John Wall made moves off of the court on Wednesday and is getting ready to make moves on the floor for the Washington Wizards on Saturday under a very watchful eye.
On Wednesday, Wall — in partnership with Reebok — announced the former number one overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft was transitioning over to the adidas basketball family (keep in mind that adidas owns Reebok) to share the “Three Stripes” branding spotlight alongside Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Ricky Rubio, Iman Shumpert, Kenneth Faried, Brandon Knight and MarShon Brooks to name a few.
Yet it is Walls’ potential comeback for the Wizards that has Washington forgetting about the Redskins’ Robert Griffin III’s jacked up knee — well, at least for a few moments.
According to Michael Lee of the Washington Post, Wall is preparing to make his season debut on Saturday against the Atlanta Hawks. Wall has been sidelined since September with a stress injury in his left patella.
“I stepped it up this year. You got to step it up from time to time,” Wall said after Wednesday’s practice while flashing a grin, before concluding: “I’m tired of suits. I want to put on a jersey.”
What Wall brings back to the Wizards is a much needed scoring punch (he has averaged 16.3 points and 8.2 assists in his first two seasons) and a reason for fans around Washington to feel their season is not yet all lost, despite the abysmal 5-28 record.
Moving forward with Wall, two thoughts come to mind regarding the 6-foot-4 point guard’s debut: adjusting his style of play since he’s known for his energetic and all-over-the-place style. And second is a point head coach Randy Wittman expanded on – Wall’s conditioning.
And this is where the Wiz need to be careful.
“His conditioning isn’t near where it needs to be at this time. I don’t want to put him in a situation out on the floor where conditioning is going to have a tendency to cause another injury,” Wittman said. “I have to be careful with that on my own without a doctor telling me that.”
Sounds like the Washington Redskins could have barrowed a page from the Washington Wizards.
