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.
“After 13 seasons in the NBA filled with unforgettable moments, I am excited to start a new chapter with NBA on Prime,” said Wall in a statement. “This change is not just a career move; it’s a chance to stay close to the game I love and share the insights I’ve gained throughout my career playing point guard at the highest level. Basketball has shaped my life, and now I can help fans see it from a new angle. Although this is a new journey, my passion for the game remains unchanged.”
This new journey isn’t that foreign to the 5x All-Star due to his previous experience with the G League and NBA TV, and his talents were obvious during one of his first nights on Prime this past March when his teammates tested his college basketball knowledge (and where he also expressed the ill feelings he still harbors for West Virginia).
But that’s not his only current connection to game he loves.
Most recently, Wall got a call from Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady to be a part of his Ones Basketball League, which he revived this season after a three year hiatus. Now Wall gets a chance to represent for his hometown as the owner of Team Raleigh.
I asked him if being in management and/or ownership was a goal and emphatically responded “definitely.”
“That’s why I accepted the job at Howard University,” he said, referring to the news last month that he was named President of Basketball Operations for the Bison.
“Stepping into this role is something I’m truly excited about,” Wall said in a statement about his job at Howard. “Washington, DC has always been my second home, and it means a lot to me to be able to come back and pour into a community that’s given me so much. Howard is an HBCU program that’s proving to the world that Black Excellence has no limits. To be part of what is building here and help shape the future of these young men is something I take a lot of pride in.”
Wall now wears many hats- on air analyst, team owner, GM and business man (he owns a restaurant and a car dealership in Florida).
But regardless of what the hat says, it will always include basketball.
“Now, even though I’m not playing anymore, I get to be around the game and talk about it,” Wall told me.
And when you’re a hoops lover like John Wall is, that’s all you really want.
