"John Wall hustled from the locker room and received a huge ovation as he finally made his way to the bench late in the first quarter of an exhibition on Saturday between the local Goodman League and Team Philly at Coolidge High School. Wall's tardiness was exacerbated because the game started about an hour later than scheduled, but it wasn't his fault.

His flight from Lexington, Ky., where he participated in Midnight Madness festivities at the University of Kentucky, was delayed for four hours and then he had to deal with a 90-minute drive to the gym from the airport. Wall had an annoying afternoon of delays, but nothing compares to the frustration of being held back from playing NBA basketball because of the lockout.

The Washington Wizards were supposed to be playing a preseason game in Milwaukee on Saturday, but instead Wall was chasing around Philadelphia 76ers guard Lou Williams in front of nearly 2,000 fans because the NBA labor dispute has already wiped out the exhibition season and the first two weeks of the regular season. After scoring 38 points in just three quarters of the Goodman League's 172-169 loss, Wall admitted that he has enjoyed playing charity games over the past few months "but after a while, that gets boring. You want to get back to real basketball.""