The Washington Wizards are on a hot streak right now. The team has won its last five games in a row, pushing themselves to 31-22 on the year and into a tie for third place with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference. Seeing as how the team is doing this while John Wall is sidelined as he recovers from a procedure done to his knee, Washington has been a pleasant surprise lately.
Of course, because a team is having success without its star player, there have been some who have speculated that the Wizards might be a better team without Wall, whose first game out was the start of this winning streak. Those fires have been stoked with cryptic tweets and comments from players about how everybody eats with regards to ball movement.
Wall, understandably, was asked about this, because this is the kind of thing that can come off as a shot at the team’s injured point guard and not just a normal comment about ball movement. In his eyes, this chatter is nothing but a joke.
https://twitter.com/NBCSWizards/status/960969426463084546
“It’s funny to hear everybody say ‘cuz I’m not playing, they’re getting extra shots or they’re doing extra things,’” Wall said. “That’s just a laugh and a joke to me, I take that as a joke.”
Wall went on to credit his teammates, namely ones on the bench, for playing well as they’ve been asked to do more in his absence. He was then asked to elaborate on the recent narrative around the team in his absence and proceeded to go off.
“That was funny to me, that’s a joke,” Wall said. “If you want to say ‘team win’ and put it with exclamation points or ‘everybody eats’ and all that, I’m one of the top point guards in the league that passes the ball more than anybody. I hear a lot of times I pass too much sometimes. But like I said, that definitely doesn’t bother me from the outside. I know what I do for my team, I know what I bring every night. Like I said, if any guys have a problem with me, they can talk to me face to face as a man, and if you can’t do that, then I lose a lot of respect for you.
“But other than that, it really doesn’t matter what people want to say on the outside or the inside,” Wall continued. “As long as the team is winning, that’s all I care about. They keep climbing the charts, it makes it even more easy for me to take more time in my rehab so I don’t have to rush back to try to make the playoffs. Those guys keep playing well, but I know what I do on the court, I know what I can bring to a team and what I bring to this team. And if that’s not the case, then so be it.”
This definitely seems like it has an air of Wall trying to shake off anger by saying it’s actually funny to him, but he does keep hammering home that he wants the Wizards to do well at the end of the day. This will be an interesting situation to watch as we get closer to Wall’s return, especially if the Wizards keep racking up wins without him.
