Washington Wizards: It’s Time For John Wall and Bradley Beal To Lead The Team

Washington Wizards: It’s Time For John Wall and Bradley Beal To Lead The Team by Osman Baig

Washington Wizards Trade Rumors: Garrett Temple Trade To Utah Jazz Not Likely by Ben Mehic

Washington Wizards: Brief History of the Wizards and Team USA

It seems like everyone – including ESPN, for once – is talking about John Wall these days. Wall’s Sisyphean quest to make the Team USA roster for the 2016 Olympics is in full swing, and even Wall is admitting that he doesn’t have a great shot at grabbing a spot on the team.

It is what it is.

The United States of America doesn’t deserve John Wall – it’s not his fault that he can’t crack Coach K’s glass ceiling, as it seems he’s set on taking only point guards he’s coached before, either for the national team or at Duke, no matter how severely Wall trashes Kyrie Irving in every respect.

The Washington Wizards haven’t had a lot of players good enough to be considered for Team USA, but that glass ceiling has been a common theme.

In 2006, Gilbert Arenas, at the height of his powers, tried and failed to make the American squad for the FIBA World Championship – memorably, he alleged that the national outfit had already set the roster before tryouts, and pledged to obliterate everyone involved in the coming season.

He then dropped 54 points (and multiple Jerry Colangelo staredowns) in Phoenix that December, because Gilbert was a vicious human.

Instead, Antawn Jamison was, surprisingly, the Wizards representative on the 2006 World Championship squad.

Behind the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh on the depth chart, Antawn got no shine.

He averaged just 3.6 points in about 9 minutes a game in Japan, and the United States bombed out in the semifinals to Vassilis Spanoulis and Greece in their last horrible international disappointment.

It’s been rough sledding for the Washington Wizards when trying to snatch a spot on Team USA.

If John Wall can’t do it, maybe Bradley Beal can – one of the candidates vying for a Rio spot, Beal has his own decorated history wearing the red, white and blue.

Beal was an integral part of some highly successful USA youth national teams, and even won the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship MVP award. Here’s a picture of him awkwardly standing with Dirk Nowitzki!

If nothing else, it can’t be any worse than former Washington Wizards center and Shaqtin’ a Fool god JaVale McGee‘s abortive Team USA career.

One of the worst moments of the Decline of the Center was the fact that, at one point, JaVale McGee was called into Team USA’s mini-camp. He had absolutely no business being there, and he was never seen again.

A few years later, he made a run at becoming a naturalized citizen of the Philippines to join their national team for the 2014 World Championship, but was turned aside because teams were limited to one naturalized player each – and that spot was taken by one Andray Blatche. So it goes.

Let’s be real here, though. The Wizards don’t have much of a Team USA history to speak of. If John Wall defies the odds and makes it to Rio, he’ll be the first Bullet or Wizard to make a Team USA Olympic roster. But… unless…

Flash back. 1976. USA won the gold medal that year, in Montreal.

This is a small picture, grainy, but I can almost make out…

IT’S BIG ERN.

His mustache was never crisper. Ernie Grunfeld is the greatest American in team history. He’s a patriot. We can never say anything bad about him ever again.