On Sunday afternoon before Game 4 between the Knicks and Sixers, former Washington Wizards All-Star John Wall stood next to NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum and accepted the number one overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft as the Wizards’ representative
It was a fitting moment for Wall as he not only loves the city, the team and its fans, but he still loves the game.
Wall began playing the game in his hometown of Raleigh, NC.
In 2008, he watched Derrick Rose lead Memphis to the NCAA title game and decided he was headed to Memphis.
“This is how I play,” Wall recalled saying to himself during our interview.
Rose’s style was how Wall wanted to play, so he saw himself in John Calipari’s system, one which also attracted fellow high school star, Demarcus Cousins.
Wall told me that the two were planning to head to Memphis, which would have been amazing for the Tigers since they lost Rose to the NBA Draft after his lone season with the team.
But then Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky, so the duo changed their plans, headed to Lexington and became part of the first class in Calipari’s now famous “One and done” program.
In his freshman year, Wall led the team in scoring and assists (16.6 ppg, 6.5 apg) and helped guide it to a 29-2 regular season record. They went on to win the SEC Tournament and make the NCAA Tournament where the Wildcats ultimately lost in overtime to West Virginia in the Elite Eight, a loss which still haunts Wall to this day.
“I was crying like a baby,” he told me. “I told Demarcus ‘I just want to win,’. That was my ultimate goal.”
While the loss ate at him, he felt it was the right time to make the leap to the NBA, so he, along with his teammates Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton all declared for the 2010 NBA Draft.
Wall was selected first overall by the Wizards, followed by Cousins (no.5, Kings), Patterson (no. 14, Rockets), Bledsoe (no. 18, OKC) and Orton (no. 29, Magic).
In his rookie year, despite missing 13 games, Wall averaged 16.4 ppg and 8.3 apg and finished second in the Rookie of the Year vote behind Blake Griffin.
He would go on to spend nine seasons with the Wizards, averaging 19.0 ppg and 9.2 apg. He was also a 5x All-Star and made the All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
And despite suffering various, and serious, injuries during his tenure in Washington, Wall was embraced by the city and he returned the feeling.
But sports is a business, and Wall learned that harsh lesson in the worst way.
In 2019, while recovering from a painful heel injury, Wall ruptured his Achilles and missed the entire season 2019-20 season. That already emotional and painful year also included the birth of his son and the passing of his mother.
And while he was dealing with all of that, the Wizards decided to trade him to the Houston Rockets, a move he never asked for.
“I never wanted to leave,” Wall told me. “Washington D.C. was where I called home and the place I always call home.”
Yet the NBA waits for no one, so he was forced to dig deep and endure joy and suffering the year brought him and still pack up and head to Houston, where he had a great bounce-back season, averaging 20.6 ppg and 6.9 apg.
But then his comeback, and the season, were cut short by Covid.
Wall sat out the next season and then was shipped to the Clippers for the 2022-23 season, which turned out to be his final season in the league as a player, finishing with career averages of 18.7 ppg, 8.9 apg and 4.2 rpg.
That’s when he arrived at the “so what’s next” phase.
Fortunately, basketball was his guide and it reminded him that just because he wasn’t playing it didn’t mean that he couldn’t be around the game.
So he started dabbling in broadcasting, calling the G League Showcase in Orlando and joining the NBA TV crew for a slew of games.
But this wasn’t a part-time move for Wall for when he starts something, he’s in it to win it.
“Once I sign up for something, I finish it,” he told me.
On August 19th, 2025, Wall officially announced his retirement from the league. A day later, Amazon announced he was joining the NBA on Prime broadcast family as an analyst.
