks, months, even years.

But for a moment, take a step back and consider what Wall must be going through after learning that the left heel injury that he either stupidly or stubbornly played through until it ended this season became a ruptured Achilles’ tendon that could potentially take away next season as well. This is supposed to be Wall’s prime, a time when he maximizes all that his physical gifts and years of knowledge accrued through NBA experience are supposed to yield. If the recovery goes well, without any major setbacks, the next time Wall plays, he’ll be 29 and facing the possibility that his best basketball is behind him.

Wall didn’t Dougie onto the scene as a much-hyped No. 1 overall pick in 2010 to be average. He wanted to be great, to be the best, and he charted every slight from anyone who refused to acknowledge his progress in that trajectory. That eternal chip drove him but also worked to his detriment because he could never be satisfied with what his talents afforded him — always pushing for that next endorsement deal, that next signature shoe, that next-level praise to which he felt entitled. Blinded by those pursuits, Wall was captured by the same traps that have deterred many before him. Along with the coddling of an organization that overlooked some of his flaws, they stunted him from fully maturing into the leader the franchise has needed him to be.

Injuries have now done him in, sending Wall’s career into what-could’ve-been territory. He’s not done, but the Wizards’ plans to continue building around him are now in the past. For a franchise that relied on Wall to rescue it from the sad, injuries-and-guns ending of the Gilbert Arenas era, it must show that it has learned from previous missteps and be pragmatic in its next steps.

Whether he was injured falling at home, or through some other means, doesn’t really matter because this is the reality for Wall and the Wizards: the future looks grim. Achilles’ injuries are arguably the most difficult from which to come back. Wall’s buddy DeMarcus Cousins has most recently done it. Rudy Gay did it before him. Dominique Wilkins and Kobe Bryant came back and became all-stars. But none were a one-man fastbreak who relied on speed and explosiveness the way Wall did. Wall’s game had slowed down considerably in the past two seasons, as he sought to conserve himself and preserve nagging ailments from becoming more serious. That hasn’t exactly worked out as planned.

A knee injury that required surgery knocked the Wizards off course last season, limiting Wall to just 41 games and he returned to a squad with suspect chemistry. This season proved to be more dysfunctional, with the team unable to escape that dark cloud. The timing of this ruptured Achilles’ — which came after surgery on an injured heel — couldn’t have been worse for Wall, who has been going through a few months that can simply been described as emotional.

Wall hasn’t spoken much about it, but he recently learned that his mother, Frances Pulley — his rock, the woman who challenged him in middle school to change his ways and make something of his life, and the woman who moved him to tears during the news conference to announce his first contract extension — is fighting breast cancer.

With the Wizards’ season going belly-up in the first few months, Wall wound up on the trade block and was fined by the team after cursing out Coach Scott Brooks. Though he dismissed all of those rumors about his future with the Wizards as “politics,” the jarring reality that the team couldn’t move him was perhaps all that brought him security.

On top of all of that, Wall welcomed his first child, a boy named Ace, into the world in early December. The joy of that moment also came with the painful reminder that his father — who hailed from the city he now represents on the basketball court and was in jail for much of his son’s life — died of liver cancer when Wall was 9. If anyone wanted to know why Wall feels such a deep connection to Washington, why the Raleigh, N.C., native loved to hoot and shout after big plays that this was “my city,” it was because he was subtly connecting with his late father in a way that he couldn’t in life. Wall wants to be there for his son, to give him a hero to emulate and touch but both will have to wait for the basketball version of daddy to return to a game that has allowed his, “kids’ kids’ kids to be straight” financially.

Before misfortune hijacked his career, Wall wanted to be the shining example of how an organization can benefit from showing loyalty in players that they draft, develop and watch blossom. He joined Russell Westbrook as the first players to earn the supermax extension with their original teams, a deal that he earned after leading the Wizards to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2017; and a deal that didn’t draw even the slightest criticism when it was signed. While explaining why he accepted the deal so soon after it was offered, instead of waiting a year for a more lucrative contract, Wall told me, “I only made All-NBA this year. All-NBA is not guaranteed … You never know what can happen. I never wanted to chance it, so I was like, why?”

Since then, Wall has only played 73 of a possible 137 (and counting) games. Most will praise Wall for being risk averse, for being smart enough to know his worth — and his why. But Wall didn’t want to be defined by the money, only respected for what it represented. He might engage in the occasional social media feud with fans or media personalities about how he chooses to spend his time off the floor. He might even have room to grow as a more positive locker room presence.

But to understand what Wall is about, how passionate with nearly everything he does, consider the tears he shed the night his little “buddy,” Miyah, died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Or how he broke his wrist in a second-round series against Atlanta in 2015 but came back after missing just three games. Or the six-figure investment he’s made to Bright Beginnings, a development center for homeless children in Washington. Or that he personally handed out grocery store gift cards — while wearing a walking boot — to workers missing out on checks during the ridiculous government shutdown last month.

That’s how Wall should be thought of. And, he will. In time. After the four-year, $170 million contract that kicks in next season has been paid off. After the Wizards and their fans have overcome the sorrow of this heartbreak and moved on the next savior.

This is rotten. And no amount of money will make it easier for Wall. He came to Washington on a mission to win a championship or two, to go down as the best point guard to ever play — that was his ambition before the league humbled him by showing how difficult that would be. The next challenge of his career, of his life, has arrived. How Wall responds should be the chapter everyone is eager to read. Unfortunately, the human element of all of this will be lost in discussions about rebuilds and money, discussions Wall will be too busy working his way through this whirlwind to worry about.
 

IVS

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These damn Rosebar jokes are classic and hilarious. I told my boy yesterday, "they said he fell and injured himself in his house"..the homie says: "Rosebar?!"
 

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Michael Lee story
To fans of Washington’s professional basketball team, John Wall is the latest symbol of the bad luck that always seems to cut in whenever they dance briefly with what appears to be good fortune. To the petty, he’s now nothing more than a bad contract, an immovable salary cap albatross handicapping the foreseeable future for the Wizards. To those who know him, Wall is a scrapper in for a fight that will test his character like never before.

It’s a shame what becomes of the discussion whenever a player on a guaranteed, long-term contract suffers a career-threatening or potentially debilitating injury. Rarely is the humanity of that individual invoked. Rarely is that pain viewed in the prism of more relatable suffering. The cold, often callous world of professional sports doesn’t allow for perspective that doesn’t involve speculation, trade scenarios and financial implications. Enough of that will be ingested over the next few weeks, months, even years.

But for a moment, take a step back and consider what Wall must be going through after learning that the left heel injury that he either stupidly or stubbornly played through until it ended this season became a ruptured Achilles’ tendon that could potentially take away next season as well. This is supposed to be Wall’s prime, a time when he maximizes all that his physical gifts and years of knowledge accrued through NBA experience are supposed to yield. If the recovery goes well, without any major setbacks, the next time Wall plays, he’ll be 29 and facing the possibility that his best basketball is behind him.

Wall didn’t Dougie onto the scene as a much-hyped No. 1 overall pick in 2010 to be average. He wanted to be great, to be the best, and he charted every slight from anyone who refused to acknowledge his progress in that trajectory. That eternal chip drove him but also worked to his detriment because he could never be satisfied with what his talents afforded him — always pushing for that next endorsement deal, that next signature shoe, that next-level praise to which he felt entitled. Blinded by those pursuits, Wall was captured by the same traps that have deterred many before him. Along with the coddling of an organization that overlooked some of his flaws, they stunted him from fully maturing into the leader the franchise has needed him to be.

Injuries have now done him in, sending Wall’s career into what-could’ve-been territory. He’s not done, but the Wizards’ plans to continue building around him are now in the past. For a franchise that relied on Wall to rescue it from the sad, injuries-and-guns ending of the Gilbert Arenas era, it must show that it has learned from previous missteps and be pragmatic in its next steps.

Whether he was injured falling at home, or through some other means, doesn’t really matter because this is the reality for Wall and the Wizards: the future looks grim. Achilles’ injuries are arguably the most difficult from which to come back. Wall’s buddy DeMarcus Cousins has most recently done it. Rudy Gay did it before him. Dominique Wilkins and Kobe Bryant came back and became all-stars. But none were a one-man fastbreak who relied on speed and explosiveness the way Wall did. Wall’s game had slowed down considerably in the past two seasons, as he sought to conserve himself and preserve nagging ailments from becoming more serious. That hasn’t exactly worked out as planned.

A knee injury that required surgery knocked the Wizards off course last season, limiting Wall to just 41 games and he returned to a squad with suspect chemistry. This season proved to be more dysfunctional, with the team unable to escape that dark cloud. The timing of this ruptured Achilles’ — which came after surgery on an injured heel — couldn’t have been worse for Wall, who has been going through a few months that can simply been described as emotional.

Wall hasn’t spoken much about it, but he recently learned that his mother, Frances Pulley — his rock, the woman who challenged him in middle school to change his ways and make something of his life, and the woman who moved him to tears during the news conference to announce his first contract extension — is fighting breast cancer.

With the Wizards’ season going belly-up in the first few months, Wall wound up on the trade block and was fined by the team after cursing out Coach Scott Brooks. Though he dismissed all of those rumors about his future with the Wizards as “politics,” the jarring reality that the team couldn’t move him was perhaps all that brought him security.

On top of all of that, Wall welcomed his first child, a boy named Ace, into the world in early December. The joy of that moment also came with the painful reminder that his father — who hailed from the city he now represents on the basketball court and was in jail for much of his son’s life — died of liver cancer when Wall was 9. If anyone wanted to know why Wall feels such a deep connection to Washington, why the Raleigh, N.C., native loved to hoot and shout after big plays that this was “my city,” it was because he was subtly connecting with his late father in a way that he couldn’t in life. Wall wants to be there for his son, to give him a hero to emulate and touch but both will have to wait for the basketball version of daddy to return to a game that has allowed his, “kids’ kids’ kids to be straight” financially.

Before misfortune hijacked his career, Wall wanted to be the shining example of how an organization can benefit from showing loyalty in players that they draft, develop and watch blossom. He joined Russell Westbrook as the first players to earn the supermax extension with their original teams, a deal that he earned after leading the Wizards to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2017; and a deal that didn’t draw even the slightest criticism when it was signed. While explaining why he accepted the deal so soon after it was offered, instead of waiting a year for a more lucrative contract, Wall told me, “I only made All-NBA this year. All-NBA is not guaranteed … You never know what can happen. I never wanted to chance it, so I was like, why?”

Since then, Wall has only played 73 of a possible 137 (and counting) games. Most will praise Wall for being risk averse, for being smart enough to know his worth — and his why. But Wall didn’t want to be defined by the money, only respected for what it represented. He might engage in the occasional social media feud with fans or media personalities about how he chooses to spend his time off the floor. He might even have room to grow as a more positive locker room presence.

But to understand what Wall is about, how passionate with nearly everything he does, consider the tears he shed the night his little “buddy,” Miyah, died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Or how he broke his wrist in a second-round series against Atlanta in 2015 but came back after missing just three games. Or the six-figure investment he’s made to Bright Beginnings, a development center for homeless children in Washington. Or that he personally handed out grocery store gift cards — while wearing a walking boot — to workers missing out on checks during the ridiculous government shutdown last month.

That’s how Wall should be thought of. And, he will. In time. After the four-year, $170 million contract that kicks in next season has been paid off. After the Wizards and their fans have overcome the sorrow of this heartbreak and moved on the next savior.

This is rotten. And no amount of money will make it easier for Wall. He came to Washington on a mission to win a championship or two, to go down as the best point guard to ever play — that was his ambition before the league humbled him by showing how difficult that would be. The next challenge of his career, of his life, has arrived. How Wall responds should be the chapter everyone is eager to read. Unfortunately, the human element of all of this will be lost in discussions about rebuilds and money, discussions Wall will be too busy working his way through this whirlwind to worry about.


Thnx
 

Money Be Green

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Gilbert passing Wall the finesse the nba juice :wow:

usatsi_4942582.0.jpg
 

MikelArteta

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what numbers do y'all think wall will put up when he's back?
i look at a guy lik brandon knight (ws never as good as wall I know). But dude wt from vg lik 17-19 ppg to now this will prob be his last nba season
 

Jemmy

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what numbers do y'all think wall will put up when he's back?
i look at a guy lik brandon knight (ws never as good as wall I know). But dude wt from vg lik 17-19 ppg to now this will prob be his last nba season

He’s going to have to adjust. Should watch a lot of Billups and Kidd. Maybe even work out with them over the summer. I don’t think he’s losing his speed. His lift is another question though. It’s not a complete tear either so it’s not that bad. He has time to fix his jumper completely. It can be a blessing in disguise.
 
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