However, the Washington Wizards are willing to let bygones be bygones.

The decision to sign Jennings, who was waived by the New York Knicks on Monday, shows how much Washington can forgive and forget for the greater good of winning now. The Wizards (36-23) have climbed to third in the East; the once improbable goal of 50 wins is in sight and the aspiration of reaching the conference finals should no longer be considered a long shot. Even so, the last piece to the puzzle was securing a primary backup to Wall, and the Wizards have found one in an old foe. Even if it means that they must pardon the past.

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“Uhh, I guess I don’t really have an opinion about it,” Beal said about Jennings’ signing. “It’s kind of like feeling it out and see how it goes because I never played with him so I can’t really speak on him like that. I know what he is capable of doing. He is capable of scoring. He’s a good facilitator and runs the team. He has a lot of dog in him too, so we’re excited. So we’re going to throw him into the fire and see how he goes.”

Although his history with the Wizards goes back to the Nov. 2012 confrontation with Beal — Jennings, then with the Milwaukee Bucks, was defending a teammate who he felt Beal had fouled too hard. He became known as “the other guy” after a 2016 preseason matchup. Jennings got into it with the Wizards’ training camp invitee Casper Ware, talking trash, clapping in his face and excessively celebrating after making a shot over Ware.

“Whatever the other guy was saying,” Brooks said after the October game, referring to Jennings, “that’s not how we do things. We want to focus on what we need to do and play good basketball and respectful basketball.”

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However, months later, this criticism was replaced with praise simply because Jennings dishes 4.9 assists a night — the highest average for a player who has made at least 55 game appearances but is not a full-time starter.

“He gives us another very good player,” Brooks said on Wednesday night. “He can play alongside John. He can play with Brad. He can play with all the second-unit guys.

“It was a good pick up for us moving forward.”

In the NBA, grudges can be forgiven for the right reasons.

In 1995 the Chicago Bulls did the unthinkable by bringing in their former Bad Boy tormentor, Dennis Rodman, and the rest is three-peat history. Also in the early ’90s, Anthony Mason played for the Knicks while the team hated the Miami Heat, but later in his career took his six fouls to South Beach.

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Matt Barnes once attempted to rattle Kobe Bryant by pretending to hurl an inbounds pass at his face but by the next season, Barnes was wearing the Lakers’ purple and gold as Kobe’s teammate. Also in 2006, Tim Thomas mockingly blew a kiss at Dirk Nowitzki during a scuffle, but three years later helped the Dallas Mavericks win 55 games.

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“It’s always going to be like that when you play against somebody on another team,” Wall said. “[Jennings] plays with a lot of energy, plays with a lot of heart. I’m the same type of player. You might not like a guy or get along with a guy while you’re playing against him and competing but [when] you always add that person to your team, it changes things.”

For instance, Wall admitted that he used to despise current teammate Jason Smith. Not because of any dirty acts, but when Smith played on different teams, he constantly frustrated Wall by knocking down midrange jumpers and hustling all over to create chaos under the glass.

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“You’re like ‘Damn, I don’t like going against this guy,’” Wall said. “But when he’s on your team, you love it because he does all the dirty work and the little things that go unnoticed and it helps your team out.”

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Wall said that the Wizards front office consulted him about Jennings before making the deal: “Yeah, they talked to me about it. If he can help us, fine.” However, it’s not as if Wall and Jennings will need a mediator once they become teammates. The two have a cordial history. Wall once attended Jennings’ 21st birthday party, posing for a picture with Jennings and others while holding cigars.

Their on-court past does not concern Wall, and he’s confident that team and locker room chemistry will remain intact. Now, he’s ready to roll out the welcome mat for the new teammate who was once a frenemy.

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Jennings has “got to come in and just follow along with the lead,” Wall said. “We have a good system we like to run. It’s not too much you have to understand and figure it out, just move the ball from side to side, if you have an open shot take it but compete on both ends and play defense and everything else will take care of itself.”