The Wizards season-to-be just got a bit morbid.

“I told my teammates: I’m willing to give y’all 100-percent out of me every game. I’m willing to die for this,” said Andray Blatche at Wizards Media Day on Thursday.

So it’s here we sit: 7-Day Dray, heading into his seventh NBA season, and caught somewhere between 50-Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ movie from 2005 (that’s almost always guaranteed to be on basic cable during random late-nights), and, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” of The Princess Bride fame.

Exciting, isn’t it? Or wait, is it ominous?

Because right now, although he’s contracted for just under $30 million over the next four seasons, Blatche’s career teeters between life support and resurrection.

But all is not dire if you ask team owner Ted Leonsis, at least when it comes to his expectations surrounding this 66-game season.

“I’m more concerned with process right now than output,” said Leonsis. “Although, we’re here to win,” the owner concluded.

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[What does John Wall smell? - photo: K. Weidie]

Media members tend to attach themselves to keywords or catch phrases and then shape narratives around them. Guilty as charged. The Washington Wizards franchise has especially provided an abundance of excellent catch phrases over the years.

Recently, you have “pixels” via the web tech-savvy Ted Leonsis (and now, likely “erudite“). From Flip Saunders, we’ve had “Style over substance” as a JaVale McGee descriptor. Going back further, Gilbert Arenas helped popularize the term, “Swag.” Now most feel that word is overused, how oddly fitting.

“Just like Groundhog Day,” Antawn Jamison used to say. From “Get buckets son!,” via Oleksiy Pecherov to “I Love This Game!,” the NBA’s 90s motto that Gheorghe Muresan famously said in broken English over the television airwaves on draft night 1993, some phrases have been more relevant than others. And I’m failing to mention dozens of them, as they pertain to the Wizards.

It is unforeseen where Flip Saunders’ recent “popcorn players” parable/anecdote will fall on the spectrum, but it elicited one of the more revealing quotes from John Wall that I’ve heard. Because we all wonder, how exactly are stars like him wired? And while Wall’s words don’t exactly reveal anything about the inner workings of his neurology, they do show what he cares about: playing every basketball game like it’s his last.

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There are many incomprehensible facets to JaVale McGee, but the talent and seeming potential is unquestionable.

How did he make that BLOCK!??! (Or was it a steal?)

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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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While I and others may criticize and analyze and break down the Washington Wizards to varying degrees, sometimes it’s best to sit back and appreciate that the game of basketball is fun, or at least it’s supposed to be. And that’s just what this team is trying to do, play ball and have fun. Of course, the millions they make comes with strings attached. Darn. So for now, enjoy the fun of some choice cuts from Media Day to Midnight Madness in pictures and video … at least until we starting counting wins and losses, and judging effort, and crunching advanced stats, and deciphering measured locker room comments, and analyzing coaching decisions, and etc….

{Video}

[produced by TAI's Adam McGinnis]

{Pictures}

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Last Monday’s Washington Wizards media day seems like such a long time ago.

In addition to me being there, blogging about DeShawn Stevenson’s new tats, the musings of Gilbert Arenas, and the ‘consistent’ goals of Andray Blatche, there was a ton of great coverage from Hoops Addict, Wizards Insider, Wizards Outlet, and Bullets Forever.

Now, after transcribing all of my interview recordings, I wanted to share some of the quotes/pictures that have been relatively unheard/unseen.

{Note: I will be in Richmond for training camp on Saturday and Sunday. There’s limited media access, but I’ll be updating some of the goings-ons via Twitter}

Back in late May, Mike Miller professed his ‘man-crush’ on LeBron James via Twitter. When coming across this sometime in early September, I thought, ‘okay, let’s give this guy the benefit of the doubt.’ For one, his proclamation occurred way before he joined the Wizards. And let’s be honest, despite my hatred of LeBron, the guy is a damn fine basketball player.

Unfortunately, Miller just doesn’t seem to know any better. It’s kinda like the greasy-faced tween-age boys who have crushes on Megan Fox. Grown men know better. Sure, most so-called grown men wouldn’t kick Fox out the bed, i.e., wouldn’t mind LeBron James on their team. However, neither of these happen without compromising personal beliefs (and cheating on whomever you’re with/your team … especially if you’re a Wizards fans, but a distaste for LeBron is growing around the league).

My point: LeBron getting “Chosen One” tattooed on his back is just as douchey as Fox getting Marilyn Monroe tattooed on her forearm. (Cavs fans, I know you’re wondering, where does getting Abe Lincoln’s face tattooed on the front of your neck fit in? I’m not sure, and I won’t even begin to explain.)

Also, Fox’s hissy-fits on the set of Transformers easily compare to LeBron’s temper-tantrums when peddling his self-serving movie that essentially highlights the fact that the French translation of ‘team’ has an ‘i’ in it.

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Media day was the first time I’ve been around Andray Blatche in a public setting. From what I’ve gathered in the past, he’s not exactly a juicy quote machine. On Monday, he pretty much lived up to that expectation.

“Consistent” was Andray’s choice word of the day, repeating it several times, and mostly in reference to his jump shot. I found this to be a bit curious. In my evaluation of Blatche, I outlined how I’d rather him take less jumpers (or at least avoid ill-advised/forced ones).

If he can hit them, great/splendid/wonderful. Everyone likes a big man who can spread the floor. I just would have been more comfortable had Andray mentioned rebounding and defense as priorities.

But enough about my wishes, read Blatche’s quotes for yourself … Read more »

The media knew Gilbert Arenas was going to be first up to bat at media day, so they picked their spots and waited. When Arenas arrived with a full ‘mean-mug’ on his face, the rugby scrum for question asking and comment hearing positioning began.

Arenas started with a serious nature and short answers, but eventually opened up and talked about a wide range of subjects. Here’s the run-down:

Three-Hour Retirement Contemplation

He spoke about the emotional roller-coaster that he went through surrounding his knee. In January 2009, he got an x-ray on it before he going to Miami. The doctor told him he had swelling in his joint and that he might need yet another surgery. “That’s when I blew up,” Arenas said. “For about three hours, I said I’d rather retire before I go through another surgery … at least I can save the team some money.” But another doctor he saw in Miami told him to hold off on the surgery and instead, gave him a shot that seemed to clear everything up. Read more »

Back from the whirlwind of Washington Wizards media day ’09 and ready to blog it out. With much to transcribe, I’ll have a lot more in the future, but I wanted to get to something of utmost importance first, DeShawn Stevenson’s new tattoos.

(No, I don’t think this is really of the ‘utmost’ importance, but definitely the quickest/easiest/most fun to blog about.)

What does Abe Lincoln have to do with all this? Well, his face is one of Stevenson’s new tats … and it’s right on the front of his neck (jeez that seems painful), always looking right back at you.

Stevenson also has a backwards Pittsburgh Pirates logo on his right cheek and a Frankenstein-esque crack starting at his hairline and working its way down his forehead (not sure what happens if his hairline starts receding).

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Washington Wizards Media Day is here, and I’ll be amongst the throngs of media in attendance, classified with a handful of “bloggers” who will be taking part for the first time. And the Wizards are not unique in this situation. Bloggers from ’round the league will be making their foray into access usually reserved for the mainstream and the established.

This being my first media day, I’m not exactly sure how it will go down. But I’ll be prepared with an arsenal of unique questions, and an array of ways to capture the players as they embark on one of the team’s most important training camps in years.

If anyone out there has any questions you’d like me to pose to the players in general, or to a specific player, I can be reached at truthaboutit[at]gmail[dot]com, or via a direct tweet to @Truth_About_It.