John Wall hasn’t taken the court for the Wizards in a few weeks now thanks to a knee procedure he had done that’s expected to sideline him for up to two months. But despite his absence, his name has stayed in the news, as it appears there might be a rift developing between Wall and some of his Washington teammates.
The Wizards have gone 6-2 since Wall was sent to the sidelines, and some people have started to speculate about how Washington might be better off without Wall in the lineup. They have pointed out that the Wizards appear to be distributing the ball more efficiently and playing better as a whole. And in early February, Wizards center Marcin Gortat seemed to suggest that he was one of the people who thought the Wizards were better without Wall when he sent out what looked like a passive-aggressive tweet about a Wizards "team" win over the Raptors.
Wall made a series of appearances on ESPN a few days later, and he was, of course, asked about the tweet. He said it was shocking to see what Gortat tweeted.
"It was more just a shock to hear it from him, understanding he gets the most assists from me and the most spoon-fed baskets ever," Wall said.
Since then, it sounds as though Wall and Gortat may have smoothed things over. ESPN’s Chris Haynes published a report early Wednesday morning indicating that sources have told him Wall and Gortat met privately last week to confront one another over the tweet and to hash things out. According to league sources who spoke with Haynes, Wall and Gortat met briefly after Wall reached out to Gortat via text message and asked him to come to him if he had a problem rather than going to social media to "spew backhanded insults."
Gortat has maintained all along that his tweet was not originally meant to be about Wall. But whatever the case, it sounds like Wall and Gortat are back on better terms. Haynes is reporting there is still some work to be done to fully repair their relationship, but for the time being at least, it sounds like the two are going to move on from whatever hard feelings came up as a result of Gortat’s tweet.
You can watch Wall talk about his relationship with his Wizards’ teammates below.
