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Injuries have been a hot topic in the NBA this season, especially after three of the league’s biggest stars went down with Achilles tears during the 2025 playoffs. There may not be a player more familiar with the debilitating impact of an Achilles tear than John Wall.
The five-time All-Star tore his left Achilles tendon in 2019 after a fall in his home while already recovering from heel surgery.
Wall was 28 and considered one of the league’s best point guards. But he would play in only 74 more games before officially retiring in August. Now 35 and transitioning into a broadcasting career with Amazon Prime, Wall says his biggest regret was constantly playing hurt.
“One thing I’ve always said about my career was I wish I didn’t fight through some of the little nagging injuries that I had that led to me having bigger injuries,” Wall tells Front Office Sports. “But you love the game so much you want to be out there.”
Wall only missed 11 games from 2013 to 2017. But he also dealt with chronic minor injuries. In the 2015–16 season, after playing 77 games, he had surgery on both knees and returned in time for the beginning of the next season.
He says that nursing smaller injuries to full health is the solution to the NBA’s growing injury issue.
“If you have one or two pulled hamstrings, wait until it’s fully healed to come back because if not, one little tweak, it comes again. If you have a calf strain, don’t rush it back, take your time because you know, calf is a part of what? The Achilles,” Wall says.
Teams have appeared to be more wary of calf strains this season. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama missed nearly a month with one in November, then played several games off the bench and on a minutes restriction.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo sustained a right calf strain Friday and self-diagnosed that he would be out for 4-6 weeks. Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said there’s “no timetable” for his return.
But some have also said that the volume of injuries is due to a change in the way the game is played. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in November he’s “very concerned” about injuries caused by the “dramatic” increase in pace, calling for a shorter NBA season. Kerr saw both Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson tear Achilles tendons as Warriors.
But Wall doesn’t believe the injuries are related to a change in playing style or the number of regular-season games.
“I don’t really like basing on the game because look how many people played this game and played 82 games and were doing all these other things before these injuries happened. It’s a part of the game, you can’t control them,” Wall says.
Second Chances
Wall’s injuries enormously altered the trajectory of the Wizards, the franchise that drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2010. In July 2017, fresh off carrying the Wizards to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, Wall signed a supermax contract extension worth $171 million over four years.
But he would only play 73 games the next two years before missing the entire 2019–20 season, the year his supermax deal kicked in.
Washington moved on from Wall in December 2020, trading the team’s best player since they were the Bullets.
It was a bitter end to a successful run, and Wall even aired out some grievances in January 2021.
“I just feel like their organization thought I was done. No matter how much hard work I put in over the summer. They came and watched me; I thought they thought I was done,” Wall said then.
The bitterness now appears to be in the past.
“We both didn’t end on the right terms,” Wall says. “I take my responsibility and I’m maturing and understanding what I did on my part. Them as organization, they have to do what’s best for them and move forward.”
On top of his Amazon role, Wall also joined Monumental Sports Network—owned by Wizards governor Ted Leonsis—as a studio analyst. He says the Monumental job has “helped us build the relationship back up.”
Wall will call his first national game for Amazon when the Wizards host the Bucks on Thursday. The organization is also holding a John Wall Celebration Night, giving away Wall bobbleheads and displaying the scorer’s table he stood on after a game-winner in the 2017 playoffs.
It’s not his jersey retirement night—yet. (Trae Young mistakenly said the Wizards were set to retire Wall’s jersey during his introductory press conference.)
But Wall is hopeful his No. 2 jersey will soon be in the rafters.
“For me, the Wizards, the organization, they mean everything to me. They gave me an opportunity to reach my full potential playing on the NBA level. … If they do my jersey retirement, that would be dope. It’s all up to them if they feel like it’s the right fit for everything,” he says.
‘I don’t like it’
Before the injuries stymied his pro career, Wall was a one-and-done college prospect at the University of Kentucky. John Calipari, Wall’s college coach who now coaches Arkansas, has voiced his displeasure about the increasing trend of ex-pros returning to the NCAA.
“There are a lot of older gentlemen with beards playing basketball in college right now,” Calipari said last month.
Wall shares the same sentiments as his former coach: “I don’t like it, to be honest.”
Wall, who was drafted in the NBA at 19, added that players already have the option to return to college even after going through the league’s draft combine process. He thinks that older players having the option to return to college after having pro experience hinders the development of high school prospects.
“I think you’re taking away and it’s kind of hurting some of the younger guys come out of high school because now they have to pivot … because some college coaches don’t want young guys,” Wall says.
“When we declared it wasn’t no coming back. You gone.”
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