[Author's Note: The editor of this site, Mr. Kyle Weidie, cannot stand Tony Kornheiser. He thinks Tony is old, out of touch and unnecessarily negative about all things Washington Wizards--especially Gilbert Arenas. He acknowledges Tony was a great sports writer at one time, but Kyle thinks those days are long gone. I am a huge Tony Kornheiser fan, and I enjoy his articles, his books, PTI and his radio program, so for me to even get this article on Truth About It, is a coup of epic proportions. Keep that in mind as you read please. -Rashad]
Washington Wizards Owner Ted Leonsis made an appearance on Tony Kornheiser’s radio show yesterday on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C., and his main focus was to discuss the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Challenge. That event, which will take place on October 23rd, will feature several events (20 mile cycling, a 5k Walk, and a 3K walk just to name a few) that will start and end at the Washington Monument on the National Mall. This event is designed to assist those individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and Best Buddies International (a charity that Leonsis is actively involved with), and the Special Olympics (founded by the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver) have partnered to make this event possible.
After Leonsis spent several minutes discussing this worthy event, Tony asked him to address some issues related to the Washington Capitals and the Wizards. The Capitals-related issue involved Leonsis and his beef with the writer of this article. But since we are a Wizards blog, we’ll spend more time delving into the basketball portion of Tony’s queries.
As a bit of background, Tony is not a fan of Gilbert Arenas. He respects his talent and his abilities, but he does not respect the antics that come with having him on the team. In fact last year, in an appearance on Dan Levy’s On The DL Podcast, Tony ripped Arenas by calling him “the worst person on the Earth.” Despite my loyalty to Tony, I was incensed at this view, and I wrote a rebuttal and so did the editor of this site. It should also be noted that Tony went on that rant BEFORE Arenas brought guns in the locker room.
Hilton Armstrong is one of those NBA players for whom it’s hard to remember a time when he was good. In college or the pros, the 6’11″ center has never averaged double-digit points or even seven rebounds per game. And yet, here he is– the former Big East Defensive Player of the Year and 2006 lottery pick is now the back-up center for your Washington Wizards (who actually wants to start).
Remember former Washington Wizard John Coker? Of course you don’t (especially since he’s wearing a Phoenix Suns jersey in the image below).
[Note: This appears to be the only picture of John Coker on the entire world wide web, so please excuse me if I've "stolen" it from use amongst several websites. To be safe, I've done some artsy-fatsy stuff with it using a filter in Photoshop.]
Not many even remember this guy’s entire NBA career, which is a tad interesting, and very brief.
The four-year product of Boise State went undrafted in 1995 as a 7’1″ center, but was picked up by the Phoenix Suns as a free-agent in September. He only played 11 minutes over five games in his rookie season, but that was evidently enough to get him a two-year contract with Phoenix in July of ’96. Then he was waived by the Suns before the end of October ’96.
I think Al Thornton really appreciates his situation. Appreciates, as in understands it and will take the necessary steps to respond accordingly. Sure, Thornton likely would rather be playing with a secure extension and not heading into the qualifying offer portion of his contract in the Summer of 2011. But were it not for this situation, Al might not have the opportunity to become the player he could be, which is a great unknown … speaking of, what is it that Al Thornton does anyway?
“I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolfpack. But when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolfpack, it grew by one, so there were two of us in the wolfpack. I was alone first in the pack and then Doug joined in later. And six months later when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought ‘wait a second, could it be?’ And now I know I added two more guys to my wolfpack.”
Adam Morrison, who Jordan drafted third overall in the 2006 draft when he was manager of basketball operations in Charlotte, has accepted an invitation to join the Washington Wizards in training camp, according to the Washington Post’s Lee.
Morrison averaged a modest 11.8 points as a rookie with the Bobcats, but his second year was prematurely ended when he tore his ACL in an exhibition game against the Los Angeles Lakers. He returned from the injury in 2008-2009, but he clearly was not the same player, and right before the all-star break, the Bobcats traded him– ironically enough to Lakers.
Did you know Nick Young likes to smile a lot? Nothing wrong with a happy-go-lucky attitude … this world needs more smiles. And scientists say it takes less muscles to smile (or more to frown). Everyone wins with smiles. Well, not always the case with Young. In July 2009 Flip Saunders implored Young to smile less and develop a mean streak. The coach expanded upon those comments in November ’09, saying: Read more »
[Basketball Court: First St. & K St. NW, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]
TAI Programming Note:
Both Michael Lee on the Washington Post’s Wizards Insider blog and the gang over at Bullets Forever have been providing some excellent preview coverage of the Washington Wizards heading into training camp.
Here at Truth About It.net, we’re ready to gear up our coverage too. As we approach “Midnight Madness” and the start of training camp on September 27/28, the TAI staff will collaborate to form the sum of a preview for each of the 10 main characters of your 2010-11 Wizards playing squad. Or, each of the moving parts that will/should/hopefully come together under the direction of Coach Flip Saunders to form a competitive basketball team (or at least one that’s enjoyable to watch).
[Frazier's Funeral Home - Florida Ave. & Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]
Josh Howard recently said ‘all the right things’ in an interview with HoopsHype … ‘all the right things’ that are almost hard to believe. Perhaps it was a proclamation, of sorts — a personal challenge from Josh to Josh. Howard saying that the Wizards “see a natural-born leader” in him certainly drew faint scoffs from several prominent websites: ESPN Dallas, SLAM, Yahoo!.
Which makes me wonder … is skepticism wrong? Why are we skeptics? I’m sure there’s been a ton of psychoanalysis about it, but does it accomplish much aside from a potential future “I told you so”? That being said, I’ve been guilty of skepticism before … from being leery of Ernie Grunfeld’s romanticism of old school team management tactics to past battles with assessments of Andray Blatche (after being around him as a person this past season, I’ve grown to like him … it’s just that his previous bonehead decisions and court attitude have been teeth-grinders).
Maybe skepticism is just human nature. Unavoidable. And as with anything else, you need to keep it in check. You can be skeptical of a chef opening a new restaurant when, from experience, you didn’t think his last one was so great. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the new endeavor a fair chance, especially if the restaurant is in your neighborhood.
Through it all, perhaps the most pressure placed upon Wall so far has come from comments by Wizards coach Flip Saunders at the ‘John Wall Day’ celebration and introductory press conference. Let’s watch:
My favorite observations while filming that was the facial expression of Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld after Flip made his hyperbolic “dropped from heaven” declaration.
[Ed. Note: I'm going to warn you. Rashad is about to divulge himself as a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Please, do not be outraged. I already knew this and it is okay. He's a fine young man (who's older than me) and you should not hold his fandom of a certain team about 140 miles north against him. Now Mr. Mobley is going to explain why the Bobcats are worth checking out, aside from wondering if Gerald Wallace is going to injure yet another Wizard. -Kyle W.]
I have been a Philadelphia Eagles fan since 1985 when I saw Randall Cunningham running and passing his way to superstardom. And although they have just one Super Bowl appearance and no titles during my 25 years of loyalty, my allegiance remains strong.
Unfortunately, since sports is mostly about business and not fan loyalty, some of my favorite players have left the Eagles via trade, free agency or waivers. Randall Cunningham retired as an Eagle and then unretired and played for Minnesota; Reggie White left for Green Bay via free agency; Terrell Owens was released and then he signed with Dallas; and just this past summer, Donovan McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins.
ESPN.com currently has this “Franchise Five” feature going on for all NBA teams. Basically, they have an interactive page where visitors can vote for the “best” player in franchise history at each position (PG, SG, SF, PF, C).
Here are the candidates:
Point Guard:
Gilbert Arenas, Rod Strickland, Archie Clark, Kevin Porter and Michael Adams
Shooting Guard:
Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Jeff Malone, Phil Chenier, Kevin Loughery and Don Ohl
Small Forward:
Bernard King, Caron Butler, Bob Dandridge and Calbert Cheaney
CNBC Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell recently revealed that in late December 2009, the NBA suspended production of retro Washington Bullets merchandise as a result of ‘Locker Room Gun-Gate 2009-10: A Gilbert Arenas-Javaris Crittenton-John Wayne-Peter Vecsey Story.’
Now, Rovell reports that, “the league has approved licensees to make retro Bullets items again.”
In TruthAboutIt.net’s never-ending quest to search for the truth, about it, site investigators have discovered the behind the scenes process of removing Washington Bullets retro items from production. The following footage has never been seen before, ever. I’m talking never. Except for now.
Click the image below to begin your journey
(RSS feed readers, you have to actually come to the site … it’s an animated GIF ‘n’ stuff.)
Grunfeld’s romanticism of old school team management tactics to past battles with assessments of Andray Blatche (after being around him as a person this past season, I’ve grown to like him … it’s just that his previous bonehead decisions and court attitude have been teeth-grinders).
