John Wall: ‘I’m Back to Myself’
John Wall’s dominant and electric performances at various pro-am games this summer have him feeling pretty good about himself. From the WaPo: “I’m back. I’m back, man. I’m back to myself,’ Wall said. ‘Now I feel I can do whatever I want to do again, blow past people, get to the basket. I think those things that I started the season with last year, I got that back. It’s coming back. You’re going to see some stuff this year, it’s just whenever — hopefully the season starts as soon as possible. The main thing is just working on my game.’ Wall showed some of what he has been working on early in the summer league game, when he slowly brought the ball up court and dribbled left to get into the lane. When DeMar DeRozan slid in front to cut him off, Wall stopped, pivoted and spun around another defender for a layup, to the delight of the fans at Trinity University. Wall then held out his hands and shrugged, looking around as if to ask, ‘Did you forget who I was?’ There were times last season when Wall admittedly lost track of who he was, with a left foot injury and later a bone bruise in his right knee limiting what he could accomplish on the court for the Washington Wizards. Wall wanted to dominate, ease into the lane, leave defenders trailing on the break, catch alley-oop lobs and flex his muscles after getting fouled while making difficult layups. ‘But I couldn’t do it,’ Wall said. ‘After the first couple of games, I wasn’t myself, I was just basically fighting through injuries and trying to play. But now you’re going to see what I did in the summer league and those types of things. You’re going to see the beginning of me, when I started out and had a triple-double in six games.’”
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