If I had to place Trevor Booker somewhere on the scale of out-going personalities entering the NBA (with 10 being Omar Samhan and 1 being Jarvis Varnado), I’d give him about a 3. John Wall would get a 6.5/7 if you must know.
Not a knock on Booker, he might have tremendous upside personality potential … or he just might be shy in front of media cameras … or maybe he just likes to give very brief answers with little inflection in his voice … or maybe he’s just too cool for school.
In any case, it doesn’t really matter. It’s all about what the guy can do on the court. And from the looks of a brief glimpse at a mini-camp scrimmage Thursday evening, Booker is not afraid to make his presence known.
Actually, maybe Trevor should get boosted to a 3.5 … he did give the media a laugh by saying that John Wall still isn’t faster than him.
Al Thornton is back in D.C. folks, playing with the kids in mini-camp to “show some support,” he says. He’ll also be out in Las Vegas during summer league to practice and hang with John Wall and the gang, and to build some team chemistry (excellent!) … but he won’t be playing. Nick Young, on the other hand, might play, even though he wasn’t on the released summer league roster. We will see.
When I asked Al about what part of his game he’s trying to improve upon this off-season, he said he’s really working on getting in shape and eating right. Thornton admitted that he was a little overweight last season. I guess if he’s going to be running the floor with Wall, he better get that conditioning right. Those transition points can really boost stats, especially in what essentially amounts to a contract year for Thornton.
Thornton also had some compliments for young Wall, whom he worked out with for a bit in Los Angeles earlier this summer. Al calls the rookie “special” and in particular acknowledges his decision making on pick and rolls. Let’s check out what Al had to say in the video below.
Dammit. I did it. I used that LeBron fella’s name in the title of this post. I know, I know … I shouldn’t have.
If it’s any consolation, I refused to watch the “decision” when the option was offered to the awaiting media to do so in the Wizards’ family room (the usual press lounge was unavailable).
Oh, the “awaiting” media part … well, yea, we were all waiting to speak to John Wall after he’d gone through his first day of mini-camp with the Wizards. The team’s opening session went from around 6:30 to 8:30 pm on Thursday; it was well after 10 pm before Wall spoke. Can’t blame him, he had to watch his buddy Bron Bron and then ice down some sore muscles.
Which makes me step back and think … back in February, would you have ever imagined that by July Cavs fans would (likely) want to trade places with Wizards fans?
Okay, back to Wall and mini-camp. He looked impressive during last 15 minutes of scrimmage the media was allowed to watch, or at least several notches above whomever was guarding him (okay, that was mostly Sun Yue and Abdulai Jalloh). On defense Wall struggled to fight through a couple picks, but Flip Saunders said he has a chance to be an “outstanding defensive player.”
