Point guard John Wall was in support of Scott Brooks being hired as the new head coach of the Washington Wizards, which is likely part of the reason why the team did so. Many believed that the fact that Brooks used to coach soon-to-be free agent Kevin Durant was a large part of why Brooks was hired. That isn’t true though, according to Wall. From Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post:
Wall believes a coaching change was required after a disappointing 41-41 campaign and that Brooks is the right fit for the franchise. And he wants to make one thing clear: Brooks is coming to Washington, first and foremost, to coach the Wizards. Not to lure Kevin Durant.
“We signed Scotty Brooks to win an NBA championship,” Wall said in a phone interview Friday night. “We didn’t sign Scotty Brooks to say, ‘Okay, Scotty, go get him. You got to bring us Kevin Durant.’ We got Scotty Brooks because we feel like he can help John Wall and make him a better player and make our team get to the next step. We didn’t get Scotty Brooks just to get Kevin Durant. That’s not what Scott is on board to do. And I hope everybody doesn’t expect just because we got Scotty Brooks, he’s automatically going to get K.D., he’s going to automatically jump.”
The Wizards would love to get Kevin Durant, but it seems like that’s a long shot. Brooks could be useful in enticing Durant, but that’s not why the Wizards brought him in.
