Throughout the course of a game, players miss shots for a variety of reasons. It could be because of good defense, shot mechanics going awry or even the distance of the shot. But overall, missed shots are just that, missed shots.
Despite that simplicity, John Wall and Bradley Beal view missed shots in a much different light. For the Wizards stars, missed shots during a scoring slump can be compared to women or sisters.
Sounds strange? Well, that’s just how they view the basketball when it isn’t going through the hoop.
From their Game 4 postgame interview on Sunday:
https://streamable.com/jwup2
Reporter: “John, told us last series that for him, a miss is like a lady. Do you have any kind of mantra or motto you use as your mentality when you are in a slump to kind of not worry about it?”
Wall: “She just ain’t acting right. She just ain’t acting right.”
Beal: “That’s how it be. Sometimes she don’t fall through that basket.”
Wall: “Sometimes she’s stubborn.”
Beal: “You got to forget about it.”
Wall: “Like having a sister, they’re going to be stubborn from time to time.”
The reporter is referring to Beal calling missed shots, “a lady,” because he has said this in the past. And technically Beal isn’t wrong since a “miss” is another word to describe a woman.
But here’s how Beal phrased it (via The Washington Post‘s Candance Buckner):
“What’s a ‘miss?’ ” Beal said in mock confusion. “A ‘miss’ is a lady.”
“I don’t know what a miss is,” he concluded.
Wall and Beal are clearly having some fun here and on the surface, it is slightly amusing that they refer to the actual basketball as a “she.” But their choice of words is a bit of a head scratcher, especially Wall’s sister comment.
Overall though, this is probably just much ado about nothing. But let’s hope that next time, Wall and Beal choose their words a bit more wisely.
