John Wall Returns, Verizon Empty, Guy Sleeps

Not exactly the most excited the Verizon Center and Wizards fans have been, in fact it was a little sad...but John Wall was back! (Blame the Ravens game & the NFL playoffs)

After months and months of waiting, the Washington Wizards finally welcomed back John Wall to the lineup on Saturday night at Verizon.  Wall was not in the starting lineup, and entered the game with just under 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter.  For the first seven minutes of the game, fans had their eyes fixated on the guy in the #2 warm-ups, anxiously awaiting the hand gesture from Randy Wittman that signaled John Wall to check into his first game since April of 2012.

The Verizon Center was extremely empty on Saturday night despite the fans knowing of Wall's return for several days in advance.  On StubHub at the time of the game tickets could be purchased for as low as $10 a seat.

But that didn't stop the fans that did attend from giving Wall an extended standing ovation, sparking life into a once dead Washington Wizards fanbase.  Wall acknowledged the crowd with a little salute.  Here is what it looked like and sounded like from the rafters:

Wall missed his first shot attempt, an elbow jumper, and scored his first point of the season on a foul shot.  Shortly after getting on the floor, Wall dished a nice pass to rookie Bradley Beal who threw down the monster jam electrifying the Verizon Center.  Wall gave a JaVale McGee salute to the crowd as he ran back on defense.

Wall's 14 points, 4 assists, and all around presence helped lead the Wizards to their second consecutive win.  (Read the game recap here)  It was more exciting than this guy would lead you to believe.