Sidelined Wall keeps spirits up
Wizards point guard keeping positive outlook after tearing Achilles
A scooter didn’t stop John Wall from having a little fun with his teammates Friday night as the Washington Wizards milled around a contented locker room following their 119-106 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wall leaned over the handlebars of the scooter he uses for mobility to try and swat a postgame meal out of Jordan McRae’s hands before grabbing McRae’s phone and pretending to take a call. He deadpanned as he relayed his halftime message that new teammate Bobby Portis would be “a punk” if he didn’t turn his 18 points at halftime into 30 by game’s end (which Portis did). He praised Bradley Beal’s leadership in the wake of the news that Wall is expected to be out for 11 to 15 months, potentially missing the entire 2019-20 season, after rupturing his left Achilles tendon.
In all, Wall is in good spirits as he prepares for surgery scheduled for TV: Radio: Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.
“Chilling,” Wall said. “Minor setback for an extra couple months, so nothing to dwell on.”
Wall adopted a positive outlook as he spoke to reporters for the first time since announcing his latest injury, which ensures that the point guard will have missed at least half of each of three consecutive seasons.
“You never want to hear it, but it is what it is and kinda glad that it happened now instead of when I’m four or five months ahead in recovery and I’m trying to get back to being on the court and it happens then. It’s not like I’ve started my process of getting back, so it’s not too much to kind of dwell on,” he said.
“I guess God is telling me something, sit down and get yourself fully healthy. I’ve played through injuries my whole career, I know a lot of people who’ve played through injuries and don’t sit down, that’s one thing I don’t like to do. If something is nagging or not broken, I want to play. And I guess it kind of caught up to me. Something I can’t control, but my love for the game is still there and I’ll come back and conquer this like it was just a little step in the road.”
Wall, who watched the Wizards’ win from their bench Friday night, praised the franchise’s new players — in addition to Portis’s 30 points, new Washington forward Jabari Parker was one assist and three points away from a triple double — and expressed his well wishes for Otto Porter Jr. and Markieff Morris, both of whom were traded at the league deadline Wednesday. Wall said he texted Porter when the trade happened.
“I’m definitely sad to see that with those guys coming in and contributing, doing everything they can for this organization and laying it on the line with playing through injuries,” Wall said. We added some great pieces, you see how well those guys played today. The franchise made some changes the last couple days, made some adjustments and I think these guys that we added have a great mind-set even though it was only one game. Just take it one step at a time, for me, all I can do is sit back and watch film.”