Written by Brian Windhorst at ESPN.com
John Wall is fighting to stay awake through a haze of painkillers. Next to his bed is a walker to get himself to the bathroom. For longer distances, there’s a wheelchair. His left knee is bandaged and recovering from having a bone spur removed from his kneecap, his right knee looks the same after a “clean up scope.” He is wearing a gown.
In the chair next to his bed is a coach he has never met before, who walked through his hospital room door a day after surgery.
“So John, let’s say there’s 37 seconds left and we’re up two points and you’ve got the ball, what do you do?” he asks.
“Coach, are you seriously doing this right now?” Wall asks, eyes half open. “You take the two-for-one.”
“Let’s just say it’s not ideal for you to meet a player for the first time when he’s in a hospital bed,” Scott Brooks would later say. He who flew to Cleveland to see Wall days after officially being hired as the Washington Wizards head coach last spring.
“And it’s even less ideal when that guy is your All-Star point guard and he just had surgery on both knees. But that’s where we were and that’s where we got to know each other.”
As the two speak, just out the window buds are opening on the trees lining Euclid Avenue as it cuts through the sprawling Cleveland Clinic campus. In the windows of nearby flower shops and coffeehouses are signs reading “All In,” the Cavaliers’ playoff rallying cry. Wall is in the heart of the NBA playoffs, in a city on the brink of escaping its demons.
And he is so far away.
Wall was the first overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, arriving on a Wizards team badly in need of hope. Michael Jordan’s last comeback had provided false hope and the Gilbert Arenas era was drawing to a close after a suspension for bringing guns into the team’s locker room.
Then-coach Flip Saunders called the Kentucky star “a point guard from heaven.” The mayor of D.C. declared the day of his arrival “John Wall Day” in the capital. Reebok bet big, outbidding Nike to sign Wall to a five-year deal worth a reported $25 million (the guarantee was actually less) and the promise of a signature shoe.\
It looked like Wall had followed the playbook to set himself up perfectly for the modern superstar career. But Wall’s career has been a story of stops and starts, an upward trajectory that has taken some detours because of circumstance, happenstance and bad luck. He has earned acclaim and plenty of money, but not as much as he feels he should in either category. And it’s sometimes left him temperamental, which has opened him up to critics.
“When things aren’t going right you have your moments,” Wall says. “You go home and you want to break something, you want to put your fist through a wall. Your family and friends have to be there for you and calm you down.”
Wall put up good numbers from Day 1, his blazing speed with the ball instantly earning him attention. But he was a frequent target from critics because of a weak jump shot and inconsistent defense. He joined a team with a young core of Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee and Nick Young. In other words, not exactly the ideal incubation situation.
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