John Wall

I know I'm a little late on this one. This post (and in fact this whole blog actually) isn't intended to break news. I've spent the last few days thinking about the events of this week and how to put them into words. Monday night my friend Mike and I were discussing why John Wall wasn't on the bench during the Wizards loss to the Atlanta Hawks (!!!). Tuesday we knew. Achilles. Brutal. Threw my whole world off.

John Wall is my favorite current Wizards player. I mean it's not even close. I never loved Bradley Beal's game and attitude until maybe this year (that would be seven years into his time in Washington) and Otto never did much for me. Kieff Morris? Dwight Howard? Please. John's my guy. Has been since he got here and pulled this franchise back to the playoffs. True, I do own a Tomas Satoransky t-shirt which I wear occasionally but John's my favorite. Now he's gone. For a while. Still under contract and counting against the cap. But he's not going to be on the court for a while now.

Despair. Pity. Anger. Regret. Hopelessness. Helplessness. I've felt all of that this week. Why can't the Wizards ever have anything good? What's going to happen to the chances for this team for the next two seasons? Why did I pick this franchise? Is Ted Leonsis going to use this injury as an excuse to make no change in the franchise even though he said no excuses? Why is there never any long term plan? Is Ernie Grunfeld ever going to be ushered out of the building? Why did I buy season tickets this year when I know this team is never ever winning it all?

This news sucks. Think it's bad for you and me and any other Wizards fan out there? Think again. Most to all of us have not just torn our achilles tendon. Most of us have not undergone surgery on the same part of our body that affects our ability to walk and do the job that sustains us. This is not my body we are talking about. The person this devastates the most is John Wall. And anyone that feels differently is just making no sense.

Yep, I know John Wall is making north of $37 million next year and his salary alone is consuming more than 30% of the salary cap. Who cares? Are the Wizards in trouble next year? Sure they are. Does this injury kill our chances to make it to the NBA Finals? Maybe, if you believe we ever had a chance to begin with. I think sometimes we think that because the team that we root for has invested a lot of money in a player, that man (the player) cedes all right to have a healthy body at the end of his contract. 

From a certain perspective, John is lucky. He's not an undrafted free agent that's killed his ability to make money with little to show for it. That part doesn't matter to me so much. As I grow older, I feel more and more empathy for these guys that are laying their bodies and maybe their lives on the line for a chance at glory. From a certain perspective, it's just not worth it. I'm lucky that I never had to make that choice.

I'm rooting for John Wall to come back soon at full strength. Maybe there will be a Wizards team on the other side of this that is assembled well enough to grab at some glory I've never seen since I've intimately entwined my life with this club. But the important thing is that he's well and can walk and run and jump normally again. Right now that's really all I'm looking for out of this situation.