J.J. Barea Says Wizards Don't Like John Wall After Being Called 'Little Midget'

John Wall and J.J. Barea exchanged verbal barbs following the Dallas Mavericks' 98-75 win over the Washington Wizards on Monday night.

Wall and Barea had a brief argument on the court in the fourth quarter, which led to their postgame war of words.

"It was cool to me, it was funny," Wall said, per the Washington Post's Candace Buckner. "Just a little midget trying to get mad. So, I paid him no mind."

ESPN's Tim MacMahon noted Barea responded "by saying he finally has someone in the NBA he doesn't like. 'I don't think his teammates like him, either.'"

Things certainly got personal fast between two players who didn't appear to be feuding before Monday night. Based on Barea's comment, he didn't harbor any ill will toward Wall prior to the game.

Though he may regret using a term considered offensive by the dwarfism community, Wall's remark probably did little to actually rattle the Mavericks point guard. Barea's response, however, may have exposed a deeper truth about Wall.

Wall's imperfect relationship with Bradley Beal was a big storyline heading into the 2016-17 season. While the two have largely put that problem aside since, it was hard not to think back to that dynamic when Beal commented upon a players-only meeting the Wizards held recently.

Buckner shared Beal's thoughts:

"It was tough. I try to keep all our stuff as personal as possible but I think in a way not everybody got a chance to speak whenever they wanted to. They didn't want to bring up an issue or something they had a problem with on the team. Regardless of what may be going on, as men we've got to be able to accept what the next man says, be respectful about it and move on from it. I think it was one of those situations where we didn't necessarily get everything that we wanted to get accomplished."

In the same article, Wall also said the meeting "kind of set us back a little bit."

It's not exactly a great sign the Wizards lost to the second-worst team in the Western Conference in their first game after the players meeting came to light. The combination of Wall and Beal were 8-of-29 from the field in the loss.