John Wall Reacts To Being 31st On SI’s Player Rankings

We’re nearing the start of a new season, so it’s the perfect time to rank NBA players and debate about them. This week, Sports Illustrated is publishing their list of top 100 NBA players. The full list is not available yet, but we do know SI placed Washington Wizards point guard John Wall at number 31. Wall went on Twitter last night and addressed his rank.

This summer has given Wall many reasons to be motivated heading into training camp. He didn’t make it past the first round of cuts at Team USA’s training camp, and said afterwards he didn’t get a fair shot at making the team.

Now, he’s been left out of the top 30 in SI’s player rankings.

Wall took it in stride on Twitter:

Wall just turned 24 this month and is coming off a career season. Across the board, he put up career highs with 19.3 points, 8.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game. While his shooting remains an area of improvement (Wall shot 43.3 percent from the field last season, and is a career 42.6 percent shooter), Wall did show progress with his three-point shooting last season, making 35.1 percent of his attempts from downtown.

More importantly, the Wizards made the playoffs for the first time with Wall as their point guard, and made it to the second round before losing to the Indiana Pacers.

The Wizards are expected to challenge for the Southeast Division this season, especially since the Heat no longer have LeBron James. The Team USA snub and SI ranking may motivate Wall even more, but he already has a lot riding on his shoulders, as expectations will be very high in Washington this season.

If Wall can lead his team to the division title and a deep playoff run, you can bet he’ll be cracking the top 30 of every player rank list next year.

What do you think?

Follow steven lebron on Twitter at @steven_lebron.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE

×