First up, our friend Andray Blatche. What you will see in the video embedded below:

• Andray making cupcakes at Red Velvet.
• Andray eating cupcakes and drinking a juice box with NBC 4′s Lindsay Czarniak.
• Andray’s mini-jersey chain bling.

And now LaVar Arrington posting up Gilbert Arenas … and missing the bunny.

As you can see, so much is going on at Wizards training camp and it’s just day one. And I’m stuck doing ‘regular’ work in DC. Thankfully, there are plenty of people in Richmond covering the events. Read more »

Back in late May, Mike Miller professed his ‘man-crush’ on LeBron James via Twitter. When coming across this sometime in early September, I thought, ‘okay, let’s give this guy the benefit of the doubt.’ For one, his proclamation occurred way before he joined the Wizards. And let’s be honest, despite my hatred of LeBron, the guy is a damn fine basketball player.

Unfortunately, Miller just doesn’t seem to know any better. It’s kinda like the greasy-faced tween-age boys who have crushes on Megan Fox. Grown men know better. Sure, most so-called grown men wouldn’t kick Fox out the bed, i.e., wouldn’t mind LeBron James on their team. However, neither of these happen without compromising personal beliefs (and cheating on whomever you’re with/your team … especially if you’re a Wizards fans, but a distaste for LeBron is growing around the league).

My point: LeBron getting “Chosen One” tattooed on his back is just as douchey as Fox getting Marilyn Monroe tattooed on her forearm. (Cavs fans, I know you’re wondering, where does getting Abe Lincoln’s face tattooed on the front of your neck fit in? I’m not sure, and I won’t even begin to explain.)

Also, Fox’s hissy-fits on the set of Transformers easily compare to LeBron’s temper-tantrums when peddling his self-serving movie that essentially highlights the fact that the French translation of ‘team’ has an ‘i’ in it.

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Media day was the first time I’ve been around Andray Blatche in a public setting. From what I’ve gathered in the past, he’s not exactly a juicy quote machine. On Monday, he pretty much lived up to that expectation.

“Consistent” was Andray’s choice word of the day, repeating it several times, and mostly in reference to his jump shot. I found this to be a bit curious. In my evaluation of Blatche, I outlined how I’d rather him take less jumpers (or at least avoid ill-advised/forced ones).

If he can hit them, great/splendid/wonderful. Everyone likes a big man who can spread the floor. I just would have been more comfortable had Andray mentioned rebounding and defense as priorities.

But enough about my wishes, read Blatche’s quotes for yourself … Read more »

The media knew Gilbert Arenas was going to be first up to bat at media day, so they picked their spots and waited. When Arenas arrived with a full ‘mean-mug’ on his face, the rugby scrum for question asking and comment hearing positioning began.

Arenas started with a serious nature and short answers, but eventually opened up and talked about a wide range of subjects. Here’s the run-down:

Three-Hour Retirement Contemplation

He spoke about the emotional roller-coaster that he went through surrounding his knee. In January 2009, he got an x-ray on it before he going to Miami. The doctor told him he had swelling in his joint and that he might need yet another surgery. “That’s when I blew up,” Arenas said. “For about three hours, I said I’d rather retire before I go through another surgery … at least I can save the team some money.” But another doctor he saw in Miami told him to hold off on the surgery and instead, gave him a shot that seemed to clear everything up. Read more »

Back from the whirlwind of Washington Wizards media day ’09 and ready to blog it out. With much to transcribe, I’ll have a lot more in the future, but I wanted to get to something of utmost importance first, DeShawn Stevenson’s new tattoos.

(No, I don’t think this is really of the ‘utmost’ importance, but definitely the quickest/easiest/most fun to blog about.)

What does Abe Lincoln have to do with all this? Well, his face is one of Stevenson’s new tats … and it’s right on the front of his neck (jeez that seems painful), always looking right back at you.

Stevenson also has a backwards Pittsburgh Pirates logo on his right cheek and a Frankenstein-esque crack starting at his hairline and working its way down his forehead (not sure what happens if his hairline starts receding).

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Washington Wizards Media Day is here, and I’ll be amongst the throngs of media in attendance, classified with a handful of “bloggers” who will be taking part for the first time. And the Wizards are not unique in this situation. Bloggers from ’round the league will be making their foray into access usually reserved for the mainstream and the established.

This being my first media day, I’m not exactly sure how it will go down. But I’ll be prepared with an arsenal of unique questions, and an array of ways to capture the players as they embark on one of the team’s most important training camps in years.

If anyone out there has any questions you’d like me to pose to the players in general, or to a specific player, I can be reached at truthaboutit[at]gmail[dot]com, or via a direct tweet to @Truth_About_It.

In case you haven’t heard, the Wizards added some more bread filler to their training camp crabcakes with the signing of Vincent Grier and Paul Davis. But these are just test crabcakes, when the season starts, they’ll be much more potent.

Vincent Grier

Grier, who spent last year playing in France and has previously made off-season appearances with the Miami Heat (2006) and Minnesota Timberwolves (2008), seems to be one of those ‘dime-a-dozen’ swingmen.

Here’s a synopsis of what I was able to gather via Grier’s Draft Express profile (written in Feb. 2005):

He’s an explosive lefty slasher who can score in bunches, take smaller guards in the post because of his size (6’5″, 200 lbs. or so), and rebounds well. However, he can be out of control on offense, his jumper is inconsistent, and his handles are shaky. He can uses his muscle to play decent defense, but doesn’t necessarily have lateral quickness.

Grier has no chance of making the team. But as goes common knowledge, his simple association with an NBA team might help with a contract down the line. If anything, Flip Saunders seems to be doing his fellow University of Minnesota alum a solid. Seeing the meager client list of Grier’s agent Mark McNeil, they could use the extra help.

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Ernie Grunfeld didn’t reveal anything new in Thursday’s press conference, just ask Michael Lee of the Post and Mike Jones of the Times, both alluding to the recycled themes we’ve heard for most of the summer.

But it’s been “one of the longest summers ever,” according to Grunfeld. He’s anxious to get the season started and have his “wait and see” mantra put to the test.

“I haven’t been this excited in a very long time because of the change that we have. There’s a different sense around here. There’s a different sense around the team. The players feel this new kinda of enthusiasm, there’s a new kind of professionalism, and just a new way of doing things. I think it’s exciting for us and exciting for the players.” -Ernie Grunfeld

New. Change. Different.

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Evidently, every one of the current Wizards, and one former Wizard, will be throwing down at the Lux Lounge in D.C. Friday night to celebrate going ‘Back To Camp’ (not yet sure what Juan Dixon is going back to — he worked out with Memphis in early September, but then they signed Allen Iverson). The Wizards Girls will be serving as the party hostesses.

Part of me wishes the team well … better to get partying out of the system now (right Andray Blatche?), and get serious when the season starts. The other part of me says ‘uh oh’ … for obvious reasons.

[via The State of DC]

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I attended the H Street Festival in D.C. on Saturday and saw him from a distance … is that ‘him’? The guy who only Mike Jones of the Washington Times was able to catch up with … for which Jones continues to receive congratulations? The mysterious figure faded into the crowd before I could ever find out if he was real or not. A true agent with the label of zero.

{UPDATE: To be clear, before anyone asks, I didn’t ‘really’ think that was Arenas … was being a bit facetious. It would, however, be funny if he wore his own jersey about town.}

Breaking My Media Cherry

Flip Saunders held his first ‘me time’ press conference on Tuesday, and it was not like a tree falling alone in the woods … there were plenty people around to hear, including a couple of bloggers, one being yours truly.

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“Right now I plan on playing him strictly as a one,” Flip told David Aldridge, shooting down the idea of Gilbert Arenas spending time off the point. “He has to maintain his scoring aggressiveness as a one, and let people play off of him,” continued Saunders. Meaning, team scoring and passing will be on Arenas’ shoulders. The ball will be in his hands a lot, eighty-percent of the time according to Saunders. “He has a great opportunity to really improve because he’s gonna have the ball in his hands like never before.”

Speaking of that ‘off the point’ position, Saunders said it will be an open competition for the starting two-guard role. He went on to explain that in his offensive system, “twos and threes are pretty much interchangeable,” and that it’s about the “guys who play the best together.”

In terms of overall rotation, Saunders is going to stick to his eight OR nine guys. Playing 12 guys every game can throw the team out of rhythm. Yes, there will be nights where 10 or 11 guys will play, but that is contingent on match-ups. Saunders will adapt to certain situations, but also wants to assure his main guys that they will get a majority of the minutes. “My philosophy has always been that you try to win the beginning and end of quarters,” said Saunders, meaning it’s important to have the main guys playing together for at least that estimated 20 minute time period.

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{via Sports Illustrated Vault}

An unfortunate part about being a Wizards/Bullets blogger and only 29 years old (and only having moved to DC in 1990), is that timing has deprived my memory and knowledgeable grasp of franchise history. But we all depend on people before us to tell the stories we don’t know. The more accounts there are, the better depiction we get of what actually transpired. This is what’s so great about team blogs, or “sites” maintained by sources which not apart of main stream media. They provide a more in depth view from wider angles, making the lore that much better for the future.

For my last birthday, a friend gave me ‘The Great Book of Washington, D.C. Sports Lists‘, written by Andy Pollin and Leonard Shapiro and published in 2008. These two guys have an insanely close relationship with sports in the city I love, and they turned to even more brilliant minds for assistance when composing their lists. While the book doesn’t exactly satisfy my desire for Bullets history tid-bits (to be expected in a Redskins town), it comes highly recommended for its Washington sporting facts, which are considered mostly minutia by ‘official’ historical accounts, but extremely savory to serious fans.

In reading, which I still continue to do, some lists twice, I came across some eyebrow raising commentary regarding the relationship between Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I previously had little knowledge of Hayes outside of him being a great player, and a member of the ’78-79 championship team. I simply haven’t taken the time to dive into research about him as I’ve done for more contemporary figures during my fandom period (such as Kevin Duckworth, Robert Pack, Larry Stewart, Scott Skiles, and Haywoode Workman).

Hayes and Unseld appear on three lists together: Read more »

I’m not even sure you can call JaVale McGee a ‘hipster’ in this instance, since so many aspects of hipsterism have been disseminated into mainstream (and copied and recycled like a virus). But thick frame glasses, a faux(ish)-hawk, and a horizontally striped v-neck is all I need to make the insinuation. Wait, what the hell is a ‘hipster’ in the first place?

McGee has already expressed displeasure with the nickname Epic Vale (or The Choppa, or whatever), opting to dub himself ‘J-Mac’ or ‘Big Daddy Wookie’ or ‘Kill + Mode = Chee$e’.

But now, perhaps ‘Blipster Daddy Wookie’ should be added to the list. And with the stuffed shark in the background, I’m not sure on which site this photo would be more appropriate, this one or this one.

In other news, via Twitter, JaVale might sell his all black Impala on 24s for 25K. Holler at him if you’re interested.

And now, highlights from ’round the World Wizards Web…

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{ flickr/wizardsdotcom }

Economy hurting newspapers in a dying industry? Well, when Mike Jones is afforded the opportunity** the spend a couple weeks in Chicago, and thus the ability to break through Gilbert Arenas’ media silence ice, we all see why true professionals need to be around for a long time. (And honestly, they’re not going anywhere, the platform/game is just changing).

Ok, enough of the digressive spiel. Jones has put together an epic* post on Gilbert Arenas’ nameless comeback tour.

* Well, epic to Wizards fans and those dedicated to the NBA, perhaps in hope that Agent Zero will make things a little less ‘boring’, and in a sense that Arenas has been on a media hiatus for a long time, with many probably not expecting him to talk again until September 28th’s media day.

** And who are we kidding? The Washington Times plays the dark horse to The Post in D.C. — the Rev. Sun Myung Moon must be a huge Gilbert Arenas fan. This, in my opinion, is a pretty big pull for Mr. Jones … even though he is an established piece of the main stream media.

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{ The 1978 Larry O'Brien Trophy - flickr/Scott Ableman }

In late August, Caron Butler said, “people shouldn’t be scared to mention championship.” On Tuesday, Antawn Jamison followed up with his own championship talk. You can read it covered by Michael Lee in the WaPost and Mike Jones in the WaTimes.

Good sound-bites, but should the Wizards really be talking about a championship? Of course they should, and here are the top four reasons why:

#4) If you’re setting goals, why not set them high? …and we’re not talking about setting goals while you’re getting high, a la Allen Iverson, and some sort of god propelled (probably Jobu), dream of marching the Larry O’Brien down Beale Street.

#3) Talking title sets a tone. The Wizards aren’t here to hope, they’re taking the court to want and desire. As soon as players start talking about maybes, shouldas, couldas, and wouldas … those big ‘IFs’ (looking at you health bug), they’re already psychologically putting themselves behind the eight-ball. The seriousness of backing up expressed championship aspirations brings an air of focus to the table.

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