Storyline: Wall-Beal Dynamic

59 rumors in this storyline

3 months ago – via Matt Weyrich @ NBC Sports
About halfway through the interview, Leonsis spoke about Bradley Beal and John Wall—breaking down how the Wizards’ brass convinced Beal decided to sign a two-year extension with the team. “Brad and John are way closer than the media portrays,” Leonsis said. “They are also deeply immersed in the culture of the NBA and history of the NBA. Having a great backcourt is priority one and why would you want to, if you’re a great player, be a sidekick, if you will. And is that leading to happiness? I mean that’s the amazing thing that you see. You’ve never seen as many unhappy people as you’re seeing in the NBA.”

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5 months ago – via Twitter

Bradley Beal in his birthday toast to John Wall: “Everybody count us out, doubting us every year. That’s my brother man. I appreciate you all welcoming me.” John Wall: “Love brother.” (via 5deepjak/IG)

6 months ago – via The Athletic

A lot speculation is centered around Brad’s future and the organization has been committed to you. If something changed and for some reason, he was moved, would you be comfortable with a rebuild? John Wall: At the end of the day, nobody feels comfortable with a rebuild. I don’t like to lose. I went through that my first couple of years. Me and Brad are brothers. I tell everybody, you’ve got two young guys that’s so talented. Who ain’t going to bump heads at some time? We both want to be great. We both want to take the last shot. But we built that type of bond. Brad is so mature for his age, you wouldn’t expect for him to be the age he is, but give a lot of credit to his parents and his brothers that raised him. I feel like we need one more shot. We need one more run at it. But we’ve got to add some pieces around us, some dogs that can go to war with us. I mean, me and him together, we can go against anybody.
1 year ago – via USA Today Sports

John Wall and Bradley Beal called out their teammates for having their “own agendas” after a 116-112 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. Washington dropped to 1-4 to start the season, with the pair of All-Star guards blasting the Wizards’ effort on the defensive end of the floor, where Washington is giving up 122.8 points a game, second-worst in the league. “Sometimes we have our own agendas on the floor, whether it’s complaining about shots, complaining about playing time, complaining about whatever it may be,” Beal said. “We’re worried about the wrong (expletive) and that’s not where our focus needs to be and it’s just going to continue to hurt us.”
2 years ago – via Washington Post

John Wall had to be the bold one, too. In 2010, a month before Wall was drafted first overall by the Wizards, he was in Los Angeles to watch the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League and to check out a high school shooter from St. Louis. After the game, Wall made a beeline through the gymnasium packed with fans trying to see him and approached Bradley Beal, saying he was a fan of his game. Two years later, Wall petitioned the Wizards’ front office to draft the quiet kid who could shoot like Ray Allen. Over time, Wizards teammates took to calling him “Baby Ray.” “I viewed [Wall] as a big brother,” Beal said.
2 years ago – via Washington Post

Even now, Beal must carefully dodge potential land mines when discussing his relationship with Wall. He knows there always will be someone dissecting every word or interpreting anything he shares about the duo’s growing pains as signs of irreconcilable rancor. No, they’re not BFFs, but they like each other just fine — though Wall hasn’t come over to Beal’s McLean, Va., mansion, Beal has taken his five dogs over to Wall’s property in Potomac, Md. Beal believes they can both lead the Wizards. In doing so, healthy disagreement should be expected. “We’re not always going to be on the same page. There are times when we will get into it, we will argue. He’ll chew me out, and I’ll chew him out, but at the same time, there’s a respect factor that we have,” Beal said, before concluding, “Brothers do that.”
2 years ago – via Washington Post

Though Wall was going for laughs — several Washington Wizards teammates recognized the impression — there was a sincerity to his acknowledgment of Beal’s hot streak. “He’s already a lethal scorer,” Wall said before the Wizards faced the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday, “but he’s finding ways to do it in so many other ways, getting downhill and getting to the basket and a guy like that that can score in various ways and get into a rhythm, the basket’s big.”
3 years ago – via Yahoo! Sports

“It’s the same thing I went through,” Wall told The Vertical of Beal’s steady climb. “A lot of people get success later on, and a lot of us get it late. Both of us are getting it late in our career, but that doesn’t define what you did early in our career, because we still showed glimpses. We just never were healthy and never had a great team. He put in the work and is deserving of everything he’s got. All you can do is keep going up. And all we can do is keep getting better and better as a tandem.”
3 years ago – via bradleybeal.net

Bradley Beal: Maturing has had a big impact on how John Wall and I play together, too. We’ve both grown—in our mental approach to the game, our intellectual approach to the game, and how we relate to each other. We both understand that the team won’t be successful unless we’re on the same page, and that’s where we are now. With time, we’ve gotten better and better, and as a backcourt, we feel like we’re second to none. We know where each other’s spots are on the floor. I know where he’s going to be in the flow of the offense. He knows where I’m going to be. Everything just naturally flows, and on top of it, we’re both having career years. We’re constantly getting better, and challenging each other to be the best we can be.
3 years ago – via Yahoo! Sports

Before accepting the job, Brooks had heard of a possible rift between his two best players, Wall and Beal. The relationship dominated headlines over the summer after Wall told Chris Miller of CSN Mid-Atlantic that they had a tendency to “dislike each other” on the court. But Brooks’ concerns about how the young backcourt would mesh were alleviated before the start of training camp. “I met both of them and it confused me a little bit, because both were great guys. And I know when players can get along and I know when this is not going to work. I never felt that, from meeting both of them individually over the summer, ‘How are we going to make this work? I’m going to have to bring in some guys way above my thinking.’ But I never felt that,” Brooks told The Vertical.
3 years ago – via Bleacher Report

Talking to both of them, I think we can get there. John has the ability to impact the game without scoring, by just defending and passing.” Will he remain happy doing that? “I can’t answer that with 100 percent certainty,” Brooks admits. “If Kyrie Irving is going for 40 and he’s having a bad shooting game, is he going to worry about the game or…? We’ll see. If you’re going to be a leader, it’s about doing the things to lead your team and moving on to the next game.”
3 years ago – via Bleacher Report

“People always assumed why we weren’t connecting,” Wall says now. “People asked, ‘Well, are you mad?’ No, I’m not mad. I can’t control the CBA. It’s good timing for him. All I’m saying is let him earn it. I didn’t deserve it until I went out and made the All-Star Game and then they said, ‘All right, he earned it.’ Let him earn it. I had to earn mine.” Big Panda agrees that he has to join Wall in testing his physical limits, and he addressed the issue prior to sitting out the Wizards’ recent loss to the Cavaliers, the first of three games he missed with the strained hamstring. “No matter how our bodies might feel, no matter what we did the night before, there are no nights off,” Beal says.
3 years ago – via Washington Post

On Friday afternoon, Brooks shared his thoughts for the first time since John Wall and Bradley Beal spoke of on-court chemistry issues in separate CSN interviews. Brooks has read their admissions — and he doesn’t plan on holding emergency counseling sessions before the 2016-17 season begins. “There’s a lot of things I’m worried about going into camp, and every coach in this league is worried about, that is not one of them,” Brooks said about Wall and Beal’s possible rift. “I haven’t even talked to our assistant coaches about it. Will I meet with each player individually? Yes. Will I meet with the team? Yes. Will I meet with the positions together? Yes. But I don’t see our team having a problem with chemistry.”
3 years ago – via The Ringer

John Wall recently said he and Bradley Beal “have a tendency to dislike each other,” which is a strange thing to publicly admit. The Wizards’ chemistry issues are apparent, and it’s not like Wall said they actually hate each other, but an inclination to get agitated is not out of his character. Wall is known to keep a close eye on what other players are making, and the paper tossed around this summer has reportedly irked him. One league source familiar with Wall’s state of mind simply put it this way: “Wall’s got jealousy issues. He’s always upset with someone who makes more money than him.” A lot of players will make more money than Wall this year. He signed a five-year, $84.8 million deal in 2013, which looks like chump change now.
3 years ago – via The Ringer

3 years ago – via The Ringer

3 years ago – via Washington Post

Wall admitted he and Beal “have a tendency to dislike each other on the court.” Beal acknowledged he and his back-court mate “lose sight of the fact that we need each other.” With these confessions, suddenly fans’ hopes of the duo matching the dynamic of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson gave way to the fear of an unraveling more akin to Jason Kidd and Jim Jackson, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning, Chris Paul and everyone. “They got to figure it out,” said Clippers assistant coach Sam Cassell, who was a Wizards assistant from 2009 to 2014. “I’m not going to [say] who’s wrong or who’s right, but they got to figure it out.”
3 years ago – via CSNMidAtlantic

3 years ago – via CSNMidAtlantic

3 years ago – via CSNMidAtlantic

“I think a lot of times we have a tendency to dislike each other on the court. … We got to be able to put that to the side. If you miss somebody on one play or don’t have something go right … as long as you come to each other and talk. If I starting arguing with somebody I’m cool. I’m just playing basketball,” Wall said in a sitdown interview with CSN’s Chris Miller that airs tonight, Wizards Central: Offseason Grind, at 7:30 p.m. ET. “Now that you have your money you got to go out there and improve your game. I want you to be an All-Star just as much as I’m an All-Star. If we were playing well as a tandem like the other two superstars that play together as a backcourt, play as a tandem, one night it’s going to be his night, one night it’s going to be mine, some nights it might be both of us. Those are nights it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
3 years ago – via CSNMidAtlantic

“It’s tough because we’re both alphas. It’s always tough when you have two guys who firmly believe in themselves, who will bet on themselves against anybody else, who want to be that guy. We both can be that guy,” Beal said. “Sometimes I think we both lose sight of the fact that we need each other. I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in without John. John wouldn’t be in the situation he’s in without me, without the rest of the team. It goes hand-in-hand so it’s kind of a pride thing. We got to (hash) out our pride, fiigure out what our goals are individually, help each other achieve those goals, figure out what our team goal is, where do we see ourselves five years from now, 10 years from now and go from there.”
More HoopsHype Rumors
January 24, 2020 | 2:36 am UTC Update
Kerry Eggers: Terry Stotts on Mavs’ All-Star Luka Doncic: “He’s in the MVP discussion. What he’s doing is remarkable for a 20-year-old 2nd-year player. He does everything for them. They have the No. 1 offense in the league & that’s mainly because of what he does. He makes his teammates better”
5 hours ago – via kerryeggers

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Storyline: All-Star Selections
Brad Townsend: Misunderstood earlier. JJ’s idea was to write Powell’s name on all the players’ shoes. “We’ve got to keep him around somehow,” Barea says. He spoke to today Powell, who still is deciding which surgeon to use.

5 hours ago – via townbrad

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“We’d gotten calls for years about Dirk,” he tells me, “and you say, ‘No, Dirk’s not on the table. We’re not going to trade Dirk.’” Cuban reminisces about some other potentially big Mavericks acquisitions that never came to fruition. He was rehearsing for his stint on Dancing With the Stars when he learned that Jerry Buss had talked Bryant out of demanding a trade to the Mavericks in 2007. In 2013, Dallas thought it had Paul Pierce in a three-way deal, but the third team torpedoed it. “Every team asks every team if they’d be willing to trade their star player,” he says.
5 hours ago – via Katie Baker @ The Ringer

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He wishes the league would build out more streamable content in the offseason, like investing in The Basketball Tournament or the Big 3. “Right?” he says. “We should have NBA content year-round, but it’s beyond the definition of stupidity that we take our best players and we let them play for the Olympics, which is a commercial event.” In Cuban’s mind, basketball should be more like soccer. “What’s a bigger event, soccer in the Olympics, or the World Cup of soccer?” he asks. “Why can’t we do the same thing?”
5 hours ago – via Katie Baker @ The Ringer

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I ask what the organization has done to improve, as Cuban pledged it would during his apology tour, and he gushes that the team’s new CEO, Cynthia Marshall, “changed the culture, she changed everything about the team.” But when I try to get him to elaborate on what some of the changes have been, he just repeats “everything” and adds that “people love working here, that’s the barometer,” a response that feels particularly vague coming from a guy who typically traffics in outspoken specifics.
5 hours ago – via Katie Baker @ The Ringer

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Storyline: Mavericks Harassment Claims
January 24, 2020 | 2:28 am UTC Update
Micah Adams: Most years as leading All-Star vote-getter Michael Jordan – 9 LeBron James- 7 Vince Carter – 4 Kobe Bryant – 4 Julius Erving – 4 Dwight Howard – 2 Yao Ming – 2 Grant Hill – 2 Magic Johnson – 2 George Gervin – 2
5 hours ago – via MicahAdams13

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Storyline: All-Star Selections
Lonzo Ball’s per-game assist average was higher on the road than at home in his two seasons with the Lakers. In fact, his assist percentage has been higher on the road every season of his career. Once again, Ball isn’t unique in this phenomenon. Across the league, the home-court assist advantage—a consistent analytical assumption for decades, a staple of NBA scorekeeping—has all but disappeared.
5 hours ago – via Zach Kram @ The Ringer

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According to an NBA spokesperson, beginning with the 2017-18 season, the league added a stats auditor to watch games at the replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey. Using a DVR-style device to review plays during breaks in action, this individual can serve as a fallback option in the case of a misawarded number in the box score. All decisions are made by the in-arena stats crews, the NBA official stressed, but the auditor can work in conjunction with them and recommend certain changes as the game speeds by. The more eyes, the official said, the better.
5 hours ago – via Zach Kram @ The Ringer

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Or, remember that almost every prominent passer in NBA history collected more assists at home than on the road? One of the few exceptions is Steve Nash, who recorded 0.4 more assists per game on the road than at home. In Nash’s heyday, Phoenix employed one of the least-friendly scorekeeping crews for assists. Had he enjoyed a typical home bias over his career, he would have retired with upwards of 500 more career assists than he did, and he would move ahead of Jason Kidd (who enjoyed a typical 11 percent home-court assist advantage in his career) for eighth on the all-time assists-per-game leaderboard.
5 hours ago – via Zach Kram @ The Ringer

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January 24, 2020 | 1:50 am UTC Update
After a week and further testing, Murray’s ankle injury is less concerning than it was the night of the injury, team sources told Mile High Sports. According to those sources, Murray has a low ankle sprain. There is no firm timetable for his return, but the Nuggets organization is not terribly worried about his ankle issue which is good news considering how much pain Murray was in after sustaining the injury and the fact that he put no weight on his left leg at all at the time.
6 hours ago – via TJ McBride @ Mile High Sports

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Storyline: Jamal Murray Injury
January 24, 2020 | 12:50 am UTC Update
Alex Kennedy: NBA players typically pick their friends/teammates rather than take the All-Star starter vote seriously. The following players received MULTIPLE player votes: Jordan Bone, Miye Oni, Ryan Broekhoff, Chimezie Metu, Jarrell Brantley, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Chris Boucher.
7 hours ago – via AlexKennedyNBA

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January 24, 2020 | 12:24 am UTC Update
The streets of Chicago surely will be jam-packed with celebrities and basketball junkies come NBA All-Star Weekend in three weeks. On the court at United Center, this year’s threads will pay homage to the city’s popular alternative use of transportation — the transit line. Jordan Brand and Nike designers have developed a concept to incorporate all eight lines of the train, identified locally as the Chicago “L,” as the theme of each uniform color.
7 hours ago – via Eric Woodyard @ ESPN

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January 24, 2020 | 12:11 am UTC Update
Bryant still has informal conversations with Lakers’ controlling owner Jeanie Buss, general manager Rob Pelinka, LeBron James and young player Kyle Kuzma. He attended two Lakers games this season and attracted attention from NBA stars and fans alike. Yet, Bryant maintained he has “zero” involvement with his former team and has higher aspirations than chasing nostalgia.
8 hours ago – via Mark Medina @ USA Today Sports

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Consider what Bryant experienced on his farewell tour during his final season with the Lakers in 2015-16. Teammates, team officials and opponents did not just shower Bryant with praise. Some of them also shared their misgivings. “ ‘I don’t know what you want to do when you retire,’ ” Bryant recited. “ ‘You’re going to go through a state of depression. You’re going to have an identity crisis.’ These are all things that were said to me because people were genuinely concerned.”
8 hours ago – via Mark Medina @ USA Today Sports

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Storyline: Kobe Bryant Retirement
Bryant turned his head toward something he considered more meaningful. He stared at the Oscar, Sports Emmy and Annie Award that he won for his short film, “Dear Basketball”. “They’re at the top for me,” Bryant said in a wide-ranging interview with USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not something that was expected. As a kid, you kind of have the goal of winning championships and all these sorts of things. Being in the industry that I’m in now? It wasn’t something that was thought of me winning an Oscar.”
8 hours ago – via Mark Medina @ USA Today Sports

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January 23, 2020 | 11:35 pm UTC Update
The New York Knicks, the National Basketball Association’s most valuable team despite a string of losing seasons, are getting a makeover. The franchise known for stars like Clyde Frazier, Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing — and off the court for hothead owner Jim Dolan — is partnering with Steve Stoute’s Translation agency in an attempt to bolster its brand and strengthen its ties to the fan base.
8 hours ago – via Bloomberg

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January 23, 2020 | 11:25 pm UTC Update