After undergoing procedures on both knees in early May, John Wall is looking forward to playing without discomfort for the first time in over three seasons.
The pain had grown so acute that Wall said he was forced to drive mostly left last season because he couldn’t jump off one leg.
Wall added, “I just showed glimpses of what I can be.” Scary thought—considering he averaged 19.9 points, 10.2 assists and 1.9 steals last season (all career bests).
As told to Michael Lee of The Vertical:
But Wall is in no rush to get back after dealing with discomfort in his left knee in each of the past three seasons. “It’s something I feel like I had to do,” Wall told the Vertical. “It was painful. You watch a lot in games, I jumped off my right leg, or I jumped off two feet. I never jumped off my left leg. That’s the reason I rarely went right, because I had to jump off two feet, because this leg, I couldn’t get off of it. … Dr. Parker told me, ‘I don’t know how the hell you were able to do it.’ [Famed orthopedist] Dr. [James] Andrews told me the same thing: ‘You’re basically playing on one leg, to be honest with you.’ “
Wall considers the upcoming season to be a career “relaunch” because he plans to return without painful restrictions in his left knee. “It’s going to be like the first time I’ll be really healthy and be myself,” Wall told The Vertical. “If you know me, you know I’m a person that’s going to attack it like nothing else. I’m taking this challenge on. It’s a tough challenge to try to rebuild everything and get stronger. It’s a challenge I’m willing to take to come back to be a better player, and come back and try to have the best season I’ve ever had.”
