John Wall is still heartbroken over how the Wizards treated him at the end

The resentment is real.

This being Valentine’s Day and all, it seems like a good time to point out that John Wall is still reeling from the Washington Wizards moving on and trading him to the Houston Rockets for Russell Westbrook.

Wall gave an extensive interview to The Athletic’s Fred Katz in which he discussed the days leading up to the trade and his lingering feelings about it. Wall returns to D.C. for a game Monday and said he expects a “dope-ass reception” from fans. He’s certainly earned it.

The whole Katz story is absolutely worth a read, but the part that stands out most is how open and raw Wall is in discussing his feelings about the trade and the process that led up to it. Our own Mike D. Sykes wrote a beautiful tribute to Wall in the wake of the trade, tracing how much he meant to D.C.

Clearly Wall had an equally strong bond to D.C., but also to the Wizards — especially for a teammate he was rumored to not always get along with:

 

Wall also said he still watches every Wizards game, largely because he’s such a big fan of Beal’s game.

Sports is big business, and athletes know as much. We’ve reached a stage where they know they’ll be treated as a product by their teams and that the world “loyalty” is nothing but marketing spin.

Except every now and then a player forms a real bond with a place, and when they’re dispatched they decide to be real about what that feels like. That’s powerful for us, as fans, but it also serves as a way to protect other players. Transparency forces organizations to truly reckon with how they treat players, and gives fans a way to evaluate whether they want to support those practices.

Here’s Wall discussing his disappointment in the way the Wizards treated him:

“I felt like I deserved the honesty and respect because I’ve been there for 10 years. I’ve been through the bad times, when we had shitty teams and when we had good teams in D.C. I never turned my back on the organization. I played through damn near every injury that a lot of people wouldn’t have played through. I played through broken hands in the playoffs. I think I did everything I could and gave everything I had, heart and soul to the organization on and off the court.”

Yeah, Wall deserved better, but we’re thankful for him sharing the truth with us here.

https://youtu.be/7aZmbwf51Xs