Wall vs. Bradley: Mutual Respect for Contrasting Players


John Wall has started to play like the guy who was drafted first overall in 2010. He’s been having huge games and grabbing some wins over playoff teams for the lowly Wizards. Just 24 hours after dropping 37 point on Indiana with 64% shooting, Wall looked like barely an all-star versus the Celtics. Why? Avery Bradley. The Game Changer smothered Wall, covering him the entire length of the court all night.

Ever since their days on the AAU courts, they’ve battled each other hard and grew a mutual respect in the process. After the game Wall gushed about Bradley saying:
"There is no playing around with him, just get by him," Wall said. "He’s nobody you want to do fancy dribbling with. He does a great job of cutting people off and getting a lot of steals. You just have to get into your offense and (go). Nobody does 94 feet. He does 94 feet the whole game. It would wear you out for 94 feet, guarding you full court and changing your directions and if you mess around, try to play around with him, you might get an eight second call."
Added Wall: "I don't know how he finds the energy to do it."
Bradley’s full court barrage of D was part of the reason the C’s took the win against Wizards, whose record was significantly impacted by missing Wall for a big chunk earlier in the year. Against Boston Wall shot just 8 of 20 from the floor and turned the ball over 3 times, hardly the same guy from the night before. Bradley echoed his respect for playing Wall in his post-game interviews, saying:
"I love it. We love battling against each other. He's a very good player. This is what I play the game for, every single night to play against players like John; He's very talented, very good."
It’s nice to see two guys that seem mature for their young age, and have mutual respect despite their conflicting strengths as players. I really like John Wall as a player and hope that the Wizards front office builds a team around him to be able to show off his real talent, but Bradley’s tenacious on ball defense is other worldly and someday hopefully we’ll talk about him in the same breath as ‘The Glove’.

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