In 2009 training camp, Flip Saunders gave his Washington Wizards hats and t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Our Time.”

In 2010, “Back to Basics” was the training camp tagline of choice.

Prior to a lockout-shortened season in late-2011, Saunders balked at tying words to an abbreviated camp. Instead, he handed out a Wizards logo hard hat at the end of practices. Later in the season, gold coins with “Game Changer” on them. Yes, It’s true.

Randy Wittman, before his first season as Wizards head coach, was asked about a slogan for this year’s training camp on Wednesday.

“You know, I’m kind of old school,” he said with a shrug of the shoulders. So old school that the first slogan which crossed his mind arose from the depths of 1979.

“‘We are fam-i-ly’ … I don’t know if you guys remember the Pittsburgh Pirates…”

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Washington Wizards Media Day 2012 will be on October 1, the team has announced. This is what it is like…

Media Day is like trying to herd cats who are also trying to herd other cats.

Media Day is like a speed dating session run by apathetic ex-lovers.

Media Day is like playing Jenga with cameras, pens, iPhones, and recording devices.

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The Night After The Wizards 2011-12 Season Opener:

The Day After The Night:

Andray Blatche just can’t help himself, literally, figuratively, and ways in between.

After the Wizards grabbing the mic to announce to a much-less-than-capacity Verizon Center crowd over the P.A. system:

“How y’all doing? This is your captain, Andray Blatche. On behalf of myself, my teammates, the whole Washington Wizards organization, we want to say we strongly appreciate y’all sticking around all summer. It’s been a long summer, and it’s a shortened season, but it’s going to be tough. And we’re going to need you guys, the best fans in the NBA, to be our sixth man. So in other words, let’s get this season started.”

Fairly good intentions (“best fans in the NBA” jokes aside; Blatche gets booed a lot by the paltry home crowds). Look, no one can question that Blatche is trying. He just doesn’t know how to try. So he continues to fall on his face while the franchise constantly running to defend him keeps looking silly in the process. After all, Ted Leonsis has only doled out one multi-year free agent contract in his brief tenure as team owner, to Blatche. This, of course, amongst other positive pixel puffery.

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[Wizards, Wall & Wale... highlights from Fan Fest...]

The hope is that the fun of last Saturday’s Fan Fest at the Verizon Center was not just a reprieve from things to come for the Washington Wizards after Friday night’s debacle against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Tonight, the Wiz Kids will get a chance for preseason redemption in the City of Brotherly Love, as well as in front of a national audience on NBA TV. It might merely be a minor speed bump en route to a shortened 66-game season slate, but when the next game on December 26 counts, it’s not a bump to be taken lightly.

So before people pile on how bad this Wizards team might be, or rather, lack of evident improvement in this season from the last, let’s give John Wall’s bunch a chance to digest Flip Saunders’ harsh words, to think about their film session that didn’t lie, and for the fearless point guard leader himself to stand by his words of inducing better offense and more astute defense.

But aside from franchise development angst, Wizards Fan Fest was a pretty great event. After about 15 minutes of rest after practice, the team took center court in the Phone Booth for an exhibition display. The feature was two 15-minute, running-clock scrimmages — light in their demeanor, as expected — that brought this NBA follower back to summer exhibition basketball action — little defense and dunking galore. (Actually, with exception, Capital Punishment surprisingly melded entertainment and competitiveness.)

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Wizards owner Ted Leonsis said he would release it on DVD, but footage of Washington Wizards rookies singing karaoke last Wednesday remains unseen. Still, it was the talk of the Verizon Center on Media Day Thursday.

Flashback to the Tuesday before, Wizards rookie guard Shelvin Mack was asked if he had been hazed yet, and if he had a song ready to sing (as singing in front of an audience is tradition for team rooks during training camp).

“I had to get some donuts, it wasn’t too bad, but I haven’t had to sing anything in front of anyone … I got one [song] prepared just in case they try to pop one out on me.”

That “in case” happened during dinner at Hill Country Barbecue Market near DC’s Chinatown/Penn Quarter section. Mack, along with fellow rookies Jan Vesely and Chris Singleton, were made to bellow out tunes, karaoke style. According to Leonsis, Vesely brought the house down with a Serbian polka, while Andray Blatche revealed that the Singleton and Mack duo butchered a rap song.

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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.

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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.

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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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Media Day for the Washington Wizards fell right on the heeds of Training Camp ending on Thursday afternoon. It was a bit of a frenzied whirlwind, as expected, and more coverage is to come. The lessons taught and the whirlwind of basketball don’t end, of course. The first preseason game is on Friday, and the smell of popcorn is in the air.

There wasn’t much basketball action, however, for the media to witness during Thursday’s session. After team owner Ted Leonsis spoke, the display of players was pretty much relegated to some individual shooting drills. Then Flip Saunders gave rookie Shelvin Mack the DC Hard Hat for a day of work well done. Mack’s teammates congratulated him by pounding him on the head once he donned the hat.

So, in lieu of footage from today, let’s look back at a couple quick training camp videos shot by TAI’s Adam McGinnis and John Converse Townsend.

First…
McGinnis’ highlights of John Wall from Training Camp Day 3.

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Andray Blatche pounded his chest as he strutted off the practice court at training camp Wednesday evening, mean mugging and dripping with sweat.

“That’s one, that’s one, Dray,” shouted assistant coach Gene Banks from under one of the main baskets. “You’ve got one more!”

Banks was overseeing a heavyweight battle between Blatche and second-year bruiser Kevin Seraphin, and tried to persuade him to run it back for a best-of-three series. Blatche, unconvinced, waved a flippant hand in the direction of his coach before proclaiming, “I won. I just won. Gosh!”

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