It’s Finally Time We Give Playoff John Wall the Credit He Deserves

There’s an old saying that goes, “If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound?” It’s strange how a saying like this can apply to the NBA Playoffs, but in fact it does. This isn’t a story about the Knicks taking stadium sounds out to make the game more authentic, or another player not responding to the always active Twitter fingers around the league. It’s about a player putting on memorable performance night after night while everyone’s attention is elsewhere, as if he’s playing in an arena all by himself.

Well, the answer is yes. John Wall is making noise in the playoffs, whether you hear it or not.

It’s almost incredible how Wall doesn’t get the love he deserves. It’s not like he hasn’t been noticed to some degree. He’s a four-time All-Star, but calling him just an All-Star at this point is like giving him a pat on the back for a good effort. This man doesn’t deserve a consolation trophy. If anything that trophy should be melted down and hung around his neck as some sort of medal, designed just for world destroyers like himself.

Sure, he gets credit from time to time, but the fact that he isn’t mentioned amongst the game’s elite is a new form of slander that has not yet been banned from national television. Did you know Wall is averaging the most points while shooting the highest effective shooting percentage of his career? How about the fact that he has the most steals of his career, or the most assists? You can pretty much tape Wall’s stats for this season to a dart board, sling a dart at it, and hit a career high.

Why isn’t he in the same conversation as Harden and Westbrook as a man who has taken an entire city and put it firmly on his shoulders? Is it because he owns a trimmer and doesn’t fly to the rim like a kamikaze pilot? The NBA is so fixated on the beauty of the triple double and the three ball. Wall does every single thing well and can’t even get a pity invite to the convo of best in the game.

As if his play during the regular season wasn’t enough, Wall even amped it up for the playoffs. Through two games against Atlanta, he averaged 32 points and 11.5 assists in the process of giving the Wizards a 2–0 series lead. He’s like the middle child of the family, bending over backwards and performing impossible stunts while the parents just turn the other direction and admire the artwork on the fridge.

It’s getting to the point where Wall is straight up murdering people on the court, and then turning and yelling at their corpse for even pretending to stop him.

It’s like Wall is treating Schroder with the same level of disrespect that he gets. A chain of disrespect.

Wall didn’t get this mad when Jae Crowder poked him on the nose. All Schroder did was try to recover and play defense, and Wall literally stopped and stared at him as if he ate Wall’s leftovers that were clearly labeled in the fridge.

It takes a special kind of player to perform plays on a nightly basis that make it look like you accidentally pressed a combination of buttons in NBA2k that ended up making you look like a master.

Yet for some reason, including Wall in the conversation with the best point guards in the league is widely considered blasphemy. If you put him in front of players like Harden, Westbrook, Steph Curry or Chris Paul, you legitimately might get swung at. For some reason, there’s just no love there.

Wall even gives the Wizards a chance to be the team that finally takes down LeBron and company. The Cavs are more vulnerable now than ever. Wall could finally be the knight in shining armor that the LeBron haters have read about in the prophecies. While he’s playing the best basketball of his career and Cleveland trots out their weakest team in recent memory, there’s no reason to think his eruption couldn’t knock the Cavs clean out of the playoffs. The thought of Kyrie Irving trying to guard Wall should be considered pre-crime and be reported to the police immediately.

This is just a fair warning for all of those who haven’t given Wall the recognition he deserves. After he’s done giving Atlanta the worst beating since the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, he’s going to go ahead and take on your favorite team — if they’re still around. He’s got a list of enemies, and everybody who pretends to guard him the rest of the season is on it.

As the official conductor of the Wall hype train, I invite you to get on board while you can. There’s plenty of room at this point, so get cozy and ready for Wall’s next show.