‘He Called Me a Midget’: Former Mavs Player JJ Barea Recalls Bitter Run-ins with John Wall & Russell Westbrook

Published 01/02/2021, 8:00 AM EST

NBA fans get to witness a plethora of on-court rivalries between players from time to time. However, some rivalries might even get carried off the court too. Dallas Mavericks’ long-term player J.J. Barea shared similar stories about John Wall and Russell Westbrook.

Barea joined the “JJ Redick” podcast for a conversation, where he revealed some things that he exchanged with Wall and Westbrook.

“I had one against [Russell] Westbrook in the playoffs. Westbrook used to try to post me up all the time, so I used to grab his jersey. I used to hit him and when he pushes me, I flopped backwards. So he hated that and then we got into it.”

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Barea further shared about how John Wall would engage in verbal battle with him. However, according to him, he never had a problem with Wall.

“John Wall said some crazy sh*t to me one time, and I was like this guy is crazy. He called me a midget and that came out of nowhere. Because I never had a problem with him.”

Having on-court rivalries is not a new culture in the league. In fact, these rivalries add a certain spice to the game of basketball. Whatever be the case, the two players that Barea mentioned actually exchanged teams this offseason.

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What’s next for John Wall and Russell Westbrook?

During the 2020 offseason, the Houston Rockets traded Westbrook to Wizards and acquired John Wall. While the two are phenomenal players, both have struggled in their last few seasons. Russell Westbrook has struggled to show up in the playoffs from time to time and the same happened in his 1 year with the Rockets.

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On the other hand, Wall has faced numerous injury issues since he signed a humongous contract with the Wizards. Wall will be hungry to make some noise this season after being sidelined for the entire 2019-20 NBA season.

What are your thoughts on these two superstars? Let us know your views in the comments section down below.

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Written by:

Aikansh Chaudhary is an NBA columnist for Essentially Sports. Previously, he helped rank various websites using the latest SEO techniques, and wrote over 2000 articles during his stint as a freelance writer. A die hard Lakers fan, Aikansh will forever uphold LeBron James as the GOAT.

‘He Called Me a Midget’: Former Mavs Player JJ Barea Recalls Bitter Run-ins with John Wall & Russell Westbrook

What’s next for John Wall and Russell Westbrook?

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