Wizards guard John Wall is an analytics guy. Maybe not in the MIT-style Daryl Morey-sense — a guy like Wall has far too much natural feel for basketball to think it’s just a numbers game. But Wall also knows the bullet points are as important as the ballet. And Wall sees his 3.8 turnovers a game as a bad bullet point on his rap sheet.
According to the Washington Post, Wall is so determined to lower that number that he’ll be paying one of the Wizards assistant coaches $100 for every game in which he commits three TOs or more. That’s putting his money where is dedication is — sort of. It would have cost him $6,200 last year, about .037 percent of what his current contract averages per year ($16,957,900). But by all accounts, it’s still hard to pull a hundred bucks out of your pocket — no matter how rich you are — to pay for your own failure. It’s a good bet Wall’s turnover numbers improve. And that the assistant coach still gets a few good steak dinners out of the deal.
