Jason Reid of the Washington Post wrote a column that comes around every couple of years about tattoos. We heard it last year about Colin Kaepernick who ignored it all the way to the Super Bowl and then got some more ink. The argument has now cycled back to the East Coast, where Reid argues that the Washington Wizards should think twice before signing Wall to a long-term deal because of his recent decision to get a "business tattoo" as Wall calls it.
Posing shirtless recently for an Instagram photo, Wall revealed several tattoos. Wall’s interest in body art is surprising, considering he previously said he did not have tattoos because of concerns over his image for marketing reasons. Many NBA players do have tattoos, and Wall isn’t breaking new ground in sharing his ink with fans through social media.
But not every player flip-flops on a topic in such a public way. Factor in that Wall is expected to receive a huge payday from the Wizards next month, and the timing of his tattoo revelation raises questions about his decision making. For a franchise with a history of backing the wrong players, that’s food for thought.
While it is food for thought, it isn't very much food, as is often the case when sports writers sit on their high horses. It comes from the same strain as the writers putting Aaron Hernandez in prison for smoking marijuana in college or George Zimmerman's lawyers who tried to paint Trayvon Martin as pot-smoking thug.
All three cases are too much of a stretch, circumstantial, and speak almost nothing to a young person's character — certainly not enough to convict someone of murder, let someone get away with murder or ruin a franchise.
And let's not forget that the franchise that may be ruined is the Washington Wizards, who have been woeful for years and only earned a modicum of respect in the 2012/13 season once John Wall returned from injury.
