A rundown of the best recent web links.
Ted’s Email for the Wiz
Ted Leonsis has personally responded to Washington Capitals fans writing to him at WashingtonCaps@aol.com for years. Now his job has at least doubled, his new email address for Wizards fans is TheWashWiz@aol.com. Leonsis writes on his blog:
If you want to offer up advice; share ideas; critique; ask questions; or offer up good wishes regarding the NBA and the Washington Wizards, simply email me at Thewashwiz@aol.com. I will do my best to read and respond within 24 hours.
Thanks again. Be nice. Be interactive.
John Wall & His $25 Million Reebok Deal
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John Wall is the Summer’s big move according to Bethlehem Shoals of NBA FanHouse. I agree … potentially.
If you eat and breathe the Washington Wizards as much as I do, you’ve considered the slim chance of crazy scenarios like the Wizards getting John Wall (via winning the draft lottery) followed by LeBron coming to play with his boy Wall in front of President Obama in D.C., along with Gil, ‘Dray, ‘Vale, Quinton, Nick and Al, and also joined by some veteran free-agents willing to sign for cheap within the remaining cap space*.
After all, LeBron is boys with Caps/Wizards owner Ted Leonsis (well, at least LBJ offered a testimonial on the back of Leonsis’ book, The Business of Happiness) and he just might realize the potential benefits of playing in an international city and forming a basketball/hockey MVP conglomerate with Alex Ovechkin. It’s not like these three parties have met or anything like that though … oh wait, the picture above.
Then again, Delonte West is from the DMV area — and I won’t even speculate what that means. Read more »
{flickr/Youssef Abdelaal}
Okay, so Ted Leonsis already has one quality that’s in high demand from sports fans … transparency. How many other professional sports team owners have a personal blog where they actually share candid opinion and not boring, patronizing fluff?
Now, more and more, Leonsis is expressing interest in other areas of concern for educated sports fans, especially Wizards fans … advanced statistics.
If you’ll recall, Leonsis proclaimed his belief in basketball analytics on The Mike Wise Show on 106.7 FM in early April. More recently, he reiterated his belief in statistical analysis in an interview with CSN Washington’s Russ Thaler.
Today, on his blog Ted’s Take, Leonsis recommends two books on sports statistics. One is Stumbling On Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports by Dave Berri and Martin Schmidt (a book for which I held a contest to win on this very site, winners to be announced soon). The second recommendation is Mathematics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Basketball, Basketball, and Football by Wayne L. Winston (a big plus/minus guy who’s served as Mark Cuban’s stat guru for the Mavericks).
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Jahidi White is a mythical creature in the lore of Washington Wizards basketball. He even has his own tribute page at WizzNutzz.com.
With the impending takeover of Ted Leonsis as sole owner of the Washington Wizards, I’ve been doing some reading/research on his ownership history lately. As a newbie in sports ownership, Leonsis was all about anxiously making a marketing splash with pizazz and glitter — hence, he signed Jaromir Jagr for $77 million and arranged Michael Jordan’s foray as a basketball executive.
Today, Leonsis refreshingly admits lessons were learned. “What I’ve come to realize is there is no substitute for planned strategy and systems, the casting of the team, the development of the team, there is no magic wand. There is no one person, one player that will change everything,” he recently told The Washington Post.
Owners, presidents and general managers rarely ‘fess up to making mistakes. Usually they tip-toe around the issue with all the deflection of an experienced politician — I believe they call it the Potomac two-step. The fact that Leonsis, like Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger, doesn’t dance is just one reason why Wizards fans are so excited about his reign. Transparency. In this age of rapid information dissemination, it’s the way to go.
So what does Leonsis have to do with Jahidi White?
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Remember when Ted Leonsis gave Gilbert Arenas a fist pound and called him a panther?
Me neither, I wasn’t there. But Ted blogged about it … the chance encounter between him and Arenas last October when they crossed paths in the Verizon Center parking lot the day after the Wizards won their season opener in Dallas.
The interaction probably took place near where an unnamed Wizard would one day unsuccessfully attempt to return Arenas’ bag of guns to his ride, opting instead to leave them somewhere in the parking garage when he couldn’t find the car.
The interaction from Ted’s Take:
I said, “Hi Gil. You lost some weight? Tell me your secret ’cause you look great.”
Gil says, “What do I look like? What kind of animal?”
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