Posts for category ‘dagger’

I don’t exactly want to say this podcast was “fun” to record, but it was therapeutic to talk about all aspects of this Gilbert Arenas situation with two well-thought and highly knowledgeable people, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever and Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko and as of today, AOL’s NBA FanHouse.

Below is the run down of what we discussed, as ripped from what Mike wrote on Bullets Forever, and a link to play the podcast. Enjoy (I guess).

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Prada: We spent an hour plus talking to one of the leading NBA bloggers of all time, Bethlehem Shoals from Free Darko and (formerly) Sporting News. Shoals is also an author of The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac: Styles, Stats and Stars In Today’s Game. The forward to that book was written by none other than Gilbert Arenas.  Shoals has also written extensively about Arenas for Free Darko and The Baseline (you could say Arenas is the most “Free Darko” player in the NBA), so he feels the pain of this story as much, if not more, than us Wizards fans.

What did we end up talking about?  It was a long discussion, but we hit at several of the key issues, namely:

• The media coverage and how Peter Vescey’s original New York Post article shaped perceptions of the story.
• How the local reporters (Mike Wise, Michael Lee, Mike Jones) were the guys who took a more measured approach and got the story right.
• How stories like these just spiral out of control as people write before knowing all the facts.
• “Finger guns” and all of that.
• David Stern’s ultimate decision to suspend Arenas indefinitely, and whether the a) timing and b) language of that suspension was appropriate.
• The reaction by the Wizards to basically tear down all remnants of Arenas in the Verizon Center.  Is that appropriate?
• A discussion on why we hold athletes to such a high moral standard when politicians and musicians get in arguably more trouble.

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Episode #4 of the Dagger Report (a Washington Wizards podcast) is here.

This week, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever and I talk about the ways and means of Gilbert Arenas amidst early season struggles. To join us for his conversation, which was recorded on Sunday evening, is Jake Whitacre, contributing editor at Bullets Forever and managing proprietor of Gilbertology.net.

The second segment, recorded on Saturday afternoon, features Jordan Sams of SB Nation’s 76ers blog, Liberty Ballers. Here, we discuss Eddie Jordan’s first year in Philly and the troubles of the Sixers (which aren’t as bad as those of the Wizards).

Enjoy.

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Just over three minutes left in a close game, Wizards up by one point against an almost equally bad team, the thought crossed my mind….do I hope they lose?

I knew the Clippers and Kings, two of the other top three worst teams in the league, were playing each other last night. It would be “nice” to have better chances in the draft.

But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it left. All along, I’ve been against “tanking” or even hoping for more losses just for the possibility of maybe having a better shot at the top pick/Blake Griffin. It just doesn’t seem like good basketball karma, not like it matters with the Curse O’ Les Boulez anyway. But still, we’re talking principles…..principalities.

So eff the lottery it was, I was pulling for my Wizards to win, because that’s what fans do. And a win is what I thought we were getting when Juan Dixon squirmed for a layup with 47 seconds left, putting the Wiz up 96-90.

But nothing ever comes easy. Two straight Raptor threes later, the few of us on the Bullets Forever game thread were screaming for the ghosts of Anthony Parker, Michael Ruffin and Mo Peterson to be exercised.

So Juan Dixon, as the third option, hit an off-balanced fader in the lane with 19 seconds left….he probably traveled….Wiz up two. Game winner? Nope. Jose Calderon was allowed to saunter right down the lane for a lay-up…..splendid. At least the Wiz would get the last shot, one of the Dagger! variety.

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