John Wall wins MVP, sets assist record in Rookie Challenge victory

When John Wall arrived at Staples Center, he and former Kentucky teammate DeMarcus Cousins were curious about the record for assists in the Rookie Challenge. They found out that New Orleans Hornets all-star Chris Paul own the mark with 17 and Cousins immediately pledged that he was going to break it.

"Which I knew he wasn't," Wall said about his good friend and college roommate Cousins, who is known more for finishing and dishing.

And, although Wall opened the scoring for the rookies with a pull-up jumper, the Wizards' No. 1 overall pick made it clear that his objective was to share, set up and celebrate. He tossed lobs to Cousins and Blake Griffin, hit Wesley Johnson in stride for jumpers and layups, whirled a behind-the-back pass to Gary Neal for a three-pointer. By the end of the night, Wall finished with a record 22 assists, 12 points and did the Dougie three times before finally emerging as the most valuable player in his team's 148-140 win over the Sophomores.

"My intentions wasn't to come in and get the MVP," Wall said. "Just tried to have fun. I wanted to break the assists record, to show guys that I'm not the type of person that wants to shoot the ball every time. In this type of game, I was looking for my teammates and they did a good job of getting open and finishing for me."

He said before the game that he wanted to throw a lob pass to Griffin, the 2009 No. 1 overall pick, to see if he could go get it. Wall hit Griffin with two alley-oop passes in the first half, but dazzled the thousands of children in magenta T-Mobile jerseys with a highlight that should get repeated several times this weekend: Wall received an outlet pass just beyond half court, took a step, then bounced the ball off the court. Griffin jumped for it and dunked the ball backward with both hands.

"He's so explosive with it," Wall said of Griffin. "It's like he's going to break the window every time he dunks it. Most people just get out the way. If I get up the court, and you got him out the wing, you just throw it anywhere and he finishes it."

When play stopped, Wall ran over to Griffin and the two shook hands and hugged. "Crazy, crazy," Griffin said about the play.

Griffin had the most jaw-dropping plays, but Cousins was the primary benefactor of Wall's unselfishness, as he scored a game-high 33 points -- the fourth-best scoring total in the Rookie Challenge -- and grabbed 13 rebounds. Wall received three of the five MVP votes that were given to four media members and fans. Cousins got the other vote and Wall and Cousins split the other.

"He's always been an incredible passer, but he just makes everybody on the floor better," Cousins said of Wall. "That's something he's always had. We were trying to work together. He wanted to break the assist record, and I wanted to be MVP."