It's fairly unusual for the NBA to grab so much of the headlines with NFL training camps looming so closely on the horizon.  LeBron James' televised announcement to sign with the Miami Heat drew 10 million viewers which is a testiment to the individual starpower of NBA players.  In Las Vegas, the highly anticipated debut of John Wall, the No. 1 pick of the 2010 draft, drew a capacity crowd and he didn't disappoint. 

Wall finished with with 24 points on 7 of 15 shot attempts and dished out 8 assists and by all indications seems to be right on schedule to become a the future of DC basketball.  Wall has star potential and could represent DC like Kobe does for LA, Jordan for Chicago, Dwayne Wade for Miami, etc.  No one truly knows the future of Gilbert Arenas here in Washington and due to a set of unfortunate circumstances, Agent Zero's brand in DC has been tarnished a bit. Gil as a person is good as gold and a great player to boot. His story is inspiring but John Wall is in a unique position to become the new prince here in DC.  If he has a mult-platinum basketball career laced with NBA titles he could get a bronze statue outside of the Verizon Center.

Wall has "it".  Wall has starpower like Kobe , Shaq, LeBron, and Wade.  It all started in high school,  blossomed at Kentucky and now everything is coming into fruition here in DC.  The NBA's Washington franchise hasn't had any bronze statue caliber players in their entire history.  Susan O'Malley the former marketing executive for the Bullets was resigned to market the road team and their stars to draw fans.

 Earl "the Pearl" Monroe actually played for the Baltimore Bullets before he took his skills to New York.  The 1970's showcased the "The Big E" Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld, the biggest superstars in professional DC basketball history and the only players to deliver an NBA championship to Washington in 1978.

John Wall's debut was a good view into the window of the future of professional basketball here in DC.  Wall will not only fill seats in the Verizon Center but he'll fill seats on the road and he'll sell lots of shoes. 

The biggest beneficiaries of Wall's arrival look to be JaVale McGee and guess who, Gilbert Arenas.  Everyone knew Wall could score but could he make his teammates better by putting them in ideal scoring situations? Individual workouts and dunk videos on YouTube don't always show that.  At the NBA level everyone can score but only rare birds can dominate the game with or without the ball in their hands.   Rarer still are exotic species who become media darlings, public icons, and stock market movers.

While I'll stop short of bestowing that on John Wall's future, I do feel that finally Washington area basketball residents can embrace a potential star here at home instead of watching on the calendar for the DC stop of the Kobe or LeBron tour.

Let's just hope that Wall feels the love from DC in three years and resigns with us instead of going to LA.

The Dime Piece is a weekly column of everything basketball.

For archived articles on the Dime Piece go to www.dcmetrosports.com/dcmsblog