John Wall became Howard’s president of basketball operations

Five-time NBA All-Star John Wall has become Howard’s president of basketball operations, returning to Washington to partner with the nation’s top HBCU, school officials told ESPN.

Played for Wall Washington Wizards After being the franchise’s No. 1 overall pick out of Kentucky from 2010 to ’20. For Wall, the idea of ​​partnering with Howard began on Jan. 31, when he served as the team’s honorary captain that day and expressed his desire to one day become president of basketball operations at the NBA level to the school.

Wall has already taken a hands-on approach to the role at Howard, playing an active role in team meetings and evaluating recruiting and transfer targets. He helped shape the program’s overall strategic vision with a focus on roster management, name, image and likeness contracts, revenue sharing, agent negotiations and player mentorship. He will work with Howard coach Kenny Blakeney and team general manager Daniel Marks in the new capacity.

Howard is one of only five mid-major programs out of 222 (from traditional one-bid leagues) to make the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four seasons. This year, the program won its first tournament game in school history, over UMBC.

Wall retired in August, finishing his NBA career with averages of 18.7 points and 8.9 assists per game.

Wall spent most of his career with the Wizards but played Houston Rockets And LA Clippers. In his best season, he averaged 23.1 points and 10.7 assists for the Wizards in 2016-17 and was named to the All-NBA third team.

He was one of the fastest, most athletic point guards in his prime — he was the 2014 Slam Dunk Champion. He was also an elite defender, making the All-Defensive second team in 2015.

An injury-plagued second half of his career. He hasn’t played more than half a game in any of the last six seasons and hasn’t in the last two.