Game Changer: John Wall’s New Verizon Center Banners

Remember when the Wizards removed Gilbert Arenas’ banner from the facade of the Verizon Center?

Of course you do. It was kind of a big deal.

It was a big deal to Arenas. It was a big deal to the local NBC television camera crew that just ‘happened’ to be there to capture it. It was a big deal to the media … a blog-worthy moment of an infamous instance in franchise history.

Sounds dramatic, huh?

Well, Wizards fans, forget about all that. The Wizards implore you to. John Wall is their new banner boy. Where Arenas’ name used to make its mark on the 6th Street side of the Verizon Center has now been replaced by a Wall.

And not only are banners the new style, but the exterior of the arena, including the ground, columns, doors and wherever else things will stick, is draped with the John Wall “Game Changer” marketing campaign. Kinda makes the previous covertness of his first overall selection pretty silly when the printing presses must have been running for weeks.

Welcome to a changed game, whatever that means … hopefully more than 26 wins last season or the 19 in the season before. I’ve got a pretty good feeling it will.

[Big ups to Truth About It's Adam McGinnis for all of the photos.]