A D.C. pic, commentary, links, video, pictures, etc…

[Mt. Pleasant Day 2011 - Washington, D.C. - photo: K. Weidie]

Do we even know this John Wall kid?

Watching him play at exhibition games this summer, he doesn’t seem like the guy I saw make his pro debut at the 2010 Las Vegas Summer League, much less the player who dazzled us all during an injury-affected, frustration-filled rookie season.

Read more »

The truth of the matter is that no one really knows when or where the NBA Playoffs or “Play Offs” starts. Hell, it might even, oddly enough, begin with the league’s official Twitter account, @NBA, announcing the ‘symbolic’ cancellation of 43 preseason games IN ALL CAPS today.

It’s just so hard to tell.

Rumor has it that a locked-out Washington Wizard, Andray Blatche, recently discovered the commencement of playoff aspiration at a small, obscure gym in Clarksville, Maryland. However, Truth About It.net has learned, according to unnamed sources which do not exist, that the path to the post-season actually started long ago. Once again, we turn to technology to tell the story of how the Washington Wizards are preparing to “play off.”

Off of what? Well, that’s still a mystery.

Read more »

Links, commentary, fodder, beef…

Andray Blatche had himself a chat on ESPN.com Wednesday. Normally, would that even happen? Doubt it. The assumption is that this is more the doing of him deciding to re-acquire an agent this summer. Now that power-agent Andy Miller is on the scene — clients of his include: Trevor Booker, Kevin Garnett, Jared Jeffries, Kenyon Martin, Chauncey Billups, Brendan Haywood, Roger Mason Jr., Andre Miller, Michael Ruffin, Sebastian Telfair, Antonio McDyess, etc., etc. — Blatche is hitting the circuit of pumped positivity. And thus here we are.

Anyhow, nothing provocative or ground-breaking in his chat; it totally fits within the norms of prosaic NBA player media & PR fare. The highlights include: when asked about how his roll [sic in a very Ledell Eackles kind of way] has changed over his years with the team, he chats about, “listening to guys like Antawn, Brandon, Caron” … which actually got me very close to seeing if a “Brandon” ever played for the Wizards on Basketball-Reference.com before realizing that he was talking about Brendan Haywood.

Quick flashback: in January, Blatche said this: Read more »

Commentary, links, John Wall, a poll, (not that kind of poll), etc., …

BaSkEtBaLl NeVeR sToPs

Dude, bro, chum, mate, chap, bloke, scallywag… Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul (probably as a New York Knick), Deron Williams … John Wall will never be an All-Star in the East.

I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Guys change conferences, there always seems to be someone who can’t play for one reason or another, and if Wall continues to show his talent, the coaches got to vote him in a couple times, right? But he must/should win first, which will be a tougher task to do consistently than make the All-Star team.

I took part in ESPN.com’s 5-on-5 Friday. We had to take the over, under, or a push on a variety of NBA Southeast Division potential occurrences. Regarding the Wizards, the over/under was six All-Star games for John Wall. I took the push. You can read it here, but what do you think?

Read more »

Commentary, links, a picture, a photoshop, etc…

[This was one of my favorite pictures that I took at Capital Punishment back in August;
James Harden drawing a late-game shooting foul against DeMarcus Cousins.]

> Of course…

Andray Blatche has a coloring and activity book, of course, images of which via Bullets Forever‘s Mike Prada — It’s for the kids and all. At the DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg has noticed that Blatche is très muscular in the renderings. Here’s an example:

Read more »

Links, commentary, shared items, celebrations…

  [photos via urbanpartylife.com]

After recently contemplating life, today, August 22, is Andray Blatche’s birthday. He is 25-years old, which is an entire quarter of a century of life experience. Along with Blatche, the likes of former Washington Bullets Terry Catledge and Michael Curry, former Maryland Terp Obinna Ekezie, along with, naturally, SNL’s Kristen Wig, Wu-Tang’s the GZA, singer Tori Amos, football’s Bill Parcells, and John Lee Hooker of blues legend also all celebrate birthdays today.

The celebratory festivities took place this past weekend at Dream Nightclub in Miami Beach… AND DRAY GOT A WIZARDS BIRTHDAY CAKE! (Old man Wizards logo, but new colors!)

According to Basketball-Reference.com, 48 NBA players have seen over 8,600 minutes in over 380 games, scoring over 3,800 total points and snagging over 2,000 total rebounds, in their NBA careers before the age of 25.  Of those 48 players, Blatche ranks 41st in PER. Well, here’s to the future… Read more »

Links, commentary, stuff…

Andray Blatche. You might be aware of his various exploits that seem trapped in an devolving time continuum.

Blatche, inherently, is a sympathetic figure. He literally loafed into an NBA career, to the envy of millions, by likely being just smart of enough to realize that if he worked just a little bit to enhance his natural talents, he would get there. And he did.

He’s not a bad guy, nor is he misunderstood like a lot of athletes like to claim. It is, however, true to an extent in that lay people, the “commoners” to which LeBron referred in his infamous quote, don’t know the pressure of money, exposure, expectations, high critique, and high reward, which I am assuming is widely accepted in bounties of tangible goods and women. But to say that some of these pro athletes are misunderstood is to say that they, themselves, are complicated figures. Often, we know, that is not the case. Rather, it’s their situations within the business of the game they love (or “like”) to play which provides varying complex ways to digest someone who is simply human.

Blatche is a human after all. He means well, but the means by which he gets caught up in “the life,” as some like to call it (being a highly paid professional athlete, that is) doesn’t always bode well for him. Whose fault is it? Well, according to my own sliding scale of reason, the older Blatche gets, the more he is solely to blame for his situation(s).

Read more »

Links, commentary and video…

I’m not sure if anyone has a formula for jumpers, but I’ll make one up: one part mechanics, one part muscle memory, two parts confidence. Confidence can wane between quarters, games and possessions, it’s all about building a history of it. And that’s what John Wall is working on. He put on a glimpse of jump shot confidence in a takeover display versus the New Jersey Nets last Sunday. Let’s watch…

The knock on Wall’s jumper will continue to be the most prevalent of knocks against him, but at least he’d never pull what Rajon Rondo did recently.

LINKS.

Read more »

[Ed. Note: Below is something I wrote about Rashard Lewis' debut for the December 23 edition of ESPN's Daily Dime ... then some must-read links.]

In his Washington Wizards debut, Rashard Lewis performed about as expected for a 31-year-old 3-point-shooting wing player who just got traded from a championship contender to a rebuilding team. In 22 minutes off the bench, Lewis scored eight points on 4-for-10 shooting (0-for-5 from 3) with three rebounds, one block, an assist, two turnovers and five fouls.

The biggest challenge for Flip Saunders is how to integrate Lewis into a team that’s also just welcoming Josh Howard back into the mix after offseason knee surgery. Saunders is not only getting to teach his young team — a lot — but he’s also getting to experiment.

Read more »

First, thanks to all the Re-Tweeters who participated in TAI’s ticket giveaway for tonight’s Wizards-Raptors game. The lucky random winners were @tehbee (who will be attending her first Wizards game, second pro basketball game), and @TwiceDown, who has been a “Bullets” fan all of his life, but hasn’t been to a see a home game since Allen Iverson was with the 76ers (so about four years). TAI will have some more ticket giveaways (among other things) in the future, perhaps including some good seats for when the Miami Heat come to town on December 18th. So stay tuned …

Unfortunately …

Scenes like this will not be seen at the Verizon Center tonight:

Read more »