I feel like this whole situation may be going in circles, but the horse is not dead yet … and another couple of beatings is well worth the words. So here goes …

All the Andray Blatche defenders, including himself, baffle me. C’mon folks, this guy has a long track record. How can he be given even an ounce of the benefit of the doubt?

To recap:

1. The coaches wanted to talk to Blatche after checking him out of Tuesday’s game against Charlotte. He refused. As a player, you CANNOT do that. No arguments. Initially, Andray went to sit in what would be a seemingly normal place on the bench for him, but then immediately got up and moved further away … to the very last seat on the bench … so he wouldn’t have to hear it.
2. Blatche claims he stayed “ready” to play. I don’t know about you guys, but a guy staring off into wherever, more concerned with biting his finger nails, is not ready to play in my book. Blatche’s poor body language cannot be overlooked. I implore you to try to coach a team full of guys who act in that manner.
3. Flip Saunders said coaches went up to Blatche three different times, which is different from three different coaches going up to Blatche, as Andray and some others have said.

   “Have the three coaches come out and say, ‘Yeah, I was one of the coaches that said something to him.’ And I would guarantee that you could not find three. You can’t find one. Have the media do that….,” Blatche told Mike Wise.

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The below piece originally appeared in ESPN’s NBA Daily Dime on March 25, 2010. Click the link for the full version available on ESPN.com.

{Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche exchange a fist-bump prior to Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers.}

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Andray Blatche has had quite a past 36 hours. He went from NBA Most Improved Player candidate, well, at least according to Tuesday’s pre-game fliers handed out by the Wizards’ marketing team, to only playing seven minutes that night against Charlotte and sulking on the bench, to being accused by Flip Saunders of not wanting to play nor be coached, to hitting the D.C. sports media circuit on Wednesday, defending himself and calling his coach’s charges a bold-faced lie, to starting last night in Indiana, leading his team in scoring with 21 points in a 99-82 loss to the Pacers.

Yep, quite an eventful 36.

More curious to most is not how Blatche responded on the court after such a tumultuous run, but how he was not suspended for the game against Indiana after his prior actions. Whether Blatche really refused to go back into Tuesday’s game against the Bobcats as his coach originally indicated remains a “he said, he said” situation. But the fact which Blatche cannot contest is that when his coaches tried to talk to him, he refused and planted himself at the end of the bench.

So why no suspension? Maybe Saunders wanted to see how the 23-year old would react as a player. Maybe Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld stepped in with an executive decision. Just like what really happened between Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, we may never know. Right now the player seems content with calling the ordeal a misunderstanding, while still curiously maintaining that he did nothing wrong, and the coach seems content with moving on.

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As a player, Andray Blatche didn’t do anything particularly egregious in his seven minutes of action on Tuesday night, which, for the record, is only about 0.0007 of seven days. But as a person, as a teammate, that’s a different story.

Actually, Blatche didn’t do much of anything, especially rebounding, of which he achieved zero compared to 11 boards by the Charlotte Bobcats, seven offensive, while he was on the floor.

Andray took some shots, five of them, making two. None of them were absolutely terrible, aside from not really following Flip Saunders’ edict to drive to the basket as the Bobcats seemed to be able do with ease. Blatche did drive to the hoop once for a dunk. Ironically, late in the game that basket was displayed on the Verizon Center jumbo-tron as the Volkswagen “Drive of the Game.”

Blatche’s worst shot came right before Flip took him out the game. But Saunders, at least according to him, didn’t intend to call out Andray for taking ill-advised shots.

“He thinks I yell at him because he takes bad shots,” Saunders said after the game. “He’s taken twice as many shots as anybody. You know, I don’t yell at too many guys for taking bad … I might tell them to go to the basket more instead of settling and those type of things, but you know what? That’s my job. If you don’t want to be coached, then you’re in the wrong spot.”

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The Wizards media and PR team probably could not have envisioned a more opposite from ideal beginning to their push for Andray Blatche to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. Amongst the usual pregame fare awaiting members of the media before Tuesday night’s Wizards-Bobcats game was the above flier touting the improved statistical merits of Blatche in bullet point fashion. The player responded with seven lackluster first quarter minutes before being permanently removed from the game, refusing to speak with coaches and refusing to play.

It was evident that something was going on when Flip Saunders checked Blatche out of the game at the 4:28 mark in the first. The player immediately went to the end of the bench, plopped himself in the furthest possible seat from the coaching staff and began to sulk. For the rest of the first half, Blatche would remain disconnected from his team and aloof during timeouts, looking anywhere except the huddle.

One would have expected Blatche to receive a pep talk from someone like Sam Cassell at halftime and come out ready to play alongside his teammates. No such luck. He continued to display the same poor body language for the rest of the game and never saw the floor again.

When asked why Blatche played so sparingly, Coach Saunders said, “Took him out of the game, we wanted to talk to him about not getting back on defense, not cross-checking where Mike [Miller] got handled. He didn’t want to hear it. Told him, ‘If you don’t want to come and talk, don’t want to be coached, you’re not going to play.’ We had coaches go up to him three different times, just said he didn’t want to play. Fifteen years, I’ve never seen anything like it. Never.”

In mid-January, after a home game against the New Orleans Hornets where Blatche did not get a shot attempt in 17 minutes of action, he was booted from the following practice and suspended one game for “conduct detrimental to the team.” Mike Jones later reported that Blatche had posted a status update on his FaceBook which said, “Never have I played a game and not had a shot attempt, they’ve got me all f—ed up,” and also that he was headed to Atlantic City.

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Earlier today, the Washington Post is reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh wrote a “scathing” 50-plus-page “Aid of Sentencing” memo, which is usually required in criminal cases … the memo part, not the scathing part … as a recommendation from the prosecution for Gilbert Arenas’ formal sentencing at 9:00 am this Friday. Arenas’ defense team, in turn, released a 200-plus page memo, which includes 32 testimonial letters pleading for sentencing leniency from Judge Robert E. Morin.

As part of Arenas’ plea deal on January 15th, prosecutors agreed to recommend low-end sentencing guidelines, which would include six-months or less in prison. In his memo, Kavanaugh specifically recommends three months in jail, three years probation and 300 hours of community service. Arenas’ defense team requests “a term of probation with a community service component,” but no jail time … obviously. Of course, it’s always been known that Judge Morin could put Arenas in prison for pretty much however long he pleases, but less than the 5-year maximum sentence for a felony gun charge.

But back to this “scathing” part. In the memo Kavanaugh writes, “The defendant’s conduct since the time of the incident establishes that he has shown little genuine remorse for anything other than how this incident may affect his career.”

Uh oh. The fun-loving, “who me?”, revisionist/contradictory history Gilbert Arenas who has continued to rear his ugly head might be coming back to haunt him in the form of increased time behind bars.

Or, might the harsh nature of Kavanaugh’s memo actually help Arenas receive less time in jail than he would have?

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Back in D.C. from vacation, and carrying an unfulfilled pseudo promise to find somewhere in New Orleans to watch Sunday’s Wizards-Lakers game (I said screw it and went to a place where I knew the food would be good … the Acme Oyster Company. Sure, a little touristy, but the food was still awesome, and the GF and I sat at the oyster bar where we were repeatedly slipped extra freshly shucked oysters … so no complaints there), I’m ready to jump full-on into the remaining 14 games on the schedule, starting with tonight’s home match-up against the Charlotte Bobcats. Hopefully the Wizards will either get a win this evening or tomorrow in Indiana so as not to tie the longest losing steak in franchise history at 13 games, achieved once in ’94-95 under Jim Lynam and once in ’66-67 as the Baltimore Bullets under Gene Shue.

But to recap the last game against the Lakers, we have a guest post from someone who did watch it. Below are the observations of Carter Bryant, a freelance sports journalist from the Baton Rouge area who is currently interning for Sirius/XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C.

Actually, one quick note first. Yesterday the WaPost’s Michael Lee reported that Gilbert Arenas’ mother recently passed away. Man, tough year for that guy. I couldn’t imagine being abandoned by my mother, and if I would even talk to her later in life given the opportunity. Gilbert at one point sounded like he wanted to reconnect with her after one chance encounter, but opted to at least put it off until his playing days are over. Now it makes one think … don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, especially when it comes to family and friends.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are clearly a far better team than the Washington Wizards. But the way the Wizards fought their way back to only lose by seven after being down by as many as 28 points has to be recognized at the end of a rough four-game road trip.

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{Pascal’s Manale, New Orleans — home of some of the best Louisiana oysters I’ve had}

Still on vacation and not due back in D.C. until late Monday, I don’t even think I’ve seen as much as a highlight from the Wizards’ past three games in Denver, Utah and Portland. The losing streak has now entered double-digits and is counting.

Part of me feels bad for not making more of an effort to watch the games. I mean, these are ‘my’ Wizards, the team I spend countless hours of my life keeping up with. I feel a bit lacking for not keeping up with what’s going on with the team, even in inevitable losses.

Then again, I tell myself, ‘Dude, you’re on vacation … it’s okay’. That being said, I’m pretty sure that on Sunday I’ll be searching New Orleans for a television with the Wizards-Lakers game on. I think I saw a commercial for a bar in Harrah’s casino touting the NBA league pass.

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Editor’s Note: Adam McGinnis is the new photography assistant for Truth About It.net. Occasionally he also contributes with some excellent writing. Previously he wrote about Emir Preldzic, a Euro-stash player the Wizards acquired in the Ilgauskas-Jamison trade. Below, Adam writes about his first game on the job, the March 11th Wizards-Hawks blizzard make-up game, and his observations of a certain NBA referee.

Reflecting on my pictorial under the hoop debut at the Phone Booth and the Wizards loss to the Atlanta Hawks with Mr. Truth About It, I made a comment on how one official made some really bad calls that both teams were complaining about.

The most egregious were two inadvertent whistles in the fourth quarter that left players and coaches scratching their heads.

One was a momentum crusher.

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[Editor's Note: Rashad Mobley has reported on the Wizards with media credentials since the 2008-09 season for Hoops Addict. He occasionally contributes to Truth About It.net, providing excellent analysis and a different perspective from his up-close coverage of the team.]

Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith ended the third quarter, by missing consecutive 24-foot jumpers, and his numbers going into the fourth were anything but impressive. He had made one of his six shots, and he only had four points, as his team held a slim lead over the Washington Wizards.

Things certainly did not get any better when the fourth quarter initially started, because Smith picked up an offensive foul trying to run through Nick Young, and then a technical foul for a delay of game violation. Still, Nuggets coach George Karl never removed him from the game, and despite some momentary frustration, Smith stayed composed.

From the 11:33 mark of the fourth quarter (when Smith picked up the offensive foul) to the final buzzer, Smith shot 6-of-10, scored 13 points and led the Nuggets to a 97-87 victory over the Wizards. He shrugged off a poor shooting performance over three quarters, and decided that he could still play a major role in his team’s fate.

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Questions. Maybe it’s because we’ll never really know the full story so all there is to do is ask questions. Maybe because the story is wrenched in contradiction and it’s worth pointing out more. And maybe it will always be easy to poke holes in a Gilbert Arenas story because he writes his own history from just his perspective — kinda like what my struggling teenage sister is going through now — and that because Arenas takes this course of action, one which has certainly gotten him in trouble, he deserves to have his little manipulations looked at under a microscope. And maybe this is just so interesting, yet so very stupid, that it’s worth writing about.

In any case, Gilbert Arenas’ recent article/interview/proclamation/strange first-person thingee in Esquire has brought up (and/or rehashed) some more interesting things to wonder about. Here those go…

What was the card game dispute about?

This is quite confusing and probably so nonsensical that it’s not worth making sense of, but here goes. Whether you fully accept the Esquire story as fact or not, it does reinforce the idea that Gilbert Arenas is a guy who makes up the rules as he goes, and especially at the behest of others. Because hey, he’s Gilbert Arenas. And with his attention seeking ego, he certainly has a right to duck out on a card game, right? Or at least that’s what he thinks.

In Esquire, Gilbert says: Read more »

I’m on vacation and didn’t watch last night’s 112-89 loss to the Jazz. Judging from the results, it doesn’t look like I will … which will make the first time this season that I have not watched a Wizards game. I know, kinda sad … in so many ways. And I’ll likely have to miss tonight’s game against the Nuggets in Denver too.

But now that the Wizards have lost a season-high eight in a row with more notches in the L column in sight, have they hit “rock bottom”?

Nah. That already happened.

Nevertheless, someone from the Washington Times, you know, the paper that cut its sports section, is writing about sports … and the Wizards.

“Wizards fans knew, when the team was blown up in mid-February, that things were going to get bad. Welcome to bad. Get ready for worse,” writes David Eldridge in his piece, ‘Rock-bottom for the Wizards? Buckle up.’

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[Editor's Note: Rashad Mobley has reported on the Wizards with media credentials since the 2008-09 season for Hoops Addict. He occasionally contributes to Truth About It.net, providing excellent analysis and a different perspective from his up-close coverage of the team.]

I’ll admit I was feeling pretty good about myself going into last night’s Wizards/Jazz game.  Prior to the game, Coach Flip Saunders mentioned that Shaun Livingston would get the starting nod over Randy Foye.  After Friday night’s loss to the Orlando Magic, I asked Flip about a Livingston over Foye situation, and said he didn’t know–but he didn’t say no, which to me was a strong indication a change was going to be made.  And eventually it was.

Based on my observations, Livingston got the Wizards into the offense earlier, he made more decisive passes, and when things broke down, he always seemed to make the right play to navigate his way out of trouble.  Plus, Flip never missed a chance to praise Livingston’s “basketball IQ”, and since he is notoriously hard on point guards, it seemed like a good temporary fit.  Livingston would start, Foye would channel his frustration over being benched, and regain that missing mojo, and Earl Boykins, being the veteran that he is, would be a threat to come in and drop 14 points in a minute and a half.  Sounds like a plan right?

Uh no.

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This week I’m on vacation, but not a vacation from the computer/writing about the Wizards because, well, this is something I really like to do. No, this is a vacation from regular work … relaxing, seeing some family, and eating some very good New Orleans food at the tail end of the trip. And yes, my vacation was scheduled around the Wizards’ four-game West Coast swing.

I might not be as active on this site, as I’m not sure if I’ll be able to watch some of the Wizards games, but there will be some guest posts covering the team, so stay tuned …

{Links}

Next time I see Ernie Grunfeld, I may flash him a thumbs up. Sure, he’s taken some heat, and justifiably so, but Shaun Livingston could be a nice addition to Grunfeld’s resume (and yes, it’s early).

Also, I’ll leave you with a quote from Behlehem Shoals of NBA FanHouse that will make you nod your head in approval: Read more »

Flip Saunders took an unusually long amount of time to get to his press conference after Saturday night’s 109-95 loss to Orlando. Wait, strike that, nothing has been “usual” this season, or rather consistent when it comes to how long the coach takes to get from locker room to media room.

It’s just that on Friday after the 105-99 loss to the Hawks, Flip was at his podium seat and ready to answer questions before anyone knew it. The only initial witnesses were cameramen and perhaps one, two at the most, members of the media.

Saturday the healthily attending media waited and waited, humorously speculating on what the coach could be doing. Others, myself included, looked at the box score, calling out numbers of note and then applying the proper reactionary facial expression. All of this is leading to a story about Shaun Livingston, trust me.

When Flip’s presser finally concluded, the media scrambled toward the locker room knowing it could be relatively empty. One of the games few positives, Andray Blatche, was already dressed and talking in the hallway amongst his post-game posse, meaning that pickings could be slim.

What players would be left? Only Al Thornton, JaVale McGee, Alonzo Gee and the two point guards, Randy Foye and Shaun Livingston. Gee didn’t garner any media attention and McGee was able to escape while Thornton was being questioned.

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Shaun Livingston has been through basketball hell, but the point guard just might be the godsend Flip Saunders has been searching the heavens for to lead his team.

The Wizards, as was pretty much expected, lost their third game in as many nights 109-95 to the Orlando Magic on Saturday, but Livingston broke out with his best game (most points with 18 and most assists with eight) since his career-changing knee injury in February 2007 .

Livingston has barely been with the Wizards two weeks and he appears more comfortable running Flip’s offense than anyone else has been all season.

“The biggest thing is he’s got a very high basketball I.Q. He seems to calm everybody down a little bit when he’s on the floor,” said Saunders. “And he’s got great size so when things break down he’s has the ability to back somebody down and get a shot off.”

More and more Saunders is turning to the player in his second consecutive 10-day contract to succeed where Randy Foye and Earl Boykins have fallen short. Down 15-13 to Orlando after a Jameer Nelson free-throw, Livingston took the floor at the 6:30 mark in the first quarter and led the Wizards on a 20-5 run to finish the period. During that time Washington went 9-13 from the field with seven of those baskets being assisted upon while not committing one turnover.

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