Speaking in a recent appearance on the ‘Draymond Green Show,’ former NBA point guard Sam Cassell spoke about the pain of losing. Looking back to 2010, Cassell detailed the time that a rookie John Wall came to him in tears over the Wizards’ struggle to win games.
“John Wall, his rookie year. He lost eight games from High School to college. He knocked on my doorstep, in tears and crying. He lost 25 games and it ain’t December yet. He asked me he said ‘OG, is it gonna get any better?’ If you ask any guys I’ve ever coached, I’m not gonna lie to you. I looked at him in the face and I said ‘No.’ And guess what JDubb? I threw him a towel and I said ‘It’s gonna be bad next year, too. But we got to grow and you got to keep working.'”
"It's gonna be bad next year, too" 🤣
Sam Cassell tells @Money23Green the story of when rookie John Wall showed up to his door in tears pic.twitter.com/ycGJn8dYor
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) August 15, 2024
Sam Cassell is one of the OGs of the sport and he has a respectable track record as a player and a coach. As a 3x champion, Cassell knows what it takes to win at the highest level but he also knows how hard it can be to lose. So when John Wall came to his door knocking for advice, Cassell knew exactly what to say.
John Wall was a winner growing up, and that trend continued during his one-year stint at Kentucky where he led the Wildcats to a 35-3 record in the regular season. His standout performance earned him the honor of getting picked first in the 2010 NBA Draft and early projections had him becoming a top point guard in the East.
But before Wall ever reached star status, he had to endure a number of miserable seasons with the Wizards. Despite averaging 16.4 points and 8.3 assists per game as a rookie, the Wizards finished 13th in the East with a 23-59 record. The next season was even worse when the Wizards ranked 14th in the Conference at 20-46.
It wasn’t until the 2013-14 NBA season that the Wizards finally had a breakthrough. It was also the season that Wall made his first All-Star team with averages of 19.3 points, 8.8 assists, and 1.8 steals per game on 43% shooting.
Sadly, John Wall never had the moment he was hoping for. He tried, and failed, to bring a championship to the Wizards for years before his body fell apart in 2018. Through various injuries, including an Achilles tear, Wall’s career took a sour turn and he left the franchise without anything to show for his time there.
Wall got used to all the losing considering that the Wizards were never a threat to win the title while he was there. Even now, at 33, John Wall is still without a title but you can’t blame him for the inadequacies of the Wizards front office.
Wall did the best he could with what he had, and it wasn’t much at all. Today, he’s become the perfect case study for how a player’s career is tied down to which team they get drafted to and how little control rookies have over the wins and losses of their team.
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