John Wall Has An Impact, Even From The Bench

By Josh Wilson | May 12, 2015

May 9, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; Injured Washington Wizards guard John Wall gestures from the bench against the Atlanta Hawks in the third quarter in game three of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. at Verizon Center. The Wizards won 103-101. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

John Wall of the Washington Wizards was ruled out of Game 4 against the Atlanta Hawks, a game that the Wizards would go on to lose, 106-101. It’s unclear how long he’ll have to sit out for, but with five non-displaced fractures in his hand, no one would be surprised to see him out for the rest of the series.

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Wall is undoubtedly the Wizards best player. Not only as a great scorer, but overall he’s a great leader for the team, and anyone can recognize that based on the way he carries himself. He has a presence that rubs off on every player that comes into contact with him.

Regardless of if the players he talks to are young or old, and regardless of their already acquired basketball knowledge, they’re all intently listening to Wall and his great basketball wisdom and leadership.

As he sits the bench in his noticeably dapper suit, that’s not the only reason he’s recognized. His swagger is an obvious part of his personality, but he also serves as an inspiration factor on the bench, and a huge motivator.

I know the term “motivator,” has some cheesy, and negative baggage that comes along with it. It’s the title given to that player who was put on the high school JV basketball team as the last pick. But here, it really means something. Wall is contributing as an NBA player above and beyond the court.

Some players when injured often take a seat on the end of the bench, or at times even the second row. These types of players become removed from their team, and socially inept with their teammates.

Wall is not one of these players. Taking a seat right in the middle of the bench, he’s as involved in the game as someone not listed on the score sheet can be. He serves just as much as a motivation factor as head coach Randy Wittman, who did a great job of defending Wall against the media earlier this week.

The cameras are still on Wall. He’s seen getting excited as his players go and make big plays. In this Vine first found by FriendlyBounce, we can see how excited he gets. He’s as involved as much as possible given the current state of his hand.

We saw this happen earlier in the year to another great point guard, Kemba Walker of the Charlotte Hornets. When Walker went out with a knee injury, his presence was still very much so with the team. Even when he was gone, the team continued to win.

This was largely due to Walker’s choice to remain a force and motivator in every game, regardless of if he had a jumpsuit or necktie on.

The same can be reported here with Wall. The Wizards are still hanging in well with the Hawks, with the series currently sitting tied at 2-2. Many were saying the Hawks would win in five games with Wall at full strength.

Of course, this presence is not able to be calculated by any type of stat directly related to Wall. We can’t whip out a bench efficiency rating (although his suit game would definitely have to be figured in if we could).

But we have to believe given how involved Wall is, that he has an impact on players, especially like Otto Porter, who seemingly out of nowhere has averaged more than 10 points per game in the playoffs when he only averaged five in the regular season.

While he’s not put on the floor tallying up assists for Ramon Sessions, it’s clear he’s a motivating factor for the 14 assists over the last four games. And don’t even try to tell me that Wall wasn’t telling Pierce in the time-out leading up to his game three victory shot that he had what it would take to sink that shot. Wall was with the team all along, even if it wasn’t right out on the floor.

Although it’s incredibly upsetting that Wall can’t be on the floor, Wizards fans can rest easy knowing they’ve got a leader in Wall that can direct, even when he’s in a suit on the bench. Who knows, maybe it’s even the planting of a seed of a great coaching career.

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