Will John Wall and Arenas work together?
OPINION - Drafting Wall will make the Washington Wizards his team the second NBA Commission David Stern calls his name from the podium...
The last time the Washington Wizards had the first pick in the NBA draft it resulted in the type of debacle that has had ruinous ramifications that still reverberate. With Michael Jordan calling the shots, the Wizards selected high schooler Kwame Brown, the first player to be drafted directly out of high school with the first pick in the NBA Draft.
Brown solidified his selection, lore has it, by out-dueling Tyson Chandler, a Compton high schooler who has had a mediocre career, and then turning to Jordan — still up in the air over whom to pick with the top pick in the 2001 draft1 — and telling him this is why he should be the top pick.
In the eight years since, Brown has solidified his position as the worst top pick in league history – he has never been better than an under-par journeyman. His failure is widely regarded as the main reason why the league and the players union collectively bargained away the high school-to-the-pros route to the NBA (After they admitted LeBron, of course).
While Brown fades from memory and the G.O.A.T tries to build a playoff team in a market that cares more for college hoops and NASCAR than it does about the Hornets, the Wizards are back again with the top pick in the draft. No one doubts that it will be John Wall — I reported that the team had settled on him weeks ago and who can blame them. Wall is the safe pick, a freshman out of Kentucky who after just one year in college is already considered to be a better pro prospect than NBA stars Chris Paul and Deron Williams were in their actual draft years.
A monkey could make this pick this year. However, a monkey could not navigate what comes next in Washington.
Drafting Wall will make the Wizards his team the second NBA Commission David Stern calls his name from the podium. And at that moment the Wizards’ gamble on Wall – seen by most as a can’t-miss player – begins.
This is gamble because they have publicly wrapped their arms around Gilbert Arenas. You remember Gilly-gil, right? He stole the basketball hearts of Washington not long ago. Tugged the team back into the playoffs after a long hiatus. Scored 60 on Kobe (Kobe after knee surgery); tossed his jersey into the stands after every game and gave from the heart when Katrina hit New Orleans. Arenas became the center of attention in Washington.
But in the process he also took a crap (literally and figuratively) on all of that good will. Reporters turned a blind eye to his many acts of petulance – I know, I did so myself while working at the lowly Washington Times – because the positives outweighed the negatives.
It was easy to look the other way when he was using teammate Andray Blatche’s shoe for his septic deposits. It was easy to ignore his refusal to attempt to play any defense under then-coach Eddie Jordan because for the first time the team mattered in a real way (Michael Jordan’s involvement with the team, especially his return as a player, was all about putting the team in the black) for years.
But with the felony gun convictions and the ensuing obliteration of the team in a manner never seen before in the annals of professional sports, Arena destroyed all of that goodwill all by himself. The team acknowledged as much in the early going by no longer selling his jersey in the Verizon Center, where the Wizards play, and by removing his images on the outside of the building they affirmed as much.
But now they are saying all is forgiven. New owner Ted Leonsis has said it and general manager Ernie Grunfeld – whom Arenas gave the Judas treatment like no other – has backed it up. They have continued to put the shine on Arenas because in an economy like this it’s damn near impossible to move a contract ($80 million) and a player who has had three knee surgeries.
But if actuaries were looking at this situation they would wonder why the Wizards, who lucked up and landed the top pick in the lottery, are exposing a player with Wall’s upside – he’s just 19 – to the risk that is Arenas.
They might ask how Arenas will respond to being second fiddle now and forever more with the Wizards, a team he owned not long ago. They would ask them what type of firewall is in place to prevent Wall, a player that if he pans out could earn more than $250 million in a Wizards uniform and still be considered (begin italics) a bargain (end italics), from being placed at risk of not reaching his potential. They would wonder why they have to inform the Wizards, who gambled on Brown, that their gambling days should be well behind them.
The Wizards will be Wall’s now. Wall is the player the Wizard have tapped to virtually guarantee they are not in position to have to ponder over selecting players like Brown, Chandler or any other potential top draft pick — the reward for being wretched — for at least the next 15 years or so.
And publicly they have re-committed to Arenas, someone they insist will help them shepherd in this new era of John Wall. Gambling truly is addicting.
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