{"id":85989,"date":"2024-07-15T13:05:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T17:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=85989"},"modified":"2024-07-15T13:05:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T17:05:43","slug":"former-no-1-pick-doubles-down-on-nba-return-aspirations-john-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/15\/former-no-1-pick-doubles-down-on-nba-return-aspirations-john-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Former No. 1 Pick Reiterates NBA Return Aspirations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, former No. 1 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walljo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-15_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Wall<\/a> made his dreams of a return to the league clear. On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-15_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a>&#8216;s Podcast, <em>Podcast P With Paul George<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/25\/five-time-nba-all-star-point-guard-wants-back-in-the-league-john-wall\/\" target=\"_self\">Wall<\/a> said he was &#8220;willing to accept any role&#8221; to join an NBA team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">John Wall says on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PodcastPShow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@PodcastPShow<\/a> that he still wants to continue NBA career<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m willing to accept any role it is to be on a team\u2026 whether it&#8217;s playing, not playing, being in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hasleud01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-15_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Udonis Haslem<\/a> role. Anything like that, I just want to be in a NBA jersey again.&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ODlUPVhAbB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/ODlUPVhAbB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Law Murray \ud83d\udedd (@LawMurrayTheNU) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LawMurrayTheNU\/status\/1805295283162726760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 24, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the 33-year-old doubled down on his NBA return aspirations during an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fGwoKYcCiKI\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ESPN broadcast of the Summer League<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFor me, I\u2019m not giving up on my dreams of getting back into the league,\u201d he said on ESPN\u2019s Summer League broadcast on Sunday.\u201dI know it\u2019s a lot of stuff that I dealt with, with injuries\u2026 My focus is to still work hard and come here and network and be around teams. Whatever role it is, I\u2019m willing to accept. \u201c\u2026 If it\u2019s going to a team and being a vet and teaching the young guys how to be a point guard, just to help, that\u2019s a development I\u2019m willing to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Former No. 1 Pick Reiterates NBA Return Aspirations<\/h2>\n<h3>John Wall&#8217;s Career So Far<\/h3>\n<p>Wall spent the first nine seasons of his career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/12\/wizards-targeting-evan-fournier-free-agency-round-out-roster\/\" target=\"_self\">Washington Wizards<\/a>. During his time with the team, he became one of the league&#8217;s best point guards in his prime. With the Wizards, the Kentucky alum was a five-time All-Star, a one-time All-NBA Third Team selection, and a one-time All-Defensive Second Team selection. Additionally, in the 2016-17 season, Wall finished seventh in MVP voting. He was also one win away from leading the franchise to its first <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/05\/17\/boston-celtics-bench-provides-boost\/\" target=\"_self\">Eastern Conference Finals<\/a> appearance since 1979.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, the Wizards traded Wall to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/15\/olympics-young-houston-rockets-selected-for-future-greatness\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Rockets<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-07-15_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a>. Wall would go on to play just 40 games for the Rockets during the 2020-21 season. During this time, he averaged 20.6 points and 6.9 assists per game. Wall missed the entire 2021-22 season and appeared in just 34 games for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/13\/los-angeles-clippers-among-several-teams-pursuing-wizards-point-guard\/\" target=\"_self\">Los Angeles Clipper<\/a>s during the 2022-23 season. Despite making it clear he was eying a return to the league last season, no team added Wall to the roster. Wall has not appeared in an NBA game since January 13, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Wall spoke about wanting to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/12\/john-wall-open-to-joining-eastern-conference-team-miami-heat\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Miami Heat<\/a>. However, nothing came to fruition.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">John Wall says he\u2019s open to playing for the Heat<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I could help them a lot. Getting Terry was a great piece for them\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if I came off bench I could impact them\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe and UD talk bout this plenty of times, and I workout with Bam a lot\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Via <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theOGsShow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@theOGsShow<\/a>) \ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udd25 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FwEkF7pPZQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FwEkF7pPZQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emo Jimmy (@WheelerJaylen) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WheelerJaylen\/status\/1767658586119791073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word on John Wall<\/h3>\n<p>In his prime, Wall was one of the most explosive and exciting players in the league. Although he may have lost a step, he can still provide depth and a veteran presence to a contending team. However, Wall will turn 34 before the start of the 2024-25 season. Additionally, he has played 41 or fewer games in every season since the 2017-18 campaign. It will be interesting to see if Wall can make his way onto an NBA roster again before calling it a career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last month, former No. 1 pick John Wall made his dreams of a return to the league clear. On Paul George&#8216;s Podcast, Podcast P With Paul George, Wall said he was &#8220;willing to accept any role&#8221; to join an NBA team. John Wall says on @PodcastPShow that he still wants to continue NBA career &#8220;I&#8217;m [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":85998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,31,27,16,62,3,18],"tags":[310,50,53],"class_list":["post-85989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-rockets","category-clippers","category-heat","category-nba","category-news","category-wizards","tag-john-wall","tag-paul-george","tag-russell-westbrook"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}