Kentucky Basketball: Former Wildcat, John Wall, is establishing himself as a top 3 point guard in the NBA

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Photo by Elsa/Getty Images /
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John Wall was a program changing player when he came to Lexington. Now, the former Kentucky Basketball star is getting paid…a lot.

Kentucky Basketball has had it’s fair share of great players. Even though John Wall was only a Wildcat for one season, he is establishing himself as a top 3 point guard in the NBA. Like him or not, for a player to take the Washington Wizards to the new heights like Wall has deserves some serious recognition.

John Wall just signed a ridiculous contract that validated his basketball talent. Wall has agreed to a four year contract extension valued at $170 million.

At Kentucky, John Wall transcended what it meant to come to Kentucky, He defined the status that is now set for the top recruits who want the surefire way of making it to the NBA. Wall was apart of John Calipari’s very first recruiting class as head coach of the Wildcats. Also, Wall started the trend and is strongly considered to be the face of the one-and-done phenomenon at Kentucky.

The proof

Wall has spent each of his seven seasons with the Washington Wizards. With that, he has built a career average of nearly 19 points, and 9.2 assists per game. With each of the last four seasons resulting in All-Star bids for Wall, he has established himself as a top three point guard in the NBA. Last season alone, Wall had the best season of his career. He averaged 23 points, nearly 11 assists per game while taking his team to the conference semi-finals.

Like it or not

There may be some that disagree but, when you take a step back and look at things from a different perspective and outlaw all bias, Wall is near the top. Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry would be the only true competition to be ahead of Wall. You could even make the argument that Wall could move ahead of Steph based purely on the team their on and the help that they get.

John Wall doesn’t have a ton of help on the Wizards. Bradley Beal is a middle of the pack guard who can score in bunches but isn’t phenomenal in comparison to other shooting guards in the league. The rest of the Wizards’ roster doesn’t wow the masses like that of the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors. Both of those teams have great point guards, but the help is there to take the pressure off of them.

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John Wall doesn’t have that, and really, neither did Russell Westbrook. Both have to scratch and claw for everything that they’ve earned. That’s what makes him so great. It’s his talent and leadership that takes his team to those heights. Now, Wall is able to solidify his name in the top guards in the league with his new contract. The only question is, can Washington add some pieces to the puzzle to get John Wall a little help?