A complete timeline of John Wall's decade with the Wizards originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The John Wall era officially ended Wednesday night when the Wizards traded their star guard and a heavily protected first-round pick to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Russell Westbrook.
From getting selected first overall in the 2010 draft out of the University of Kentucky to making the All-NBA Third Team in 2017, the five-time All-Star point guard never made it past the second round of the playoffs with Washington. Still, he’ll be remembered as one of the most dynamic Wizards players ever.
Here’s a look back at his decade in Washington.
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June 24, 2010: The Wizards select Wall with the first pick in the 2010 NBA Draft after he played one year at Kentucky.
October 29, 2010: Wall struggles in his NBA debut, finishing with a player plus-minus of -31 in a blowout loss to Dwight Howard’s Orlando Magic.
November 2, 2010: Wall makes his arrival in the nation’s capital known, scoring 29 points and providing 13 assists in his home debut, becoming the second-ever NBA player to dish at least nine assists in their first three games. He also recorded an impressive nine steals in a win over Philadelphia.
November 11, 2010: Wall records his first triple-double against Yao Ming and the Rockets, scoring 19 points while notching 13 assists and 10 rebounds in a 98-91 win.
May 4, 2011: Blake Griffin is unanimously named the Rookie of the Year after missing the entire 2009 campaign, but Wall finishes second after being named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month each month from January-April.
Sept. 28, 2012: Diagnosed with a non-traumatic stress injury in his left knee during pre-season, Wall misses the first 33 games of the season. Wizards were 5-28 during that stretch and went 24-25 when he returned.
March 25, 2013: Wall scores a career-high 47 points in a win against Memphis.
July 31, 2013: Despite not yet making an All-Star game and missing roughly a quarter of the NBA games early in his career, the Wizards sign Wall to a maximum contract extension worth $80 million over five years.
January 30, 2014: Wall was named an Eastern Conference reserve, making the first All-Star team of his career.
February 16, 2014: Wall becomes the first Wizard to win the NBA Slam Dunk contest.
April 29, 2014: Wall helps the fifth-seeded Wizards advance past the Bulls and into the second round of the playoffs for just the third time since 1979 in the first postseason of his NBA career. They went on to lose in six games to Indiana.
January 22, 2015: Named an All-Star starter for the first time in his career, Wall became the franchise’s first player named an All-Star starter since Gilbert Arenas in 2007.
April 21, 2015: Dishes out a Wizards record 17 playoff assists in Game 2 of a 4-0 series sweep of the Raptors before falling in six games during a second-round series against Atlanta in which he missed three games due to a hand injury.
May 5, 2016: Undergoes a procedure on both of his knees. His left was to ‘excise calcific deposits’ to ease the pain and his right was to remove ‘loose bodies.’
November 7, 2016: Passes Wes Unseld for the most assists in Bullets/Wizards history (3,822).
December 16, 2016: Wall scores a career-high 52 points in a loss to Orlando after starting the season with his worst shooting stretch of his career. Sporting a 7-13 record after that Magic loss, Wall helped the Wizards turn it around to win 49 games en route to the fourth seed after missing the playoffs the year prior.
March 17, 2017: Records a career-high 20 assists against Chicago.
April 28, 2017: Perhaps his best game in a Wizards uniform. Wall scored 42 points, provided eight steals and notched four steals to close out a Hawks team that had knocked him and Washington out of the playoffs two seasons prior.
May 12, 2017: Wall forces a Game 7 against Isaiah Thomas and the Celtics with 26 points and the game-winning three-pointer with 3.5 seconds remaining. Though Boston won Game 7, it was still an epic shot and iconic moment for Wall’s Wizards career as he jumped on the scorer’s table to celebrate.
July 26, 2017: Wall signs a four-year, $170 million contract extension with the Wizards. He would play in just 73 games due to injuries.
Nov. 16, 2017: MRI after left knee discomfort. He received PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections to reduce inflammation and missed nine games from Nov. 23 to Dec. 13.
January 30, 2018: Consulted with knee specialist for a procedure on his left knee to ‘clean up’ the area and ease pain. Expected to miss six-to-eight weeks after already missing a game.
December 29, 2018: Wall sees a specialist to deal with reoccurring pain in his left heel, decides to have surgery to fix his discomfort. It is expected that he will miss 6-8 months, ending his season. Before the announcement of the injury, Wall missed four games in a four-week span.
February 5, 2019: Wizards announce that Wall will have surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon.
November 17, 2020: The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that the Wizards and Rockets have engaged in trade talks around exchanging Wall for Westbrook.
November 23, 2020: Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard says the team has no plans to trade Wall.
December 2, 2020: Wall gets traded to Houston for Westbrook.
