It's Wednesday December 3rd, 2014 and I'm heading to DC for another Wizards game. This time they're playing against my Lakers. I was hyped to see Kobe in person for the 2nd time. I get to the Verizon Center a little early to make sure I get in as early as possible. The very first person I see warming up is John Wall. Dude is drenched in sweat like he's just played a full game before the game. Jeremy Lin was our point guard at the time and I knew he was about to have a long ass night. I've been to plenty Wizards games before then but I've never seen Wall focused like this before. Kobe was doing Kobe Bryant things all game but my boys fell short that night. John Wall locked Jeremy Lin up and sent him out of there with 0 points. What impressed me even more was that Wall had 16 assist. That night I went from respecting his game to becoming a fan.
Fast forward to this season. John Wall has led the Wizards to their best record in 38 years (49-33) with a home record of 30-11. Not only has the argument of him being the best point guard in the East begun the debate of him being the 2nd best player in the East behind only Lebron James has been a rising discussion as well. During the regular season he averaged career highs in points, steals, FG%, and assist. Wall was 2nd in the entire league in steals and assist. He also scored his career high 52 points in a game this season. People still slept. The Washington Wizards don't get much national coverage so I think that could have been part of the reason. People that didn't watch him simply didn't know. When the playoffs started that all changed. Game 1 vs Atlanta Wall finished with 32 points and 14 assist. From there he continued to light it up and the Wizards eliminated the Hawks in 6 games.
Round 2 he took on the Celtics who were the top team in the conference. John Wall continued to to play hard and leave his mark on the playoffs. In possibly the most entertaining series at this point the Wizards fell in game 7. Not the perfect storybook ending but John Wall has no reason to hang his head. As a fan of the game I appreciated the effort all the way to the end. The clutch performance by Wall in game 6 will go down in history. Down 2 at home in an elimination game he drained a 3 to win and force a game 7. Instant classic! Some people will say he was doing too much by getting up on the table and celebrating after the game. I'm not one of those people. What I saw was a man that's worked his ass off to become great embracing the moment while the city embraced him. After this All-Star and All-NBA season I believe many critics that weren't aware of the development in his game have been silenced. Now the question is who's turn is it to become the breakout star next season?
