John Wall: ‘They Still Don’t Respect Me’

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall feels like he still hasn’t gotten the respect he deserves around the League.

The three-time NBA All-Star knows he can only improve his reputation by winning big.

Wall vows to only worry about what he can control going forward.

Per SI:

“They still don’t respect me,” Wall said when we sat down and I asked about his reputation nationally. “But I mean, that’s something that comes with the games. I’m gonna let people know this season.” Wall speaks in a perpetual fast break, but there’s a pause here.

 

“And I don’t know,” he adds. “You know what I mean? You have career years, when you’re winning games, you start an All-Star Game, and you’re still not put on the top three All-NBA teams. That lets you know. But all I can do is control what John Wall does. Going out there and leading my team. You’re not getting any recognition as a point guard if you ain’t winning.”

 

Then we hit the other controversies from this summer. We talked about his relationship with Bradley Beal. “Not everybody’s going to have a perfect relationship with every great player on their team,” he says. “But when I step between those lines and I’m with my team, we’re a brotherhood. We’re not great, and I wouldn’t be myself, without him. He’s able to knock down shots for me, I knock shots down for him, we make plays for each other. We’re fine, we’re perfectly fine. We both want to be great. We just gotta figure out how to balance it out. We both know, if we’re not both averaging 20-plus, our team’s not going very far.”

Related
Scott Brooks Upset With GMs Dissing John Wall’s Passing Skills