A D.C. pic, commentary, and links …

[A lil' Subway, 6th St. & Morse St. NE - Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

From Small To Big

Sean Fegan at Bullets Forever has a run down on what is likely the biggest question facing the Wizards — well, at least in terms of the starting lineup — who is going to start at the three spot?

Fegan states the feeling we all get: Starting a three-guard lineup of John Wall, Gilbert Arenas and Kirk Hinrich with the spotty defensive (team concept speaking) and rebounding ability of JaVale McGee behind them ain’t going to cut it on most nights.

So what are the other options?

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Look, I know we’ve spent a lot of font sizes and word counts on Gilbert Arenas, adding binary code to the matrix. And the more I analyze, the more I feel like I’m nit-picking and contributing to the whole absurdity of the scene. So, it’s worth taking a step back and saying, ‘this is all pretty silly, isn’t it?’

That it is.

A recent piece by Jake Whitacre on SB Nation about the rise and fall of Gilbert Arenas and Clinton Portis (and their swagger) got me thinking … do we want winners or do we want entertainers?

Well, both. But the former almost always begets the latter, and it clearly doesn’t always work both ways, at least in the recent history of D.C. sports.

Not that we don’t want ‘characters’ … flavor/swagger/flair … are all welcome. But sometimes you just want your main guy to be a winner/gamer/consistent leader.

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So the Wizards preseason game against the Cleveland Cavaliers is not on television tonight. This is something I believe I was aware of (as I received the press release indicating that Comcast SportsNet would broadcast 80 regular season games and three preseason games — the October 28 season opener in Orlando and the November 25 game in Atlanta will be exclusively broadcast on TNT), but still, realizing it this morning made me say … “damn.”

And evidently a lot of others are wishing they could watch John Wall and the Wizards tonight too. Ratings for the first preseason game went through the roof, via the DC Sports Bog, leaving many, some on Twitter today, hungry for more.

But sometimes the advertising dollars just aren’t there for preseason games — not one Washington Capitals preseason game was televised this year. Everyone expected Wall to have an impact, but if they knew he could bring a 55-percent ratings increase over last year’s regular season average for a measly preseason game, I’m sure more television arrangements would have been made … albeit, other games might not fetch the same as a debut.

In any case, both home preseason games (October 12 versus the Hawks — the return of Etan Thomas! — and October 14 versus the Bucks — the return of Earl Boykins!!) will be televised. Otherwise, for the rest of the preseason slate, you’ll have to rely on the soothing voices of Dave Johnson and Glenn Consor on 106.7 The Fan, which you should also be able to hear online (note: the Oct. 17 preseason game versus the Knicks, that will be broadcast live on 1580 AM).

So, in lieu of video, let’s take a look at the diagram of my favorite Gilbert Arenas shooting guard play (so far) that went down Tuesday in Dallas.

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Ted Leonsis wants bloggers to “generate those pixels,” and “feed the algorithm.” And I guess that can be a good thing and a bad thing … because when it comes to Gilbert Arenas, we can’t help ourselves. So here goes…

Too bad Gilbert. People are going to nitpick everything you say (and not just because you got in trouble, as you alluded), but because you are Gilbert Arenas. You made yourself. Well, your past self. And the media helped.

You played the media. The media played back.

Fair and unfair, it comes with the territory of calling you the Man of Millions (the exact amount which shall not be mentioned because of your sensitivity to it — you never liked the strings that came attached to a contract worth nine figures, this we know).

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[Editor's Note: Beckley Mason has contributed to Wizards player previews on TAI, this is his first piece. You can read more about him here. - Kyle]

In late-September when Wizards owner Ted Leonsis spoke publicly about the NBA owners’ position heading into the 2011 CBA agreement, he quickly learned that David Stern will not accept anyone breaking the company line in the form of a 100 Grand — a fine, not the candy bar. As owner of the Washington Capitals, Leonsis has come to appreciate the benefits of the NHL’s hard salary cap rules.

“In a salary-cap era — and soon a hard salary cap in the NBA like it is in the NHL — if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, it’s the small nuanced differences that matter,” Leonsis told the press at a breakfast reception he hosted for the business community in Northern Virginia.

The wisdom of that statement has been widely debated around the internet. Notably, ESPN’s J.A. Adande and CBS Sports’ Tim Berger have pointed out some flaws in the hard cap pipe dream.

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Ted Leonsis is a man of lists. He believes in lists.

In fact, his original “list” of 101 things to do in life, which arose from a day of reckoning in 1983 when a plane he was on was forced into a crash landing, actually landed him an appearance on Oprah.

But getting on the media mogul’s show wasn’t the point. Making that original list helped bring direction and focus to Leonsis’ life. He achieved a lot, financially, before making his list, but clearly, through telling his story in his book, The Business of Happiness, he achieved far more value and meaning in his life, over monetary concern, after making the list.

And thus, as a big believer in lists, shortly after taking over the Wizards last June, Leonsis sought input from his team’s community on what he could do to make their basketball experience and relationship with the franchise better. And with that input, he started making another list.

Evidently, that list grew to the point where a simple benchmark of achieving 101 total improvements in the quality of life for Wizards fans (and Capitals fans, and Mystics fans … since the Verizon Center that houses all teams was part of the package Leonsis fully acquired in June) became a list of 101 accomplishments in 101 days, with more likely to come.

Leonsis has several times mentioned that he would release said list to the public and now, via his blog, Ted’s Take, he has done so. So head over to take a look at what’s been done and what other changes are to come.

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Media Day had your easy preconceived story lines with the NBA’s top draft pick, John Wall, the return of Gilbert Arenas from suspension, the new veteran acquisitions and the youth movement of draft picks. Then a bearded, visibly disinterested Arenas entered the Wizards practice court and proceeded to act like getting his picture taken was like being subjected to a Twilight movie marathon. After his photo session concluded, Arenas politely declined to answer standard profile questions from a team official and huddled with Wizards public relations staff before mumbling stoic answers in a pretty pointless three minute media interview session.

Suddenly, a new media day theme had emerged: “Why is Gil so serious?”

The Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg coined Arenas’s media day persona as “Emo Gilbert,” and I piggybacked that with “Sullen Emo Gil” on my video recap.

Here is the definition of “Emo Girl” via Urban Dictionary:

“an emo girl is a 15-17 yr old or older who loves being dark and girly at the same time but is mostly drawn towards the tomboy side, she loves any music that expresses her and she is arrogant on the outside but on the inside she is weak and crambling and tries to hide her insecurity about herself and her looks by black eye makeup and her attitude”

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Overall, the Wizards looked impressive en route to an “it’s just the preseason” 97-94 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night (although they almost gave the game away). Here’s who looked good, bad and okay in yays, nays and mehs.

What are these gents celebrating?
Well, the Microwave just cooked the game.

>>YAY.

John Wall. 21 points, nine assists, two turnovers and four steals in about 38 minutes. I guess it will do, statistically.

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Some links, but no D.C. pic … trying to mess with some video …

Links.

Michael Lee with great work on the growth process of Andray Blatche, via facing former mentors in Dallas — and look for ‘Dray to slap Brendan Haywood on the ass if he dunks on the former Wizard.
[Washington Post]

Media Day pictures of Gilbert Arenas through the years.
[DC Sports Bog]

Kelly Dwyer on Gil’s “sadness”:

“If Gilbert wants to show us he’s sad? Great. We’re glad you’re sad and that you’re attempting contrition. But now that you’re a member of a team and playing a team sport and working (if not playing) in front of fans that have come out to watch the Wizards, and not Gilbert Arenas (not because they don’t come out to see you, but because you’re injured so they can’t watch Gilbert Arenas), that stuff kind of gets set aside.

You have to find a way to blend in. You have to find a way to not make it all about Gilbert Arenas, for the first time since 2003-04.

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Tonight, the Washington Wizards embark on their 2010 preseason campaign against the Mavericks in Dallas … and it matters. Matters not in how they play, but how they appear.

Preseason 2009 was disregarded before it even happened. There were no forthcoming tea leaves being brought to read for the season before the season by the assembled stew of leftovers and afterthoughts: Arenas, Jamison, Butler, Miller, Foye, Oberto, James, Boykins, Blatche, Stevenson, and the guy who was on Millionaire Matchmaker.

Preseason 2010 is quite different; still assembled stew, but the ingredients are a lot fresher.

Preseason 2009 didn’t matter, and I’m not talking wins and losses. They never matter. I’m talking about appearances. Who cares if the ‘09-10 team didn’t appear well together in the beginning, it was going to take time. Preseason 2009 was all about post-season expectations, not appearances in games that don’t count. But eventually, from style to stats to substance, the players of last season became rancid under Flip Saunders’ system. Things got stale, as Ernie Grunfeld has mentioned over and over, and over, again.

Now the bread is freshly baked with no mold in sight. With low to no expectations, there’s much less risk from your standard threats. Last year, Antawn Jamison got hacked by future a Wizard, Zydrunas Ilaguaskas, in a preseason game in Cleveland. Uh oh, stomachs were in knots. The bum shoulder caused Jamison to miss under-appreciated gelling time, and was likely the first screw that came loose on the ‘09-10 season.

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As the Washington Wizards were going through the last of their training camp practices leading up to an intra-squad scrimmage on Sunday afternoon at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, in the parking lot of the Patriot Center, Wizards Fan Fest brought out the franchise faithful. There were games, clowns, Wizards girls, face painting, hoops instruction, music, trivia, old Washington Bullets signing autographs (Jeff Ruland, Kevin Grevey, Bob Dandridge and Gheorghe Muresan), and the what-not. Fans were happy. Fans were excited. And I was left with the impression that people are realistic — they know their basketball team is rebuilding and are keeping expectations low, but appreciate that courtesy of Ted Leonsis (along with being very, very lucky to land a player who can have a high impact off the court, beyond statistical measure, in John Wall), the ride along the path of rebuilding will be a lot more fun than the tough times and futile seasons of the past.

Below I’ve captured Fan Fest in a video and some pictures. Enjoy.

Pictures:

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It just had to be done. Sure, this is a Washington Wizards blog. And my forthcoming report from Sunday’s Wizards Fan Fest will be exactly that, forthcoming. But, for some reason, I feel the need to share/celebrate the win of the Washington Redskins over the Philadelphia Eagles. And no, this doesn’t have anything to do with a colleague of mine, an excellent writer for Truth About It.net, Rashad Mobley, being an Eagles fan. Although, I take no pity in his team’s loss.

A couple weeks ago I attended a Redskins-Houston Texans game way out in Landover, Maryland. If you were following Twitter that day, you might have noticed a mini-meltdown on my part in reaction to the loss, and the subsequent remoteness of FedEx field. (Why is that place so terrible? Because it’s not in the District, that’s why.)

While there, I captured an Eagles fan in attendance, for some reason (he had two friends who were Skins fans), and a Redskins fan of another party… interacting and ultimately being cool with each other. Although it’s safe to say they aren’t near each other this week.

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There are 18 players on the current Washington Wizards training camp roster, which means there were 18 different ways they chose to handle Media Day.

Gilbert Arenas took the stoic route by answering approximately six questions before the Wizards PR staff quickly whisked him away.  Hamady Ndiaye and Cartier Martin did some interviews before they got their pictures taken, then they did more talking with the media, then they kind of walked around the Wizards practice court talking to whomever wanted to speak with them.  Lester Hudson was visibly nervous and shy, and didn’t really give expansive answers.  JaVale McGee rarely made eye contact, but was much more chatty than he was in his previous two media days.  Still, even he looked like he really wanted to be elsewhere.

And then there was Nick Young.

Arenas was the first player to speak to the media, and about five minutes later, Young made himself available.  He stood in the corner of the makeshift media area and answered every question the press could muster.  While he was standing there, Adam Morrison, Andray Blatche, Al Thornton, Lester Hudson, Yi Jianlian, Kirk Hinrich, Josh Howard, and other players I am probably leaving out, started and finished their interviews, and Young was still standing in the same corner.

By the time he answered his last question, 45 minutes had elapsed, and seemingly every member of the media had the honor of having a question answered by Young.  Some media members (like me) went back two and three times just to see what topic he would touch on next.  As he walked away from the media area and headed towards the photography area, Washington Post writer Dan Steinberg joked with Young, saying, “That was a marathon session man!”

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“He’s just Superman, jumps over cars I guess.”

-Flip Saunders on Al Thornton

I was minding my own business last Thursday evening when I noticed a tweet from Wizards forward Al Thornton:

“This may sound crazy but I just literally got hit by a car walking.. Wtf.”

My initial thought was that Thornton was just letting off steam before or after practice, or maybe he was joking around with someone else on Twitter.  But not even 10 minutes later, he followed up with a few more details: Read more »

[Wizards 2010-11 Player Preview Index: Gilbert Arenas, Hilton Armstrong, Andray Blatche,
Trevor Booker, Kirk Hinrich, Josh Howard, Yi Jianlian, JaVale McGee, Kevin Seraphin,
Al Thornton, John Wall, Nick Young.]

The Intro.

-by John Townsend

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three months — no, three years — there is no way you haven’t heard of John Wall. If you’re still under that rock, well congratulations for making it as far as the internet.

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