One of the fastest and most electrifying players with the ball in his hands the league has seen, John Wall officially announced his retirement after 11 NBA seasons.
Wall was the No. 1 pick of the Washington Wizards in 2010 out of Kentucky. He Dougied his way to 16.4 points and 8.3 assists a game as a rookie, making First Team All-Rookie (he was second in Rookie of the Year voting to Blake Griffin).
Wall played nine seasons for the Wizards and is a franchise legend, a lightning-fast player end-to-end with the ball in his hands but able to play under control at that speed. He averaged 19 points and 9.2 assists a game in that stretch for Washington, making five All-Star teams, one All-Defensive team, and he was All-NBA in his peak season of 2017 when he averaged 23.1 points a game.
In 2019, Wall suffered a torn Achilles and was never the same after that. He missed a full season, then came back with stints with the Rockets (he was traded to them for Russell Westbrook) and Clippers, and in Los Angeles, he played well off the bench when healthy (but he only played 34 games for them). However, his impact was never quite the same after the injury.
The Wall game I most remember came during the lockout in 2011, when a number of NBA players got together at The Pyramid on the Campus of Long Beach State (about a nice 3-iron shot from my front door) for an exhibition game. In that free-flowing, pickup-style game, the speed and athleticism of Wall overshadowed everyone else on the court. He was dynamic and one of the most entertaining players the league has ever seen.
