Washington Wizards: John Wall agrees with Kyrie Irving, would not play if healthy

Washington Wizards fans probably don’t want to hear this from John Wall right now.

As the Washington Wizards and the rest of the NBA get ready to head into the “bubble” down in Walt Disney World and restart the season, Kyrie Irving – Vice President of the National Basketball Player’s Association – seemed to be standing in everyone’s way.

After voicing some reasonable concerns about the restart plan during a conference call with players, Irving was essentially painted as a villain, bent on keeping basketball on pause.

However, after Irving spoke out, more players have come forward to voice their concerns. While the media and NBA Twitter rage against Irving, he actually got some support from someone he’s usually going to war against.

During a recent appearance on Caron Butler’s “The Tuff Juice Podcast“, Wizards point guard John Wall voiced his support for Irving and his apprehension around the restart.

"For me, if I was playing, I wouldn’t want to go to it, to be honest. I just don’t feel like it’s safe. I just don’t feel like it is."

It’s pretty easy to say that when you’ve been injured and out of action for over a year, but Wall went on to insist that he would still be opposed to the restart even if he were going to suit up.

"If I was healthy enough to play, I wouldn’t want to go play…What am I going (for), just to play eight games? I’m not going for just eight games and then coming back home."

That’s probably not what Wizards fans want to hear right now as the team gets ready to make a desperate run at the playoffs, a run that would be a lot easier to make if John Wall was on the court. He has recently claimed that he feels “100% healthy” and his rehab has now surpassed 18 months. That’s seemingly more than enough time to get back into playing shape.

The Wizards and Wall, however, have continually doubled-down on the idea that we won’t see him back on the court until the start of next season. If that is December 2020 – like Adam Silver has alluded to – then Wall will be taking a two-year break from basketball.

But let’s take Wall’s comments with a grain of salt. It’s easy to make these comments when there’s no real chance of Wall playing. To his credit, he did acknowledge that, and said being healthy wouldn’t change his feelings.

Would he feel differently, though, if the Wizards weren’t the last team to sneak in? With only eight games to make up ground on the Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets, the Wizards chances of making the playoffs after the final eight “regular season” games are slim. With or without John Wall.

If they were heading to the bubble as a three seed, though, Wall might be a bit less worried.