With reports of Washington Wizards All-Star point guard John Wall rupturing his Achilles, could his underachieving career be done?
Wall, taken No.1 in the 2010 NBA Draft out of Kentucky, has had a star-crossed and oft-injured career in our nation’s capital as he had surgery on both of his knees in 2016, missed nine games due to inflammation in his left knee in 2017, missed 27 games due to a procedure to clean up his left knee in 2018.
In 2018, Wall opted for left heel surgery this past December, thus being ruled out for the rest of the 2018-19 season, and now his latest setback in inuring his left Achilles, Wall has played a total of 541 out of 656 games in his eight year career and only played all 82 regular season games once in his eight-year career back in 2013-14, his fourth in the NBA.
One year into a three-year $170 million extension that will pay him $19.2 million this season and $207 million through 2023, the Wizards are liable to pay Wall $38.2 million for 2019-20, $41.2 million in 2020-21, $44.3 million in 2021-22 and $47.3 million in 2022-23 by the time he turns 32.
It’s a tough break for someone so fast and agile as Wall, who is considered one of the fastest guards in the NBA, but the five-time NBA All-Star has failed to live up to both his draft status and contract due to his history of injury. For his career, Wall has averaged 18.1 points, 9.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals, but he has also averaged 67.2 games played a season, which shows both a lack of durability and the ability to be counted on.
As the old sports saying goes, the best ability is availability, and with Wall now expected to be out 11-12 months and likely miss the entire 2019-20 season, it looks like Wall’s abilities need to be called into question.