John Wall Couldn’t Wait Until Tonight To Sign A Multi-Million-Dollar Deal

Written by Ryan Walsh / 06.24.10

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When not brining stupid rap video dances to the masses, John Wall has been known to play some basketball here and there. Wall is the consensus choice to be selected number one overall by the Washington Wizards in tonight’s NBA Draft, and I’m sure he’s plenty excited about that. John should also be excited about the shoe contract he signed with Reebok. The 25 million dollar over 5 year contract is more money than Wall can expect to make in his contract with the Wizards.

Reebok made an immense investment with the charismatic and explosive guard, believing that Wall can replace Allen Iverson(notes) as the brand’s superstar. Wall’s reps, Dan Fegan of Lagardere Unlimited and Brian Clifton of Pindar Enterprises, negotiated a rare two guaranteed signature shoes for Wall.

The deal exceeds what most industry insiders believed even Wall, a spectacular talent, could get in this marketplace. In the declining economy, shoe companies have become more judicious about handing out such big guaranteed deals to rookies. The No. 1 pick in the 2009 NBA draft, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin(notes), was reported to have signed for $400,000 annually with Nike. Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings(notes) had a more lucrative deal with Under Armour that he signed out of high school, worth approximately $2 million over four years. Yahoo! via USAToday

John Wall is probably going to have some difficulty deciding what he, at such a young age, should do with that kind of money. Luckily, the good people at Disney have made a movie that could shed some light on what must be a sticky situation.

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The Great Wall Of Chinatown: Wizards Net No. 1 Pick

Written by JOSH Z / 05.19.10

john wall great wall of chinatown

The Washington Wizards didn’t really need another guard, but they’ll probably end up with one anyway. They won the NBA Draft Lottery (which, granted, is much better than Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”), locking up the No. 1 pick for what’s being called the John Wall sweepstakes. New Wizards owner Ted Leonsis finds himself in a bit of a quandry already.

The consensus among experts is that Kentucky’s freshman point guard, John Wall, is the top talent in this year’s draft. But Washington already has a point guard in Arenas, and they owe him $80 million over the next four seasons. Neither moving Arenas to shooting guard nor trading him to another team is an easy proposition. But Grunfeld left little doubt about his plans for the No. 1 pick.

“We’re going to take the best player available, regardless of position,” he said. “This is a player that we intend to have with us for a long, long time. So whoever the best player we feel is available to us, that’s the one we’ll pick.” –NBA.com.

So…probably Wall. Well, wasn’t that suspenseful. And by the way, the Celtics won again last night to pull ahead 2-0 in their conference final series. Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo combined for 53 points, which sounds like a lot.

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KENTUCKY’S JOHN WALL IS GOOD

Written by JOSH Z / 12.10.09

john_wall_kentuckyKentucky freshman John Wall is already making a case to be college basketball’s player of the year. Wall’s 25 points and dynamic end-to-end play helped Kentucky get past UConn last night at Madison Square Garden, 64-61.

“He’s phenomenal, one of the best players out there,” Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson said. “If we need a crunch-time basket we give it to John and we know we are going to have the advantage. Pretty much when we need baskets we know who to get the ball to.”[..]

“I just try to be a point guard,” Wall said. “I struggled some in the first half then picked it up in the second and led us to the victory.” –Y! Sports.

Despite being in early foul trouble, Wall did the majority of the ball handing for the Wildcats and controlled the pace for most of the game. It’s bizarre that a freshman can step into the college game and have that sort of impact. I blame Congress for that.

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JERRY STACKHOUSE GOT DUNKED ON

Written by JOSH Z / 08.11.09

Here’s summer league video of Jerry Stackhouse (in white) getting “LeBron’d” by some dude named John Wall at some tournament called the N.C. Pro-Am, and I’m having a hard time figuring out which dude is the pro and which is the am. Stackhouse, who started all of one game for the Mavericks last year, just got served by an incoming college freshman.. Wall will be playing at Kentucky this winter, probably helping new coach John Calipari restoring that program to national prominence and then doing whatever dudes do in Kentucky, like hunting, fishing and voting Republican. via.

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