On April 22nd, I held a Wizards trivia contest to win one of two copies of Stumbling On Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports by Dave Berri and Martin Schmidt, or some Wizards swag … which, as you can see from the pictures above is a pair of fuzzy Wizards/Zephyrs dice. Fancy, huh?

First, congrats goes to Thomas Pruitt and Wade Smith, the only two respondents to answer all nine trivia questions right. They both win a copy of the book. Also congrats to Marc Salmon, his email address was randomly selected from the entire pool of entries. Marc gets the lucky dice.

Now let’s go over the questions, answers and a bit of team history. In case you didn’t take part in the poll, I’m posting the answers at the bottom so you can take a guess at the questions if you feel so inclined.

#1 Which coach led the Washington Bullets in their ’97 1st round playoff matchup against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls?

• Bob Staak
• Bernie Bickerstaff
• Jim Lynam
• Wes Unseld
• Jim Brovelli

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In 2009-10, I began covering the Washington Wizards with full media access. The experience has provided so much to digest.

What were my expectations heading into the season?
Who were my favorite and least favorite Wizards to interview?
What were my top three interactions with Gilbert Arenas?
What was it like observing the likes of Andray Blatche and Shaun Livingston up close?
What was my initial reaction to both the Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler trades?
Why is my site called Truth About It.net?

I am honored to have recently taken part in an interview with Rashad Mobley of Hoops Addict (and occasional contributor to Truth About It) which gave me a chance to reflect upon the season, answering all the questions above and more.

Many thanks to Rashad and many thanks to Hoops Addict … now click here to go read.

I have no idea where this came from or what it means, but it’s time for some must-read links.

Tired of Caron Butler yet?

Washington Post: Michael Lee provides even more insight on the crazy year in Washington from Caron Butler’s perspective. Great read.

A couple interesting tid-bits & quotes:

“It was a team where the expectations were severely high and we obviously underachieved.” – Caron Butler. For the record, Caron was one of the first, if not the first, to declare championship aspirations, saying “people shouldn’t be scared to mention championship,” late last August. Of course, Antawn Jamison followed with his own claims in mid-September and I defended the proclamations of both. Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood opted not to speak about any championship potential during the preseason media day. The issue: Caron’s use of the word “severe” implies that the expectations were unjustified and placed upon the Wizards by someone else.

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{flickr/Youssef Abdelaal}

Okay, so Ted Leonsis already has one quality that’s in high demand from sports fans … transparency. How many other professional sports team owners have a personal blog where they actually share candid opinion and not boring, patronizing fluff?

Now, more and more, Leonsis is expressing interest in other areas of concern for educated sports fans, especially Wizards fans … advanced statistics.

If you’ll recall, Leonsis proclaimed his belief in basketball analytics on The Mike Wise Show on 106.7 FM in early April. More recently, he reiterated his belief in statistical analysis in an interview with CSN Washington’s Russ Thaler.

Today, on his blog Ted’s Take, Leonsis recommends two books on sports statistics. One is Stumbling On Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports by Dave Berri and Martin Schmidt  (a book for which I held a contest to win on this very site, winners to be announced soon). The second recommendation is Mathematics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Basketball, Basketball, and Football by Wayne L. Winston (a big plus/minus guy who’s served as Mark Cuban’s stat guru for the Mavericks).

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Jahidi White is a mythical creature in the lore of Washington Wizards basketball. He even has his own tribute page at WizzNutzz.com.

With the impending takeover of Ted Leonsis as sole owner of the Washington Wizards, I’ve been doing some reading/research on his ownership history lately. As a newbie in sports ownership, Leonsis was all about anxiously making a marketing splash with pizazz and glitter — hence, he signed Jaromir Jagr for $77 million and arranged Michael Jordan’s foray as a basketball executive.

Today, Leonsis refreshingly admits lessons were learned. “What I’ve come to realize is there is no substitute for planned strategy and systems, the casting of the team, the development of the team, there is no magic wand. There is no one person, one player that will change everything,” he recently told The Washington Post.

Owners, presidents and general managers rarely ‘fess up to making mistakes. Usually they tip-toe around the issue with all the deflection of an experienced politician — I believe they call it the Potomac two-step. The fact that Leonsis, like Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger, doesn’t dance is just one reason why Wizards fans are so excited about his reign. Transparency. In this age of rapid information dissemination, it’s the way to go.

So what does Leonsis have to do with Jahidi White?

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Don’t blame Randy Foye.

He already made it, so he doesn’t have to worry about you, or me, thinking he’s not good enough to cut it. Randy Foye is an NBA player and the league is his oyster … sort of.

Right now, he doesn’t have discretion to go where he pleases … a situation which would probably suit him best. His fate is in the hands of the Wizards. They can elect not to extend Foye, who is at the end of his rookie contract, a qualifying offer ($4.8 million for ’10-11), thus making him an unrestricted free-agent.

Or, they can extend the offer, whereas Foye becomes a restricted free-agent of the Wizards. If he doesn’t receive a longer-term offer from another team, which the Wizards could match, or an offer from the Wizards themselves, he’d end up in D.C. for one season at that $4.8 price and would be an unrestricted free-agent in the Summer of 2011.

I’ve mostly assumed that Ernie Grunfeld will not extend a qualifying offer to Foye. Randy thinks he’s a point guard. Flip Saunders would probably tell you otherwise. Him taking up salary and a roster spot might not be necessary. Simple as that.

On the other hand, you must wonder if Grunfeld will be determined to retain some value from the fifth pick he sent to Minnesota last Summer, along with Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas and Oleksiy Pecherov, in exchange for Foye and Mike Miller — and let’s face it folks, Miller is as good as gone from Washington.

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