Yang Yi: Before I could grow up, Wall is already old

When I saw Wall's retirement announcement in the early morning yesterday, I believe most people's ideas should be similar: What? Turns out Wall hasn't retired yet?

was traded by the Wizards and hidden by the Rockets. He terminated his contract and joined the Clippers for 34 games and was unemployed again. In fact, since the Achilles tendon ruptured in February 2019, John Wall has no longer been the speed maniac, a breakthrough weapon, and can always ignite the home court in one second. No one is willing to take a higher look at this 2010 No. 1 pick.

Yes, even though he had finished his last NBA game of his career on January 13, 2023, Wall has been training, rehabilitation, and trying to get a chance to play in the NBA for the past year. Disappearing from the public eye also blurred his real age. As for whether he is 32, 34 or 36, it seems that it is no longer so important. Everyone only needs to know one thing.

He has never retired, but no one wants it.

We certainly understand teams that are disrespectful to him. As a player who has never made a stable projection in his career, Wall relies far more on physical functions than others. Westbrook has had such difficulties in the past few years, and Wall's body has slipped even more exaggeratedly than Viagra, partly because of irreversible injuries, and partly because of his undisciplined life.

He will never lack female companions around him, but no one can stay by his side for a long time. He likes to attend parties of all kinds of celebrities, and you can always find photos of Kevin Hart, Mayweather, famous gangster rappers and unknown beauties and he is not drunk on his Twitter page. Parties and nightclub activities fill his summer schedule, and it's hard to imagine he's free up even a little time to train.

He is passionate about nightlife and he is determined to defend his lifestyle anyway. Of course, as a person, this is his right. Just as a fan of the Washington Wizards, it's hard not to complain about it. At Wall's peak, everyone knew that the Washington Wizards' season would start in January of the following year. Because Wall took two months to clean the rust - and fat on his body. If the Wizards' general manager at that time was not Ernie Grenfield, who was famous for his inaction, but the ambitious Nick Harrison, he would have been exchanged for big guys like Mark Gasol who have both offense and defense.

But you can't go too far to blame him for anything. There are two reasons. First of all, of course, his game is really attractive. He is the most talented genius the Washington Wizards have ever received since Michael Jordan’s retirement, and the only reason Washington fans buy tickets to watch the game at Verizon Center after Gilbert Arenas’ gun-wielding incident. Wizards fans are like the little wife who scolds her husband every day but can only wash his underwear with a cold face. In the first two months of each season, they kept complaining because of his lack of self-discipline. Then, after Wall suddenly led the team to a 20-6 loss and returned to the top six in the Eastern Conference, he obediently returned to the family and praised her husband for the best in the world - what should I do? Of course, I can only choose to forgive him.

Wall's speed, explosiveness, flexibility and confrontation are rare in history. If we only talk about the excitement of the highlights, I believe he is in the top ten levels in the NBA history. In that era when social media had not spread every video as viral as it is now, Wall's highlights were enough to make him popular all over the world like "Gangnam Style" of that era. Many fans and commentators believed that he was a player from the future: as a point guard, his tall figure, his outward personality, and his undisguised desire to perform, he only took 3.5 seconds to run from one end of the court to the other end. After folding his body and then folding it, he could still accurately put the ball to Gotat's passing method of eating cakes, spinning like a top in the air. After 360 degrees, he can still use the opponent to easily make a layup with the opponent. After a large-scale physical change, he will pass the defender and then dunk the opponent to make up for the athletic ability of the center...

We have seen too many defenders with strong physical fitness in this era. Wade is also very powerful, Rose is also very powerful, and Westbrook is also very powerful, but Wall's highlights are different from them. Rather than saying that those pictures make people feel like the sky is thunderous, blood is thrust, it is better to say that what you really feel is the ease that appears in his every move.

You must admit that it is a gift from God.

And another reason is Wall's growth experience.

Wal grew up on David Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, a true slum, one of the most frequent areas of violent crime in North Carolina. Everyone who lives here smokes, drinks, takes drugs, shoots each other for a little bit of stuff. The Wall family was not immune to the common people. The first time he saw his father in memory was when he was visiting prison. When he was one year old, his father was imprisoned for armed robbery and died of liver cancer when he was nine. The prison let him out at his last moment just to get Wall to say his final goodbye to him. In an environment that may be the least suitable for children's growth, Wall has developed many bad habits. He always makes people around him angry, he is very enthusiastic about doing things for three minutes, and never speaks and does things through his brain. This has been through almost his career.

When he was in the first and second grades, his mother Francis Puley was not in a hurry to go home after sending him to school every day, but would wait in the parking lot for a while, because most of the time Wall would be driven home by the teacher because of trouble. He would directly curse his teammates who performed poorly on the court, and would also make dirty gestures to the coach who replaced him. When he was 13 years old, he had already started playing real-life GTA on the street, breaking other people's windows, stealing cars for a ride, and not being arrested by the police was considered lucky..

There are fewer photos of him taking pleasure in his social media with celebrities, and more are photos of him and his commentators sitting on the sidelines wearing headphones. When the fastest basketball player finally learned to slow down, Wall finally found another new track in his life. Just last night, he announced on his social networking website that he became a game analyst for Amazon's Prime Video team, and will create a brand new NBA commentary team with legendary players such as Nowitzki, Wade, Nash, and Griffin. Obviously, he has been recognized on this new track.

I hope this is a career that allows him to experience more happiness than basketball players.