John Wall Gets New Tattoos: A Behind The Scenes Look

John Wall Gets New Tattoos: A Behind The Scenes Look by Ben Mehic

Yesterday, the Sporting News posted a slideshow of NBA MVP Kevin Durant‘s possible destinations in his upcoming free agency. Listed second was, of course, the Washington Wizards.

You know what that means: another furious round of #KD2DC tweets, memes, Vines, listicles, cave paintings, commemorative plates, messages carved into the bathroom wall of a Burger King off I-270, every single kind of spoken and written communication, all conveying the fanatical hope that next year DC’s best basketball son will return home.

We’ve been living this cycle for a couple of years now. Someone mentions anything related to Kevin Durant maybe, possibly coming to the Washington Wizards -> Everyone flips out -> Repeat.

It probably won’t end until Durant makes his final decision, whenever that is. Dear reader, I admit that even I can get caught up in this #KD2DC mania, despite all my best efforts.

But we don’t need to do this to ourselves. It’s not healthy. Mostly because one of the defining features of the #KD2DC phenomenon is a palpable undertone of despair and self-loathing – the idea that the Washington Wizards are a hopeless clown car of a franchise, and only Kevin Durant returning as the savior of DC basketball could get them to or near the mountaintop.

And oh my God, that is such a depressing thought.

Especially when this team has a terrific young core that’s more than capable of carrying them into contendership right now.

Kevin Durant is a wonderful player, but let’s not act like the Wizards don’t have a bright future, regardless of whether Durant comes here.

It’s a dream that the Wizards don’t need to come true.

What’s the worst case scenario in all this: Durant signs elsewhere. What happens then?

Well, the Wizards are still moving forward into the future with a core of John Wall, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter, Marcin Gortat and Kelly Oubre, and tons of cap space for the 2016 offseason.

The Wizards are a team that is already among the East’s best right now. They didn’t need to toss a ton of money at a big-name free agent to do that. Why are we focusing so much on what could happen a year from now, when we’re seeing the best basketball this team has played in many of our lifetimes right now?

And if I’m being honest, bringing Kevin Durant to Washington isn’t my favorite scenario for the Wizards moving forward. With nine years in the league under his belt and having already battled foot injuries, by 2016 it will be entirely possible that Durant’s best days will be behind him.

I could see it playing out much like Tracy McGrady‘s Rockets tenure: the Washington Wizards get a few really good years out of him before he breaks down and they’re stuck paying a huge contract.

Could they win something in the short term? Sure, and I’m firmly of the belief that a title is worth absolutely anything. But it doesn’t bode well for Washington’s long-term success.

Instead, how about going after Boogie Cousins, bruh? We don’t know how much longer he has in out west, anyway. Reunite him with his boy John Wall.

Bring a little of that sneering nastiness and double-double machinery to the District. Turn the Wizards into the early-2000s Sacramento Kings. This is the future I want to live in. He’ll be our Chris Webber. It’ll work out better than the time we had the actual Chris Webber.

As likely or unlikely as a Cousins deal may be, I just want to illustrate that there are other potential avenues for the Wizards that may even be more rewarding than signing Kevin Durant.

I’m not saying that we should stop hoping that Kevin Durant will come here. But let’s have some chill. The Washington Wizards’ future doesn’t begin and end with KD.