34-year-old No. 1 pick Wall responded to being traded: It s a devastating blow I ve always wanted to play for just one team

On July 28, recently, former NBA No. 1 pick John Wall responded to the Wizards' trade that year and said bluntly: That was a devastating blow, I have always wanted to play for only one team.

In 2020, the Wizards traded Wall and the first round of 2023 to the Rockets, and eventually won Westbrook; talking about his feelings about being traded by the Wizards that year, Wall said in the show: It was a devastating blow. I mean, I've always been the kind of player who wants to play for a team for life. Of course I understand that this is a business, but it was really hard to accept at that time. I just lost my mother the year before, you know, and the COVID-19 pandemic was also continuing at that time. So, I have been working hard to recover, thinking that I can finally return healthy, finally step onto the arena and show my strength.

continued: I still remember that the day before the start of the training camp, I saw the news push. At that time, I had a premonition, a strong premonition, and I knew what was going to happen. I kept praying and pondering about this matter repeatedly. I always thought to myself that if my mother was there, she would definitely say 'You need a brand new beginning'. But I want to say, I don’t want any new beginnings. I just want to stay here, do you understand what I mean? It's like my home, and they accepted me, as if I was a Washingtonian from the beginning. So I never thought about leaving, but that's part of the business. When I get older, I will think back on these things and understand them. But at that time, that period was the darkest moment in my life, and I couldn’t understand all this at all, so I could only try to find a way to survive.

Speaking of my experience with the Rockets, Wall said: I was traded to the Rockets during training camp, and I must get into the state immediately when I go to report. The training camp was about to begin, and at that time I was just thinking about playing basketball again. After all, I haven't played for two years and am ready to play. But they said to me, ‘Don’t play back-to-back games’. I said, ‘Listen, I haven’t played basketball for two years, I have to play every game I can. I can't wait. ’ That’s what I thought at the time.

Wall played only 40 games for the Rockets, averaging 20.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game, but suffered a hamstring injury at the end of the season. The Rockets and Wall reached an agreement to no longer play in the 21-22 season. Wall missed the entire season until the offseason in 2022, when Wall reached a buyout with the Rockets and joined the Clippers, playing 33 games for the Clippers, and averaged 11.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game.

Before the 2023 trading deadline, Wall was traded to the Rockets by the Clippers, and then the Rockets cut Wall. Since then, Wall has completely left the NBA.

34-year-old Wall is the No. 1 pick in 2010. He has played for the Wizards, Rockets and Clippers in his career. He has played in a total of 647 regular season games, averaging 34.9 minutes per game, scoring 18.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 8.9 assists and 1.6 steals. He was selected as the All-Star Game 5 times and was awarded the dunk champion in the 2013-14 All-Star Game.