[Fort Stevens Rec Center - NW Washington, DC - photo: K. Weidie]

As I get ready to take an extended summer vacation off to a location across the ocean, I can’t help how different this NBA summer feels. Yes, the lockout… But I’m also thinking about NBA players — who they are, how they are, where they are. Oh yea, and they’re also jumping across the pond lately.

NBA players are… themselves, for better or worse. Real people. I’ve known this. Covering the Wizards closely over the past couple of seasons has enforced this. It’s not breaking news.

It’s the coverage and opt-in exposure surrounding professional athletes as a whole, much less NBA players, that is vastly different now. Although, delving through the late David Halberstam’s brilliant book The Breaks Of The Game — about the world of pro basketball and the 1979-80 Portland Trailblazers — has helped me realize that while the times change fast, many principles simply get updated and don’t change much.

Halberstam discusses many themes in a changing NBA from some 30-years ago that can apply to the league landscape today. But when it comes to drastic change, it involves media coverage operating in a world where players serve as their own branded media machines. Hence, much of the traditional media (and new media) is forced to practice a mechanical-like re-conveyance of what the players put out on the open market. Yes, very different indeed.

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[Emery Rec Center - NW Washington DC - photo: K. Weidie]

I’ve previously used historical statistical analysis in an attempt to determine who were some of the best, and worst, shooters in Wizards/Bullets franchise history.

One post explained that Slick Leonard might have had to worst shooting season in franchise record books. As a member of the ‘61-62 Chicago Packers, Leonard threw up 1,128 shots, second most on the team after Walt Bellamy, but only made 37.5-percent of them. In a nine team league that season 30 players attempted 1,000 or more field-goals, and Slick was the worst of them all.

Others, such as Kevin Loughery and Mitch Richmond, have cemented themselves as some of the worst shooters beyond the window of just one season. Loughery, over 591 career games played with the team in Baltimore, made only 41.5-percent of his 9,209 FG attempts. Richmond, who adeptly bastardized any memories of trading Chris Webber into scorn from fandom toward his aching knees, made just 41.7-percent of the 2,356 shots he took as a Wizard. To note, Loughery and Richmond were two of 26 players in franchise history to play in 160 games or more with the team and average over 15 field-goals attempted per 36 minutes.

Another post noted that Gilbert Arenas is the best long-range bomber in team history, and that some of the franchise’s better shooters — over various time periods, from everywhere on the court… twos, threes and ones — have been Brent Price, Mike Miller, Scott Skiles, Chris Whitney, Tracy Murray, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.

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The Sacramento Kings closed out their season with a very emotional home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. At the time, there was a strong possibility that it was last game in Sacramento after 23 years as the team‘s owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, looked to move the franchise to Anaheim, California. The Kings broadcasters broke down on air, and fans organized a protest by refusing to leave the arena after the contest’s conclusion. Kings players returned to the court to address their adoring fans. There was great sense of empathy amongst sports fans online in seeing a team ripped away from a fan base.

Former NBA player and current Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, husband to controversial ex-DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee, made a last ditch attempt to save the team in California’s Capital City. His presentation to the NBA was more impressive than the Maloofs‘, the potential TV money from their deal with Anaheim being inflated. Money discrepancies are not surprising with the Maloofs since their bad financial dealings have led them to this current predicament and their financial stake in Palm Casinos Resort, which is now down to a paltry 2-percent.

Johnson was able to convince the NBA’s relocation committee to give him a chance to secure a funding plan for a new arena, and after the Maloofs pulled their bid to relocate, the Kings will remain in Sacramento for at least 2011-12.

When the move appeared imminent, I caught up with Washington Wizards head coach Flip Saunders and swingman Maurice Evans to ask about their personal experiences playing in Sacramento. In the video below, Saunders talks about the Sacramento Cow Bells, and Evans provides a funny antidote about a passionate Kings fan that still supports him every time he returns.

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Pictures, bulleted links, commentary & other stuff…

What are Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche looking at?

Part of me thinks they are looking at a tiny lamb heart, sitting in the palm of Saunders’ hand, barely (magically) holding onto life, while Flip is poking it with a ball-point pin. But I’m probably wrong. They are likely looking at this baggy-clothed Chris Webber from the 90s, perhaps modelling a new concept in comfort garments that eventually led to the invention of the Snuggie or the Slanket. Either way, looks dire.

[via Up North Trips, h/t Your Man Devine]

LINKS!

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Sabermetrics. They have been a continous hot topic of conversation in modern sports circles, recently sparked (and fueled) by Jonah Lehrer’s Grantland column, The Math Problem. Lehrer argued that while sabermetrics — the computerized measurement of statistics, in this case basketball data — can be extremely useful at times, the allure of definitive measures of production leads us to ignore the oft-underrated intangibles. Worse, the popular obsession with quantifiable sports values has resulted in shortsighted personnel decisions. The horror!

But this post isn’t about the great paradox of sports statistics nor whether dismissing math in sports is the right call. It’s about how Washington Wizards 2011 draft pick Jan Vesely played on paper — was he a slam dunk in Europe or something less spectacular?

The Wizards brass had their hearts and minds set on adding the 6’11” combo-forward to the roster for over two years, so I wanted to take a look at what attracted the team’s attention (assuming, of course, that the front office dabbles in advanced hoops data).

Our friendly neighborhood basketball statistician, ESPN.com’s John Hollinger, has determined that there is a predictable relationship between how a player performs in the Euroleague and how he will compete as a rookie in the Association. When transitioning to the NBA, a Euroleague player’s pace-adjusted per-minute stats will be affected as follows:

• Scoring rate decreases 25-percent
• Rebound rate increases by 18-percent
• Assist rate increases by 31-percent
• Shooting percentage drops by 12-percent
• Overall, player efficiency rating drops by 30-percent

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Future basketball historians may heavily sway their chronicles toward the 2009-10 Washington Wizards season. The infamy surrounding the heavily dramatized whirlwind that was Gilbert Arenas, locker room guns and court cases, and the losing that magnified it (or that it magnified) will go down in D.C. lore just as much as team media guides will gloss over the affair.

Meanwhile, Arenas continues to be in the contradictory mode of ‘they wanted me out, but I gave them plenty of reasons’ on Twitter. He is very ‘woe is me’, while claiming a lesson has been learned. If only Arenas knew how to not keep himself from proving maturity when it counts.

The abrupt end of one long-running and significant ownership era resulting from the passing of Abe Pollin will only add to the natural sensationalizing of ’09-10. But old flames — the one time poster boy and the patriarch of D.C. pro basketball — passed by new sprouts on their way out.

The 2010-11 season, on one hand, as another lottery year for the franchise, might be as forgettable as the rest. But a change in ownership is a very important event. Just think about how crucial ownership is to your opinion of the Washington Redskins.

The christening of a ‘face of the franchise’ No. 1 overall draft pick in John Wall isn’t lost either, at least in terms of the unknown future that current comfort in Wall’s rookie scale salary provides. Still… all of this at the same time? Very rare are the instances when a team makes such a drastic and quick change in leadership, which is why ’10-11 is equally as sensational as ’09-10.

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A developing lockout trend amongst those with an online presence and interest in the NBA has been to scan/photo old basketball cards and share them on the world wide web.

Some say we are doomed to repeat the past, in the future, if we don’t remember it (or something like that). I say the past is also great for present-day zingers, which is why I’m sure I’ll take part in basketball card scanning in the future (which, one really only needs the summertime to do, not necessarily a lockout – there’s also the fact that my sports cards are spread out between my apartment in D.C., a dad’s house, a mom’s house (both in other states), and a friend’s house in Virginia).

Anyhow, in lieu of those old basketball cards, today, I’m here to share with you some Washington Bullets posters from yesterday, equally worthy of nostalgic zingers, if not more so.

What you are about to gander upon (and please excuse the impromptu, perhaps hard-to-view photos of old-tymey wrinkled posters) comes courtesy of Wizards veteran Basketball Facilities Manager Jerry Walter. Jerry just completed his 20th season with the organization in his current area, but has been working home games in some capacity in upwards of 28 years. He is always polite, often wishing folks a good morning no matter what time of day it is, and when famished reporters await outside of the Wizards’ practice court for interview access, Jerry almost always offers, nay, insists that they hydrate with a cup of water.

Near the end of this past season, Jerry brought in some of old franchise posters as a kind display of his glorious endurance with one of the more hapless franchises in the NBA. (Yes, we know there is a plan to change all of this — the haplessness — but admittedly, by said team proprietors, it’s a process that ain’t easy. So until that happens, hapless fans of Les Boulez we will be.)

Nonetheless, many thanks to Jerry for the history. Because it’s not all always about preservation, but rather simply knowing the fact that the past exists (or existed — I’m still not sure how time works thanks to Through the Wormhole hosted by Morgan Freeman).

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“Basketball in my country is not so popular, but after this night, I think — I hope, that the basketball will be more popular. I will do my best to help that.”
-Jan Vesely, Draft Night 2011

Jan Vesely wants to put Czech Republic basketball on the map. Good luck.

“The Czech media have been really lame covering the story,” direct-messaged Yon Pulkrabek via Twitter. I’d sent out a tweet wondering if any follower spoke Czech, and the instant world of the Internet connected us.

Pulkrabek says he’s lived in Prague permanently for the past decade, working as a translator, journalist, and editor. He grew up in upstate New York to Czech émigré parents and has been a fan of the Boston Celtics since the 1980s, keeping up with their recent success thanks to League Pass, streaming web video and his DVR. Now, Pulkrabek has taken an obvious interest in the Washington Wizards.

He writes that initial coverage of Vesely in Prague was limited to a couple stories in the paper and a report on the evening news, but otherwise, soccer and hockey get the most attention in the Czech Republic. “But they are off now,” messages Pulkrabek. “Tennis is the headliner now, followed by inline hockey and hockeyball.”

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Wizards links in bullets with general commentary on the side, and a picture…

[NYC subway transit, E line - photo: K. Weidie]

> Is the NBA destined for a lockout? Why yes, it was. But check out my pre-lockout contribution about the lockout on ESPN’s 5-on-5 anyway.
[ESPN.com]

> I know it’s very old now, but he’s what I wrote for the DCist about the draft and the kiss that saved it.
[DCist]

> If you want to feel somewhat encouraged that the NBA lockout won’t drag out too long, check out this brilliant post by TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott. Huge point No. 1 from Henry: Read more »

It’s not like the Washington Wizards official website was ever a beacon of circus fun where you’d lose hours of your life trapped in an Internet conundrum of entertainment — where food, water, family members, and bathroom breaks have no bearing on quality of life. Nope, it was not like that at all.

And in this post-lockout world that NBA fans find themselves in, buried under the fecal matter of rhetoric from both sides of the aisle? Well, the Wizards website looks a bit different, much worse, and now most aptly compared to the sports fandom of an 11-year old girl (no offense, 11-year old girls).

You see, with this lockout, NBA teams have been required to scrub all images of their players from their http:// (there are legalities involved, etc. — read this report by TrueHoop’s Kevin Arnovitz) — the imagerial evisceration of post-suspension Gilbert Arenas seemed to develop over days, this other thing… overnight (although, after weeks of planning).

Let’s take a screen-shot review…

TOP STORY! G-Man goes to China.

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