[1978 Washington Bullets Championship Trophy - Verizon Center, Washington D.C.]

In stepped Arnold Heft, Earl Foreman and Abe Pollin. The trio purchased the team for a record $1.1 million¹, moved it to Baltimore, and renamed them the Bullets. They didn’t even have approval from the NBA Board of Governors to make the move, and were initially fined for not living up to a three-year agreement to stay in Chicago. Eventually, the fine was reduced from $25,000 to $5,000² and everyone moved on with their business.

So, technically, the franchise’s 50th year of existence came in the 2010-11, another disastrous 23-win effort on the heels of the Gilbert Arenas (and Javaris Crittenton) “Gun-gate” season prior. At the time, a member of the Wizards Media & PR staff told me that they were not counting the first two seasons in Chicago, and that the clock on 50 years started in 1963-64 when the team arrived in Baltimore.

Thus, according to those specifications, this season is the franchise’s 50th in existence. There are only eight teams in the NBA older than the Baltimore/Washington franchise—the Celtics, Warriors, Knicks, Pistons, Lakers, Kings, Hawks, and 76ers. The Miami Heat franchise turned 25 years old this season and is celebrating it with much fanfare.

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If this summer’s frenzied free agent pace has taught us anything, it’s that vying for players on the market, restricted or unrestricted, can be more trouble than it’s worth.

Teams like the 2011 champion Dallas Mavericks can find themselves out in the cold, losing number one targets (like Deron Williams), as well as their own (Jason Kidd and Jason Terry). The Mavs are now scrambling to gauge interest in Elton Brand, the 13-year veteran who was surprisingly amnestied by the Philadelphia 76ers late last week — even a bid to secure his services would be unsure. Ramon Sessions is under consideration. Ramon Sessions. The question being whispered by NBA insiders and, likely, the Mark Cuban brain trust: Is it time to trade Dirk Nowitzki?

Other teams and their fan bases might currently be under the impression that they’ve “won” something in free agency, committing X amount of dollars in a chase to over-pay suspect basketball potential around the league. Money thrown at the likes of Brandon Roy (Minnesota, 2-years, $10 million), Landry Fields (Toronto, 3-years, $20 million), Michael Beasley (Phoenix, 3-years, $18 million), and Omer Asik (Houston, 3-years, $25 million), could quickly backfire. More crazed spending likely on the way.

And not to mitigate the risk involved with building a team almost exclusively through the draft and trades. The Wizards, as much as any franchise, know about the failures in those maneuvers. One only need to start rattling off names like Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Kwame Brown. Different options come with varying repercussions and risks across team situations.

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[With the Trailblazers in D.C. tonight, looking back at when a single trade helped both franchises. Before the deal, a young 'Sheed standing tall in the District. Photo: SI Vault.]

It’s NBA trade season. But there’s one kind of trade you shouldn’t expect.

The heads-up, big-name deal.

Dwight for Dwyane. Pau for Josh.

It’s got a playground sort of feel to it: You give me your guy; I give you mine. Maybe we throw in some spare parts to make it even.

But there hasn’t been a great one in 15 years. Not since Rasheed for Rod.

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If you prowled around this site during the lockout summer (or rather, fall), you may have seen a post about former Baltimore Bullet Stan Love, father of Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves. When he was in town on Sunday, Kevin took some time before the game to chat with me about his dad. Here goes…

What has your father told you about the NBA?

“My dad has dropped a lot of knowledge on me throughout the years. He placed a ball in my hands from an early age, so basketball has always been in my blood — obviously with having the last name ‘Love’ and obviously being named after Wes Unseld, different spelling [Kevin’s middle name is Wesley, Unseld spelled his first name, Westley], but going back to his heyday. It’s pretty special to be trying to follow in his footsteps and kind of do what my dad did, but also a little bit of what [Unseld] did as well.”

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September 22, 1971. Louisville, Kentucky. Freedom Hall.

Just over 40 years ago the Baltimore Bullets made the 600-mile trip west from Northern Virginia, where they had battled the N.B.A.’s New York Knickerbockers in their preseason opener the night before, to square off against the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association in the biggest game few today have ever heard about. The contest would be the second act in an Inter-League Exhibition Game (ILEG) series, a sporting event invented by the owners who were looking for something to make “airing out the big arenas, sweeping the floor and printing up tickets worthwhile,” amid rumors of a merger between the two roundball associations. Though early on, these exhibitions were not well publicized, they weren’t without meaning.

The 1971 ILEG series was headlined by two N.B.A. titans, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Baltimore Bullets, both gearing up for another shot at an N.B.A. championship. They were scheduled to play five A.B.A. squads in five A.B.A. cities; the games were held in A.B.A. cities like Louisville and Winston-Salem for the simple reason that the N.B.A. didn’t want to legitimize the upstart league.

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Wes Unseld doesn’t come around much anymore, and it has nothing to do with the lockout. We’re talking the house that Abe built, the Verizon Center.

Sure, he’s part of the franchise’s alumni group and has a seat “for life,” once blogged Ted Leonsis. This was in response to a oddity spewed by New York’s own Peter Vecsey in January 2011, saying Unseld’s season tickets had been “stripped” from him. Dan Steinberg aptly described the curious case on the DC Sports Bog, as both Leonsis and Unseld denied such; and as Mike Wise said, “Let’s put it this way, Tony Kornheiser’s not an evil human being. He has an evil side to him, but he’s not an evil human being. But Peter Vecsey is Satan incarnate.” Always nice to have Kornheiser involved.

Still, season tickets or no season tickets (after all, someone, somewhere had to be miffed enough to drop of a nugget for Vecsey to run with, unconfirmed), Unseld was no where near as present at games last season as he used to be, when Pollin was owner. And that’s okay. He was Abe’s guy. Constancy is neither sacred, nor a vice. Plus, sometimes in life there are other things to do.

New can always be found without the old, but often can’t be appreciated without what’s already been done. And that’s why on this Wednesday, we appreciate Wes, just as the Washington franchise and fans of the franchise always will. Read more »

Weekend pictures of Baltimore and stories from its past with pro basketball…

1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, MD (formerly the Baltimore Civic Center and the Baltimore Arena).

Box of Natty Boh – Soliders and Sailors Monument, W. 29th St. & N. Charles Ave., Baltimore.

Baltimore City Hall.

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Manute Bol, as we further came to realize with his passing in June 2010, was a vastly unique and complex character. The posthumous coverage, as it often does in these instances, helped us peel back the layers of his multifaceted life in order to gain closure with understanding and appreciation.

Most records indicate that Bol was drafted by Bob Ferry, then GM of the Washington Bullets, with the 31st overall pick (seventh in the second round) of the 1985 NBA Draft. Lesser noticed records indicate that Bol was first drafted 97th overall in the 1983 draft (fifth round) by the San Diego Clippers. The selection was sparked by ex-Bullets coach (from 1994-97) Jim Lynam no less, who at the time was head coach of the Clippers. But Bol was not afforded the opportunity to play for Lynam in his first season at the helm of an NBA team, along with the oft-injured Bill Walton in the franchise’s last go-round in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles. The pick was subsequently voided because Bol hadn’t officially declared for the draft.*

Lynam’s intrigue with seven feet and seven inches would later be Ferry’s gain, after Bol spent time at the University of Bridgeport followed by a small appearance with the Rhode Island Gulls of the USBL.* As a blogger, I’m also obliged to mention that the ’85 Bol draft was the same year the Bullets took Kenny Green with their top pick at No. 13; Karl Malone went to the Utah Jazz at 14.

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A developing lockout trend amongst those with an online presence and interest in the NBA has been to scan/photo old basketball cards and share them on the world wide web.

Some say we are doomed to repeat the past, in the future, if we don’t remember it (or something like that). I say the past is also great for present-day zingers, which is why I’m sure I’ll take part in basketball card scanning in the future (which, one really only needs the summertime to do, not necessarily a lockout – there’s also the fact that my sports cards are spread out between my apartment in D.C., a dad’s house, a mom’s house (both in other states), and a friend’s house in Virginia).

Anyhow, in lieu of those old basketball cards, today, I’m here to share with you some Washington Bullets posters from yesterday, equally worthy of nostalgic zingers, if not more so.

What you are about to gander upon (and please excuse the impromptu, perhaps hard-to-view photos of old-tymey wrinkled posters) comes courtesy of Wizards veteran Basketball Facilities Manager Jerry Walter. Jerry just completed his 20th season with the organization in his current area, but has been working home games in some capacity in upwards of 28 years. He is always polite, often wishing folks a good morning no matter what time of day it is, and when famished reporters await outside of the Wizards’ practice court for interview access, Jerry almost always offers, nay, insists that they hydrate with a cup of water.

Near the end of this past season, Jerry brought in some of old franchise posters as a kind display of his glorious endurance with one of the more hapless franchises in the NBA. (Yes, we know there is a plan to change all of this — the haplessness — but admittedly, by said team proprietors, it’s a process that ain’t easy. So until that happens, hapless fans of Les Boulez we will be.)

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First impression: I like Wizards’ the new digs duds. I really like them. They were done with a style that lends itself to merchandise that people of various demographics would be proud to sport. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Sure, it’s partially about the money, gladly advertised by the team to ‘Buy! Buy! Buy!’, but in order for that to happen, they must look good. People have to want them. I think people will want these.

I attended the unveiling and wrote an online article for the Washington City Paper. I urge you to check it out, it’s all about how the Wizard is not completely dead, not just yet. I halfway expected both home and away jerseys to say “Washington” on the front (the New York Knicks do this), but “Wizards” stays as a reminder to the home fans — that and the color replacement version of the old Wizards logo you see above on the official reproduction guideline sheet, which is just about the only place you’ll see it going forward, according to the team.

The new branding is modern, it’s retro, it provides the colors people expect. It also is a style that can happily adapt itself to further change down the road. Ted Leonsis will zip his lips and slowly back out of a room when the topic of a name change now comes up, but it almost seems inevitable with this well-built foundation of color change success. Only not back to “Bullets.” Not reasonably going to happen.

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