When John Wall officially became a member of the Washington Wizards, the team literally rolled out the red carpet for his introduction in the nation’s capital.
There was nothing discrete about it. Wall was already a star coming out of Kentucky — he was used to seeing his face on advertisements, children wearing “11” jerseys and fans bombarding his Twitter mentions, hoping he lands in their NBA city.
The realities of the NBA — and really, the team’s failure to capitalize on Wall’s talent early in his career — stopped Wall’s star from growing, and becoming the megastar most pundits thought he would develop into out of college.