WASHINGTON – The foundation for the season’s most unlikely turnaround, for John Wall playing the most consistently inspiring basketball of his career, for the Washington Wizards to become so cocky that they recently decided to wear all-black funeral attire to bury an opponent ahead of them in the standings, was set – of all places – at a hospital bed in Cleveland.

There, Wizards coach Scott Brooks met for the first time with his All-Star point guard – bed-ridden and sluggish because of surgeries on both knees – to let him know that there was a level or two higher for him to reach, both as a player and leader. Brooks remains embarrassed about the circumstances involving his first encounter with Wall last May. But two essential elements of the Wizards’ current success were established: Wall came away believing that his coach truly cared. And Brooks came away believing that his best player was coachable.

“I like the fact that I knew right then,” Brooks told The Vertical. “I’m not here to sell a player on something they can’t achieve. I’m going to continue to push and demand players to be better every day, but I told John, ‘You’re a three-time All-Star, you can take it one or two ways: You could say, ‘I’ve arrived in this league and I’m comfortable in this league.’ Or you can take the approach that ‘I want to get better.’ And I think he’s done a great job of taking that approach of getting better. I think he can be a top-five player in this league every year.”

Wall has collected so many chips on his shoulder throughout his career that it’s a wonder he’s still able to elevate for those thunderous left-hand dunks. In his seventh season in the league, Wall has not only become the first player in the past three decades to make four All-Star appearances with the organization, but he has also assumed a leadership role that he was either reluctant or ill-prepared to accept. Last season was especially painful in that regard, with the Wizards lacking the presence of a veteran such as Trevor Ariza or Paul Pierce, and the team crumbled. Randy Wittman became the victim of that rubble and longtime team president Ernie Grunfeld quickly went after Brooks, who wasted little time after agreeing to a five-year, $35 million deal to meet with Wall.

Initially, the hire was viewed as a cynical, shameless attempt to lure Kevin Durant to his hometown because Brooks served as Durant’s coach in Oklahoma City for seven years, reaching three Western Conference finals and one NBA Finals. The Wizards insisted the move was more about the success Brooks had transforming a lottery team into a contender and developing players – turning high lottery picks into All-NBA talents and late-round picks into serviceable role players.

After a 6-12 start in which Wall was still regaining his health, Bradley Beal dealt with his annual spat with the injury bug, free-agent signing Ian Mahinmi played in just one game, and a fan used a sign that featured a fire emoji and a picture of the Sesame Street character Ernie to express frustration with management, Brooks has righted the ship. He is delivering in those aforementioned areas that had Wizards vice president Tommy Sheppard refusing to leave Brooks’ pad in Newport Beach, Calif., until a coaching deal was signed. The Wizards have gone 23-8 since that ragged start – the best record in the Eastern Conference over that span – and look like a team that could finish as a division champion with home-court advantage in the first round for the first time since 1979.

“Every coach, including myself, you look at your team closely, whether you win or you lose, and that tells a lot about the character and makeup of your team,” Brooks told The Vertical. “When we were 2-8, we still came in, we still did our job, we didn’t point fingers. We didn’t blame each other. We didn’t blame the system. We just did our jobs.”

Brooks was out of a job last season, disappointed he didn’t get the chance to finish what he started in Oklahoma City. Part of him still wonders what could’ve been had the Thunder not dealt James Harden to Houston over salary concerns, Russell Westbrook hadn’t injured his knee, Serge Ibaka hadn’t strained his calf and Durant hadn’t broken a bone in his foot, all in successive years. Fired after coming within one game of making the playoffs in 2014-15, Brooks didn’t have the benefit of a healthy Durant during his final season and wanted at least one more chance to win a title with the Thunder.

“That bothered me, but it wasn’t my choice. My mother taught me a lot of great lessons. One of them was, when people give you choices, you have to react one or two ways. You can be better from it or you can be bitter from it. I choose not to be bitter and focus on getting better from it. I did not want to leave. But that’s the nature of this business. Sometimes, it’s not a win-loss, result-driven league,” Brooks told The Vertical. “Am I motivated? I know what I’ve accomplished in Oklahoma City. We had a great run. We had the youngest team in NBA history get to the NBA Finals. And we had a lot of tough luck, too. Tough injuries. A tough trade. But I like the challenge I have here.

“I just wanted to be in a situation where I was with an organization that had an owner that was committed, management that we could continue to talk and improve the team together. And we wanted a team that had really good players,” Brooks told The Vertical. “You can have some of the best coaches in NBA history and you give them a team full of not-good players, you’re not going to win a lot of games. You need good players to win in this league.”

Before accepting the job, Brooks had heard of a possible rift between his two best players, Wall and Beal. The relationship dominated headlines over the summer after Wall told Chris Miller of CSN Mid-Atlantic that they had a tendency to “dislike each other” on the court. But Brooks’ concerns about how the young backcourt would mesh were alleviated before the start of training camp. “I met both of them and it confused me a little bit, because both were great guys. And I know when players can get along and I know when this is not going to work. I never felt that, from meeting both of them individually over the summer, ‘How are we going to make this work? I’m going to have to bring in some guys way above my thinking.’ But I never felt that,” Brooks told The Vertical. “I never had a conversation with them where I had to say, ‘John, you’ve got to say nice things to Brad. Brad, can you say nice things to John? Let’s have a group hug right now.’ I’ve never done that. I don’t think I have to. I just like how they both acknowledge each other’s greatness on the floor. I think they’re one of the best backcourts in the league and could be for the next 10 years.”

Wall and Beal are both having career seasons after regaining their health, but fourth-year forward Otto Porter is in the conversation for the NBA Most Improved Player Award, Markieff Morris is having consistent, dominant performances since the start of this calendar year, and Marcin Gortat – whose future with the team appeared to be in doubt with the Mahinmi signing – is rebounding and serving as a lethal pick-and-roll partner for Wall and Beal. The bench remains flimsy, especially with Mahinmi still sidelined, but Jason Smith has become a regular contributor, and Brooks has helped second-year swingman Kelly Oubre Jr. find a role as a perimeter defender and occasional scorer. Brooks also made a subtle adjustment to his rotation, staggering the minutes of Morris and Beal to assist the second unit. By remaining consistent even through the early struggle, Brooks is showing that he is more than the guy who benefited from having two of the league’s five best players in Durant and Westbrook.

“People forget, they weren’t drafted [as] great players. They were drafted [as] great potential,” Brooks told The Vertical of Durant and Westbrook. “And it’s the same thing here. You have to develop the greatness out of all the players. It just doesn’t happen. Can’t just take a vitamin overnight and say, ‘This is the great player vitamin.’ … You have to put your time in.”

The moment that has defined the changing attitude within the team came last month during an otherwise meaningless game against the Boston Celtics. A series of chippy moments over the years between the teams culminated in a nose-poking, face-slapping exchange between Wall and Celtics forward Jae Crowder on Jan. 11. Two weeks later, Oubre and Wall declared that they would wear all black before the rematch, which they did before handily beating the Celtics. Brooks was aware of his players’ plan but didn’t want to stand in the way.

“I think we play our best basketball when we come out with that chip on the shoulder. You can’t come out and expect to win. You have to have a purpose to win in this league. And as long as it’s not disrespecting any team or the game itself, or the league, I’ll be for it. I’m all for team and camaraderie and that brotherhood mentality. Doing it together,” Brooks told The Vertical. “I like the creativity also. I’m not saying you just let the players do whatever they want, but as long as they are respecting the league, and the opponent, I’m fine with it. But I think our guys have done a great of job of buying in and playing for each other.”

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