John Wall gave Rihanna his jersey, guaranteeing Wizards prosperity
The Washington Wizards were off on Tuesday night, but their home arena was still filled to capacity, as fans packed Verizon Center to the rafters to take in the seventh date on Rihanna’s world tour in support of her new hit album, “Anti.” Even though the Wiz weren’t playing, All-Star point guard John Wall was in the gym to chop it up with Ri-Ri … and he came bearing gifts:
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Rihanna receiving a Wizards jersey as a gift probably isn’t going to make her friend and collaborator Drake very happy. Then again, y’know, what does?
Rihanna’s about as hot as it gets at the moment, owning both the No. 1 album on Billboard’s Top 200 and, with the Drake-featuring “Work,” the No. 1 single on its Top 100. With the Wiz just starting to get on a roll themselves, winning five straight to get back to .500 and within 1 1/2 games of a playoff berth, perhaps Wall was looking for the Barbadian superstar to smile with favor upon his efforts to lift Washington back into the postseason for the third straight year and salvage what, to this point, he has viewed as something of a wasted season. From Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post:
“I think about it every day, to be honest with you,” Wall said as he strolled to the loading dock at Philips Arena early Monday afternoon following the Wizards’ shoot-around. “I’m thinking, ‘There’s no way in hell we should be in this situation. We should already have a playoff spot. We should be done with that.’ Now we’re fighting for dear life.” […]
“It’s still a failure that we didn’t get a higher seed but it’s never a failure if you get in because our ultimate goal is just get in the playoffs,” Wall said. “We know what our goal was at the beginning of the year, to be a top-four seed, a top-three seed. We failed that part. But just to still be able to get in after the stuff we went through, injuries and then having slow starts and not being defend people, I feel like we can give anybody a run for their money in the playoffs.”
Entering Wednesday’s home game against the Atlanta Hawks, Washington sits at 35-35 and in 10th place in the East, two games behind the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers and 1 1/2 games behind the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons with 12 games to go. They’ve got a friendlier closing schedule than Chicago or Detroit, and Wall’s been playing out of his mind, averaging around 22 points, 11 assists and six rebounds per game over his last dozen outings to try to carry Washington across the finish line.
The Wizards aren’t quite in a hopeless place, but the odds are still stacked against them; to get back into the postseason, they’ll need some help down the stretch and to take care of their own business. That means — yes — they’ll need to do work, and attempting to curry favor with the hyper-successful lady who’s now synonymous with the very word sure can’t hurt.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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