John Wall Decides He Was The Hardest Worker At Practice

On the first day of training camp the Wizards had what was described by the Washington Post as an "exhausting 2.5 hour practice".  When practice was over, Flip Saunders pulled out a Wizards themed construction worker hat and gave it to John Wall because he worked hard in practice.

"Saunders gave Wall the option of giving the hard hat to another teammate. Wall grinned, adjusted it and kept it on." Washington Post

Saunders could have been giving his young star an opportunity to show some leadership and pass on this "award" to another teammate that worked hard.  Saunders knew that JW worked the hardest, but if Wall in turn gave it to the 2nd hardest working person, it would show the other teammates that Wall appreciates their hard work too.  Instead Wall kept the hat for himself.

"I thought about it, but I think I played hard today, so I just kept it," Wall said -- Bullets Forever


It was only the first day of practice and the whole thing is probably just an insignificant moment that nobody will remember in a week's time.  Most likely when the players saw the hat they were all laughing and joking around, not really being serious.  In that case if Wall gave it to someone else it wouldn't have meant anything.


The key to the Wizards this season is going to be hard work and hustle.  They don't have very much talent, and the talent they have isn't known for working hard and hustling (Blatche, Young, McGee).  John Wall should do everything he can this season to not only lead by example, but to get his other teammates to raise their work ethic and playing level.  That is the only way fans aren't going to be abandoning the team after 20 games into the season.