John Wall Makes Heartbreaking Injury Admission After Announcing Retirement

If you had not seen Wizards great John Wall play in his prime, you could be forgiven for not quite getting why his retirement this week at age 34 was a big deal, and a sad moment for many. Of course, if you had not seen Wall in his prime, you could be easily forgiven, because injuries robbed Wall of so much of that prime.

Wall was the NBA's No. 1 pick in 2010, and quickly established himself as a star in his first two seasons, when he averaged 16.3 points and 8.2 assists. He blossomed into an All-Star in his fourth season, when he averaged 19.3 points and 8.8 assists, and had his best year in 2016-17, when he averaged 23.1 points and 10.7 assists.

But that was also the final year that he was healthy and productive. Int he last eight years, Wall has played only 147 games in the NBA, making his retirement unsurprising, albeit still sad.

How Much Money Did John Wall Make in the NBA?

Wall was, of course, well-paid. He was healthy when he was up for the two big contracts of his career, a five-year, $85 million extension in the summer of 2013, and a four-year, $171 million deal in 2017. In all, he made around $275 million off his NBA contracts.

But, speaking to the Washington Post after his announcement, Wall said he'd trade all that money to be able to play a full, healthy career.

“That’s the most frustrating part because people think, ‘Oh, he got the money, he’s set for life, he don’t care.’ No, I would give up all the money to play basketball and never deal with none of those injuries. I didn’t play the game of basketball for money. I played the game of basketball because I love it,” Wall said. “I was itching to get back to play. I wasn’t itching to sit on the sideline and collect the check. The check don’t mean [anything].”

What Were John Wall's Injuries?

There were first some red flags around Wall's health in 2012, when he began the 2012-13 season late because of a patellar issue in his left knee. But he bounced back from that with little worry. Wall underwent minor surgeries on both knees in the 2016 offseason, but did not miss time for those issues.

The knee problem came back up in 2018, though, and he missed two months after having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

At the end of 2018, things really fell apart for Wall. He suffered a heel injury and was ruled out for the year on Dec. 29 and, shortly after having heel surgery, had an infection that subsequently revealed Wall had suffered a torn Achilles tendon in a fall at his home. It was an astounding run of bad luck.

As Wizards doctor Wiemi Douoguih said at the time, "Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of data on elite NBA point guards with tendon ruptures."

If Wall is Exhibit A for elite point guards with tendon ruptures, the prognosis is never good. The injuries sapped Wall of his chief advantage--he was always among the fastest players in the NBA, both in quickness and end-to-end speed.

But, Wall said, he regrets nothing. He will be moving on to analysis as he is part of the Amazon Prime team that will be broadcasting games next season.

"I wouldn’t change my story for nothing," he said. "I gave 110 percent effort. Gave everything I had on both ends of the floor. Sometimes I was hardheaded and played through injuries that I probably shouldn’t have played through."