The Great Wall Of Washington D.C.

Now obviously, winning Rookie of the Year last year was pretty much an impossibility for him. But no one ever gives John Wall the credit he deserves for his first season. Yeah, Washington sucked, but it wasn’t his fault. His numbers were legit, and that was even with a number of frustrating injuries. Early in the year, Wall was consistently putting up lines like 21 points, 11 assists, four rebounds, three steals. But then he hurt his left foot, and then bruised his right knee. The season ended quietly, and everyone forgot how good he was (if we hear one more person talk about Landry Fields like he was on Wall’s level, we might march). Wall is now telling the Washington Post that he’s completely healthy, and that he can blow by people again. The explosion is back, the stuff that made us so giddy about this dude when he was murdering people in high school, at Kentucky and during the first few months of last season. Watch out … One of the great NBA writers and Laker historians, Roland Lazenby, finished a book last year on the franchise called “Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon.” No one can argue with a book solely focused on the Logo. It has it’s share of exciting and interesting moments. But there’s an except about Magic Johnson (around the time he was diagnosed with HIV) that was posted by HoopsHype. It can’t be topped. Lazenby wrote that Magic had anywhere from 300-500 sexual partners a year. Insane. Magic’s batting percentages were pretty high back then, but even this is over the top: “The team’s locker room, and its sauna, had been a place where the star and other players had entertained women, even right after games. Johnson would retire to the sauna after a game, have sex, then put on a robe and return to the locker room for his postgame media interviews.” Ah, the postgame rubdown. Are we sure we know how Magic got his nickname? … What’s your favorite Kobe stat of all-time? We compiled 33 cool numbers for his birthday … Y’all know how much we love God Shammgod. He’s one of the best ballhandlers and most exciting players ever. Now, his son is making a name for himself as Shammgod Wells (his father’s name in high school). Wells is a rising senior at LaSalle in NYC, and is thinking about doing a post-grad year so he could possibly play at a place like Providence. God Shammgod says of his son in the New York Post: “One more year of work? Trust me. He’s gonna be a freak of nature.” Woah, slow down there pops … Here’s another reason to go to Vegas: lots and lots of NBA players, doing something they can’t really do right now: play in a league with each other … Just like we will always remember where we were for the East Coast earthquake of 2011, we still remember exactly what we were doing while this was going on … Sadly, legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt was diagnosed with early onset dementia. But thankfully for all basketball fans, she will continue to coach and continue to build memories. At first, Summitt thought the condition was a side effect to some medication she was taking. But now, she plans to fight it through medication and mental exercises. Dementia is a progressive condition that destroys cognitive abilities over time (stuff like memory, judgment and behavior). Our thoughts and prayers go out to those involved. Summitt is one of game’s greatest coaching legends. Period … Lions wideout Nate Burleson recently celebrated a touchdown against Cleveland by re-enacting LeBron‘s powder toss. He explained it by saying he had thought about doing it, and then once the Dawg Pound starting getting on him, he said screw it, where’s the powder? … And Rick Adelman finally met with Minnesota GM David Kahn yesterday. They’ve been in contact before, but this face-to-face meeting shows the offensive guru is strongly interested in taking that job. Would you rather have Adelman or Don Nelson? … We’re out like East Coast earthquakes.