Unfortunately, it wasn’t unusual that John Wall didn’t play on Tuesday vs. the Los Angeles Lakers. The rookie point guard sat out for the 10th time in the first 23 games of his NBA career — this time with right knee tendonitis.
What was different was Wizards coach Flip Saunders making the call at morning shoot-around rather than holding out hope that Wall might be ready later in the day. When Wall was pulled from the lineup in the minutes prior to tip-off at Sacramento last week, the Wizards were noticeably rattled and went on to one of their worst defeats of the year.
“I think it’s been unfair for the preparation of the other players and everybody where we go into a game not knowing, is he going to play or not going to play?” Saunders said. “We’re going to try to make those decisions earlier in the day as much as we can.”
But Saunders isn’t planning on resting Wall for an extended period. Team doctors said Wall could wake up any day and be ready to go even if he’s facing the long-term prospect of a nagging knee issue that troubled him as early as back in July during the Las Vegas Summer League.
“I don’t think, with his situation, having tendonitis, that he’s ever going to be pain free from that,” Saunders said. “So I think what we’re going to do is we’re going to monitor it.”
For his part, Wall said last weekend that he’s had no issues with how the team has handled his various injuries, which also include a sprained left foot and a bruised left knee.
“I think they’re doing a good job,” said Wall, who is averaging 16.7 points, 8.9 assists and 2.3 steals per game. “They leave it up to me. They’re not pushing me to get back, but they want to know if I can go or if I can’t go.”
But getting ribbed by his coach doesn’t help.
“I told him, in the first 20 games, you’ve missed more games than John Stockton missed in 20 years,” Saunders said. “He’s frustrated. We just got to make sure that we get it right, we get him healthy, get him right, we get it where it’s manageable, that he can play and play at the high level he needs to play at. If he can’t play with the same intensity, enthusiasm and aggression, he’s not the player that John Wall is.”
Even Lakers star Kobe Bryant took a shot when asked if he had advice for how the Reebok-sponsored Wall should deal with his injuries.
“Buy Nikes.”
