The confession of John Wall
, 33 years old and one of the stars that the NBA had in the last decade, shook the sports world.
Invited to the program
The OGs Show
hosted by former players
Udonis Haslem
and
Mike Miller
, he revealed the dark panorama into which he fell when injuries prevented him from continuing to dazzle on the basketball courts.
"I know what it's like... And I try to tell people that the issue of mental health is very serious. I had to go find a therapist after that.
If it weren't for my two children, I would have committed suicide
," he confided, before adding: "
I put a gun to my head twice and a lot of people close to me, my friends at the time, didn't know
. "
His story began in 2010, when he was signed by the
Washington Wizards
, a team he was part of until 2019 and with whom he became an
All Star
, a title he achieved five times in his career
.
But, one day, the light of the star began to go out.
In 2018 he suffered an injury to his left knee at the beginning of the season, and another to his left heel at the end of that same year.
And to add to the misfortunes, he injured his Achilles tendon due to an infection he suffered during surgery.
This led him to miss part of the 2019 season and all of 2020
.
As a result of the injuries that did not seem to stop, his mental health was seriously affected.
The first time he confessed that he had attempted to take his own life was in 2022
, in an interview with
NBC Sports
: "It's the darkest place I've ever been in. I mean... at one point I thought about killing myself," he said. John, at the time when
he was the second highest-earning player
($47.3 million), just behind
Stephen Curry
($48 million).
His battle with his mental health was not only the cause of countless injuries that kept him off the court for several years.
In 2019, his mother died of breast cancer,
the same year she almost had to amputate her foot due to an infection
.
"I tore my Achilles tendon, my mother got sick, my mother died at 58, my grandmother died a year later...
all this in the middle of the COVID pandemic
."
“We ain't tryna ask another man for no help, we tryna figure it out on our own…”
Watch full episode here: https://t.co/wrWMMm5dRx pic.twitter.com/1dDG5of7Di
— The OGs Show (@theOGsShow) March 13, 2024
John Wall had a career with a lot of light at the beginning of his career, but equal parts darkness.
He commented that to deal with his suffering, he started going to parties to find happiness somewhere.
"There was a video that came out, where I was making street gang gestures and things like that,
it was when I was in my darkest moment, trying to find happiness
... But I wanted to kill myself and it was like I was drifting away from the Earth. "I'm failing my children. Who's going to be there to raise them?" he said on The OGs Show.
Despite having walked a path full of pain, John Wall is still an active player.
After spending almost 10 years with the Washington Wizards, of whom he was leader for a time, in 2021 he changed his jersey for that of the
Houston Rockets
, and in 2022 for that of the
Los Angeles Clippers
,
with whom he obtained an average of 11.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 22.2 minutes.
John Wall is open to joining the Miami Heat
“I can help them a lot.”
(🎥 @theOGsShow / https://t.co/uSPrL11plQ) pic.twitter.com/kt4SI011D1
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 12, 2024
He took advantage of Haslem and Miller's podcast to highlight that he would be a good addition for the
Miami Heat
:
"It could help them a lot," he commented.