So what does Rotnei Clarke have to do with the Wizards, Wale and the Redskins?

Well, for one, the sharp-shooting Clarke worked out for the Washington Wizards on Monday, along with five other players—Tyler Brown, Miguel Paul, Angelo Sharpless, Gregory Echenique, and Ehimen Orukpe. It was the first pre-NBA Draft workout the Wizards conducted this year at the Verizon Center.

Clarke, a 6-foot guard from Butler, said the workout “went really well,” his humble demeanor being sure to mention that he appreciated the opportunity. He doesn’t have any other workouts scheduled at the moment, but indicated that the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks were interested in taking a look. ESPN.com’s Chad Ford (Insider) ranks Clarke, who will turn 24 in July, 98 on his list of Top 100 2013 NBA Draft prospects.

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The Washington Wizards have a long way until they establish a clear, universal brand that fans and media can identify. After all, the ill-conceived color-change wizard logo is still prevalent when the team is mentioned nationally, most recently evidenced by the Jason Collins coming out story and the 2013 NBA Draft Lottery. The franchise has seemingly pushed the “D.C.” logo as ranking of the three options since the redesign launch in the summer of 2011, but the old wizard still isn’t completely buried.

On top of the lacking national brand recognition, fans in Washington just don’t seem that dedicated, either. The Verizon Center, in what is said to be the seventh-largest U.S. television market, finished 22nd in total attendance amongst NBA franchises this past season, only slightly ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers but also better than three playoff teams: the Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks. Downtrodden franchises like the Orlando Magic (18th), Toronto Raptors (16th), and Portland Trail Blazers (10th) out-paced the Wizards in total attendance.

When Michael Jordan donned Wizards blue from 2001 to 2003 (sometimes inaccurately, or perhaps facetiously, called Wizards “teal”), Washington finished second and third in total attendance over each of his two seasons¹. In the decade since, the franchise hasn’t finished better than 12th in the NBA in total attendance. And since last making the playoffs in 2007-08, Washington hasn’t finished better than 17th (in John Wall’s rookie season, 2010-11). Over the last five seasons, the Wizards have averaged a ranking of 20th in total attendance, which isn’t terribly bad considering that during the same time span they have fielded the NBA’s third-worst winning percentage.

[¹Over 1.6 million walked through the turnstiles in Chinatown over the two seasons Jordan was making money for Abe Pollin as a player. In the past three seasons (one of them being a lockout-shortened 66 games), the arena has received 1.9 million total entries. —Attendance numbers via Basketball-Reference.com]

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Turn that frown…

Upside down…

On September 9th, the first Sunday of the 2012 NFL season, Robert Griffin III (RGIII) led the Washington Redskins to a 40-32 victory over the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome. The days of  tepid offensive performances were gone, replaced by a skilled quarterback who seemingly could engineer scoring drives at will. The next day, via his local radio show on D.C.’s Sportstalk 980, Tony Kornheiser proclaimed that this new and improved RGIII-led Redskins team was ushering in an era of “unbridled optimism.” Read more »

More RGIII? Definitely more RGIII.

Third of all, if you didn’t know, Robert Griffin, III was at the Wizards-Heat game on Tuesday night.

Second of all, he and LeBron hugged. The above video comes courtesy of TAI’s John Converse Townsend, and it is LeBron talking about RGIII, not hugging him.

And first of all…

“Of course I seen him.” {giggles… chuckles… ‘this guy’} —LeBron

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Hey, did you know that RGIII (Robert Griffin the Third) was at the Wizards-Heat game on Tuesday night? 

Yep, he totally was. I know because I watched it on the T.V., and there he was, definitely in attendance. He just about sat in Randy Wittman’s lap thanks to courtside seats. Seats that Ted Leonsis sits in sometimes. But this time, RGIII was there. You’ve certainly heard about it via the Internets, via the Twitter, perhaps even via the Google.

Maybe RGIII saw a Wittman face (i.e., #WittmanFace). Maybe RGIII saw John Wall’s red pants. He definitely saw the Wizards beat the Heat, 105-101. That RGIII, what a guy.

RGIII also witnessed the below GIFery: a sweet block by Kevin Seraphin on LeBron James after some fancy dribbling. Did you know that RGIII was at the Wizards-Heat game?

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Robert Griffin III is awesome. No getting around that. All of the draft picks that the Redskins traded for him were worth it, and more. Redskins fans are very lucky to even have the a talent like RGIII on their team for years to come. An NBA superstar can make a franchise, but a potentially all-time great NFL quarterback is like nothing else (without getting too far ahead of ourselves).

That said, the Wizards could really, really use an NBA superstar. Kevin Durant is pridefully from the DMV area and just thinking about him in ‘new’ Wizards red (or even sporting the uniform of a more properly-named pro basketball team from the nation’s capital) brings a warm and fuzzy feeling. And even though the quarterback usually gets the girl, if done smartly (note: the Redskins under Dan Snyder have generally been very, very stupid), an NFL team can be built to win and compete for the Super Bowl, with a less-than thrilling QB.

But a guy like Durant, the NBA’s youngest-ever scoring champ and quite possibly one of the top three scorers in the game of basketball over the last two decades (or ever), could be even more of a game-changer for a team like the Wizards than RGIII has been for the Redskins.

So, I posed the question to D.C. sports fans on Twitter (last night before the Redskins beat the Giants and again earlier this morning)… Read more »

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the Washington Redskins trading for the number two pick in this year’s NFL draft (Robert Griffin, III) have been competing for time at the water cooler over the past couple of weeks in D.C. Before the Indiana Pacers game last week, I first asked several Washington Wizards players how their brackets were doing, here are some of their responses:

Shelvin Mack:

“I don’t wanna talk about my bracket. It is awful right now.”

Roger Mason Jr.: Read more »

Let me take you back in the history of basketball, one which we are certainly NOT doomed to repeat. To the 1920s, Washington, D.C. ….

Photos via Shorpy.com.

[1925. Bob Grody & manager Ray Kennedy, Palace Laundry]

[Feb. 15, 1926. Washington, D.C. Palace team, entry in the American basketball league, being taught Charleston by Vivian Marinelli. Left to right: Kearns, Manager Kennedy, Conway, woman playing piano, Miss Marinelli, Grody, and Saunders]

Last week a D.C. neighborhood blog, New Columbia Heights, posted some very old photos of a Washington pro basketball team from the 1920s, the Palace Five Laundrymen.

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On several planes, Gilbert Arenas and Dan Snyder are totally alike. On about a million they are not.

One commonality I can easily think of is that they both appear to be utterly oblivious to the general sensibilities of those who live in reality. Now, it’s not completely the fault of these men that they live in a fantasy world – NFL owner, a $100 million contract NBA man — but the ridiculous ways they can act is on their own accord.

Another similar trait of the two maligned D.C. sports figures? (One of whom the city no longer has to deal with.) Both are championing legal maneuvers against free speech.

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Why yes, this is a Washington Wizards blog. But more importantly, I take an interest in all D.C. sports teams, including the Washington Capitals. As mentioned in a previous post pertaining to past sports memorabilia, I recently moved. And in the process of doing so, a calendar from the early 90s casual male stylings of hockey players in Washington, D.C. came to surface. It had to be shared, for my pleasure and yours. Not enough can be said about the pictures below, pages from a 1993-94 Caps team calendar … if I could sum them up with two words: hair and pleats. But I’ll try to do better than that. Happy New Year.

The girlfriend says… ‘Those jorts are so … jort.’

I say… ‘Why are Al Iafrate’s hands between his legs like that? Also, that posture is doing nothing for his haircut.’

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