Leadership Suits John Wall
Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 10:59 am
Leadership Suits John Wall
When a team makes an investment in a player with the top overall pick in the NBA Draft, they really want not only a fantastic talent but a player who will help make the character of the team stronger. They want a leader, they want someone the community and fans can like and rally around, and they want someone who can be the face of the franchise.
In 2010, the player they want is point guard John Wall.
As the likely top pick in the 2010 NBA Draft – and likely to the Washington Wizards barring some kind of trade – Wall is a player who can do all of those things. After the season the Wizards have had, that's exactly what they need.
He's not going to wait to make changes either. He's not going to come in meekly and subvert himself for his teammates. In fact, Wall has a message for training camp 2010.
"They better be ready," Wall said at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. "My message is going to be I'm trying to be the leader. I'm the point guard, I'm going to learn from every veteran and coach, just like I did at Kentucky. I knew basketball, but not as much as I learned – I learned so much in one year. Now I'm going to the NBA, I can't go in thinking I know everything, because if you do your career is going to be short. I'm going to build a good relationship with everyone."
This could be taken the wrong way if the words are simply words. After all, who is this guy? What has he done that his future teammates – many of them NBA veterans – should listen to him? When Wall says this, it's with honesty and conviction in his voice. He isn't brash; he doesn't come across as egotistical. As a matter of fact, it comes across as refreshing. As a point guard coming into the NBA as the top draft pick, Wall knows his role is to be a leader. He knows the expectations, and he's ready to meet them.
Or exceed them.
Wall has been exceeding expectations for a long time now. In fact, he did it this past term at Kentucky. While many players in his position – the so-called one and done players – leave school after the basketball season for "training" and "preparation for the draft" Wall was different. He stayed in school and posted a 3.5 grade point average in the spring term. It's part of a promise he made to someone very important to him a long time ago.
"I didn't want to be just a basketball player, I wanted to be a student-athlete," he explained. "A lot of guys could have – or, apparently me [laughs] – could just float by at school. [People thought I'd] not take it serious and after the season I was just going to leave, but my key is to get a degree. That's what I promised my dad before he died and that's what I want to give to my family. I'll be the first person to get a degree.
"I don't know when I'm going to get it done, but I'm going to make sure I get it."
Wall's father is the key to a lot of what he does. His father passed away when Wall was very young, making it hard on his family. His position now, on the edge of signing the huge contract that goes with being the top pick and whatever contracts he gets for endorsement deals, is going to affect not only his life but that of his family as well.
"It's indescribable," Wall said. "It's pretty tough because my dad passed when I was nine, so I've been the father figure around the house. My mom, I didn't see her as much working three or four jobs taking care of me and my sisters. It's just…this is a dream come true. I want to do this for my mom. Seeing her work so much and doing everything she could, my sisters making all my games, I just want to do it all for her."
When his father passed away the younger Wall really struggled with coming to terms with the loss. He admits he didn't handle it very well until his mother stepped in.
"It was tough. I didn't really know too much about what death was and why people were going away and why God was taking them. Now I understand, but at that point it was frustrating. I had so much anger and frustration in me – that's when my anger problem started to build up. I couldn't trust people. It was pretty tough, but my mom, she said you want to play basketball some day, you want to do something special and change your life around you are going to have change your attitude. Your dad is going to be watching down on you. Once I figured it out I said basketball is my escape, this is the best way for me to do it, and I think it turned out that way."
Wall figured out how to channel his aggression positively on the basketball floor, but it wasn't easy. A young boy trying to find his place without his father, he rebelled.
"It was tough. Going into school I was always… People always have little jokes about parents, their moms and dads, back then, and just one wrong joke and I went after the person. I felt my anger had to be released on somebody. That's what it was. And at AAU when I started playing when I was eleven, I couldn't trust my coach. I couldn't listen to him because I didn't have a father figure after my dad passed. I couldn't trust another man – I was like he's lying to me, he's not telling the truth. When I turned thirteen my mom really sat down and talked to me. She said I know you better keep playing basketball and start treating people right. You've got to start here. So that's where I started.
"Especially when I went to Word of God Christian, they changed my whole outlook. Believing in God a lot more, going to church, bible classes, things like that – they helped me out a whole lot. And me being in a smaller place, not a big school, it changed me."
His religion and his family helped him recognize proper ways to channel his aggressions. Now anything negative in his life only motivates him to become a better person – on and off the basketball floor.
"People say negative things about me, that's motivation. Me getting cut from a high school team is motivation. Definitely my dad dying is motivation. He never got to see me play a basketball game – that was the toughest part. My motivation is to do it for those guys but to also do it for me because this is the game I love to play."
It's worked. Wall will be the first name called in the 2010 NBA Draft and is ready to become a leader at the professional level. He is ready to take that mantle as the face of a franchise, to be a leader of men, and to be a positive member of the community.
Washington, you just got yourself a winner.
By Jason Fleming, Hoopsworld
Source: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=16279
Should be interesting watching him and McGee on the floor together!! Is it just me but I think he looks alittle like Arenas!