John Wall Rips Celtics for 'Wearing All Black, Talking About a Funeral' Before Game Against Wizards

John Wall was upset with the Celtics for wearing all black and "talking about a funeral" before Game 6 against the Wizards.

Photo Removed
Complex Original

Blank pixel used during image takedowns

Photo Removed

Back in early January, several Celtics and Wizards players were involved in a heated altercation on the court after Jae Crowder hit John Wall in the face on a play. About two weeks later, the two teams played again, and Wizards players showed up for the game wearing all black. Wall said Washington was preparing for "a funeral," and the Wizards went out and beat the Celtics 123-108. It led to some bad blood between the two teams, with Isaiah Thomas referring to the stunt as "cute" and telling reporters, "It’s not like it’s a Game 7."

On Friday night, the Celtics appeared to pull the same stunt prior to Game 6 of their best-of-7 playoff series against the Wizards. Boston had a chance to knock Washington out of the playoffs, so when Celtics players arrived at the Verizon Center for the game, they were dressed in all black. And while the Celtics players didn’t say they were dressed for "a funeral" like Wall did in January, that was certainly how NBA fans interpreted the gesture.

The gesture didn’t end up working out all that well for the Celtics. Although they led the Wizards by two points with less than 10 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Wall hit a three-pointer with 3.5 seconds left to help the Wizards win 92-91 and force a Game 7 back in Boston.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

And shortly after sinking what might have been the biggest shot of his entire career, Wall spoke with ESPN and ripped the Celtics players for showing up for the game in black.

"Don’t come to my city, wearing all black, talking about a funeral," he said.

Later, Wall added: "It was just funny to me. I mean, talking to family and friends, they get to see what’s happening on social media. I try to stay off it…and they just said they were gonna wear all black, so we knew it was kind of copy-catting what we did. It was in my mind throughout the game. I didn’t want them to come here in all black and basically call it a funeral and we lose at home."

Wall’s teammates were upset with the Celtics’ gesture, too. Markieff Morris accused the Celtics of blatantly biting the Wizards’ original idea. "They want to be us so bad," Morris said.

Meanwhile, Bradley Beal admitted that he didn’t even realize the Celtics had shown up to the game in all black until after it was over, before adding that the Wizards didn’t let it affect their approach to the game.

"I didn’t know that they wore all black today," Beal said. "But it doesn’t faze us. It is what it is."

Several Celtics players denied wearing all black on purpose and tried to say that Boston wasn’t planning "a funeral" as many fans suggested. Avery Bradley told reporters it was just a coincidence that all of the Boston players wore black on the same night. "I promise you guys," he said.

Gerald Green also downplayed the drama surrounding the Celtics’ attire and said he wore an all black outfit because it was the only thing he had in his overnight bag. "I had nothing else to wear," he said. "I don’t know nothing about nothing, man."

Whether the Celtics tried to get inside the Wizards players’ heads by wearing all black or not, it’s clear that Wall and his teammates took notice of what they wore to the game and responded accordingly. And it’s going to make Game 7 of the series on Monday night that much more exciting. Just don’t expect anyone to show up to the game wearing black again.

Latest in Sports