WASHINGTON – The foundation for the season’s most unlikely turnaround, for John Wall playing the most consistently inspiring basketball of his career, for the Washington Wizards to become so cocky that they recently decided to wear all-black funeral attire to bury an opponent ahead of them in the standings, was set – of all places – at a hospital bed in Cleveland.

There, Wizards coach Scott Brooks met for the first time with his All-Star point guard – bed-ridden and sluggish because of surgeries on both knees – to let him know that there was a level or two higher for him to reach, both as a player and leader. Brooks remains embarrassed about the circumstances involving his first encounter with Wall last May. But two essential elements of the Wizards’ current success were established: Wall came away believing that his coach truly cared. And Brooks came away believing that his best player was coachable.

“I like the fact that I knew right then,” Brooks told The Vertical. “I’m not here to sell a player on something they can’t achieve. I’m going to continue to push and demand players to be better every day, but I told John, ‘You’re a three-time All-Star, you can take it one or two ways: You could say, ‘I’ve arrived in this league and I’m comfortable in this league.’ Or you can take the approach that ‘I want to get better.’ And I think he’s done a great job of taking that approach of getting better. I think he can be a top-five player in this league every year.”

Wall has collected so many chips on his shoulder throughout his career that it’s a wonder he’s still able to elevate for those thunderous left-hand dunks. In his seventh season in the league, Wall has not only become the first player in the past three decades to make four All-Star appearances with the organization, but he has also assumed a leadership role that he was either reluctant or ill-prepared to accept. Last season was especially painful in that regard, with the Wizards lacking the presence of a veteran such as Trevor Ariza or Paul Pierce, and the team crumbled. Randy Wittman became the victim of that rubble and longtime team president Ernie Grunfeld quickly went after Brooks, who wasted little time after agreeing to a five-year, $35 million deal to meet with Wall.

Initially, the hire was viewed as a cynical, shameless attempt to lure Kevin Durant to his hometown because Brooks served as Durant’s coach in Oklahoma City for seven years, reaching three Western Conference finals and one NBA Finals. The Wizards insisted the move was more about the success Brooks had transforming a lottery team into a contender and developing players – turning high lottery picks into All-NBA talents and late-round picks into serviceable role players.

Brooks has gotten the most out of point guard John Wall. (AP) More

After a 6-12 start in which Wall was still regaining his health, Bradley Beal dealt with his annual spat with the injury bug, free-agent signing Ian Mahinmi played in just one game, and a fan used a sign that featured a fire emoji and a picture of the Sesame Street character Ernie to express frustration with management, Brooks has righted the ship. He is delivering in those aforementioned areas that had Wizards vice president Tommy Sheppard refusing to leave Brooks’ pad in Newport Beach, Calif., until a coaching deal was signed. The Wizards have gone 23-8 since that ragged start – the best record in the Eastern Conference over that span – and look like a team that could finish as a division champion with home-court advantage in the first round for the first time since 1979.

“Every coach, including myself, you look at your team closely, whether you win or you lose, and that tells a lot about the character and makeup of your team,” Brooks told The Vertical. “When we were 2-8, we still came in, we still did our job, we didn’t point fingers. We didn’t blame each other. We didn’t blame the system. We just did our jobs.”

Story continues