Our next entry brings another #1 overall pick in the D.C. area - John Wall of the Washington Wizards. Drafted after just one year at Kentucky, Wall has the misfortune of playing his rookie season in the same year as Blake Griffin (at least as far as the Rookie of the Year voting is concerned).
Having grown up in Raleigh, North Carolina Wall spurned his home state schools, UNC, Duke and the like and decided to take his talents to Rupp Arena to play with Coach Cal. No amount of money in the world could convince me that there weren't some ulterior motives there, but nonetheless Wall was a Wildcat and not a Tar Heel - for one year anyway.
His college career was brief, but not short of excitement and stellar play. In his very first college game Wall put himself on the map in a big way by nailing the game winning jumper with half a second left to beat Miami University. And on his biggest stage yet, against UConn at the garden, Wall put up a career high 25 to help Kentucky win. He was also able to lead his team to a victory over UNC despite battling cramps, putting up 16 with 7 assists and 5 boards. For all the great players that have gone through Kentucky, it is Wall that owns the school record for 16 assists in a game. Despite all the great play, Kentucky, a #1 seed in the 2009-10 tournament was upset by #2 West Virginia in the Elite 8.
As expected, Wall took his electrifying game to the NBA after just one season in college, following in the footsteps of Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans as the triumvirate of great Coach Cal one-and-done point guards. It didn't take Wall long to start making an impact for the befuddled Wizards. He is the first player in NBA history to record at least 9 assists in hist first three NBA games. In his debut he had 14 points 9 dimes and 3 steals. With lightning quick speed and off-the-charts athleticism being his two biggest assets, Wall is often over-looked for his defense and play making abilities. Just a few games into his NBA career he had already become the 3rd youngest player ever to record a triple-double putting up 19, 13 and 10 to go with 6 steals. He joined only Magic Johnson in recording a triple-double with 6 steals in his first 6 games of his career. The fact that he puts up any assists on that pathetic excuse of a basketball team is remarkable.
As a rookie, Wall is averaging over 9 assists per game which currently puts him at 5th in the league, behind greats like Rondo, Nash, Williams and Paul. He does need to improve his shooting touch, although his 40% is respectable. Like most rookie point guards, he struggles with turnovers on occasion - but that should improve with experience.
By most accounts Wall is a likable guy and a good teammate (he never publicly voiced concerns about playing with Gilbert Arenas) and so far has been very marketable. Reebok made him the face of their new ad campaign for Zigtech.
The future looks very bright for John Wall - even brighter if the Wizards keep losing and get a couple more lottery picks. At just 20 years of age, Wall is one of the babies on this list and Wizards fans will hope to see him climbing up this list in the coming years, and as long as he can refrain from bringing handguns to the locker room in D.C. I think he very well may.
If all of this wasn't enough to convince you, the man has created a god damn dance craze! I don't know how in the world this silliness ever caught on, but if you haven't seen it here it is.
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