[This is Part Two of a two-part post on Washington Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld looking back at his almost 25-year tenure making player personnel decisions in the National Basketball Association. Part One can be read here.]

[...continued from Part One...]

>>Damage in the District

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{video: Arenas & Jamison on the Wizards’ struggles and facing Eddie Jordan and the Sixers}

• As you are aware, team owner Abe Pollin passed away today, which certainly sets a different tone on reporting about the game. Sad that the man had to die amidst his team’s 3-9 record and perceived bickering among the players. A ton of people spoke about Mr. Pollin before the game (including Wes Unseld, Phil Chenier, Eddie Jordan, Ernie Grunfeld, and obviously the players). I’ll have more on Mr. Pollin’s passing later.
• DeShawn Stevenson described the feeling around the locker room as a state of shock, but the mood is still to go out, play to win, and play with respect.
• Andray Blatche dedicated this game and the rest of the season to Mr. Pollin. “Whatever is holding us back, we gotta get over it for him,” he said.
• The previous storyline of tonight’s game was the return of old coach Eddie Jordan, exactly a year to the day that Jordan was fired after handing out Thanksgiving turkeys to the needy at a team sponsored event.
• A year ago I wrote this post: “The End of The Eddie Jordan Era: Say Goodbye to the Fall Guy” and this a week later.
• Tonight, at a team sponsored event after the game, the currently injured Mike Miller is scheduled to hand out turkeys in conjunction with the Wizards Care community organization.
• Spoke with DeShawn about Jordan before the game. He said their relationship was cool because Eddie gave him an opportunity to start. Stevenson said he had no problem even though some of his teammates do.
• Andray Blatche, on the other hand, said, “Eddie Jordan is not in his mindset right now,” but did express that he’d probably work a bit harder with his old coach in the house.
• Michael Lee of the WaPost has more on Jordan’s return via Wizards Insider and via Wizards Outlet, Mike Jones of the WaTimes reports on Jordan’s surprise at the Wizards’ struggles.
• You can read a pre-game Q&A I did with Philadunkia, an ESPN TrueHoop Network Sixers blog.
• The first time Jordan, as coach of the Wizards, met his previous team, the New Jersey Nets, he lost 98-85 (Nov. 1, 2003). For more on his full career, read this: “The Epic Tale of Eddie Jordan: Connections, Relationships, and the Basketball Community.”
• With all that’s going on, the Wizards really need this win.

{flickr/Keith Allison}

Episode #4 of the Dagger Report (a Washington Wizards podcast) is here.

This week, Mike Prada of Bullets Forever and I talk about the ways and means of Gilbert Arenas amidst early season struggles. To join us for his conversation, which was recorded on Sunday evening, is Jake Whitacre, contributing editor at Bullets Forever and managing proprietor of Gilbertology.net.

The second segment, recorded on Saturday afternoon, features Jordan Sams of SB Nation’s 76ers blog, Liberty Ballers. Here, we discuss Eddie Jordan’s first year in Philly and the troubles of the Sixers (which aren’t as bad as those of the Wizards).

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flickr/Keith Allison

If the Washington Wizards prefer to lie amongst the weeds and surprise everyone, a panel of 53 ESPN experts is trying to make that happen (despite the Wizards being voted by the same ESPN panel to have the biggest turnaround this upcoming season).

Tied with both Philadelphia and Toronto to achieve 39 wins, and finish seventh through ninth in the East (the averages actually break out to PHI – 39.4, WAS – 39.1, TOR – 39.0), the ESPN panel believes that the Wizards will be fighting just to make the playoffs.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix and The Wages of Wins Journal both seem to think the Wiz will be significantly better than sub-40 wins, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe some of the ESPN experts think the Wizards’ defense won’t be up to par, or that their frontcourt is too thin and they desperately need an upgrade. Of course, when Mike Prada of Bullets Forever wrote the two previously linked pieces, he had improving the team to compete for a championship in mind, not so they can solidify a playoff position. Still, both defense and frontcourt are valid areas of concern.

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When I hear about Flip Saunders saying he’s a teacher before a coach, about how he and his assistants (namely Sam Cassell) have been working with the young guys, that he, being an ‘offensive mind’, has developed a mini-playbook for the summer league team and that he’ll be observing from a close distance on-site in Vegas, I think, “Boy, isn’t that refreshing?”

It’s comforting that a new, veteran coach, known to keep a tight bench and favor elders in his rotation, has arrived in D.C. with the mind-set of bringing along the young fellas. Not only does Flip believe that children are our future, but he practices it, knowing the jobs of both him, and the man who hired him, Ernie Grunfeld, depend on how they develop the team from top to bottom.

Mike Prada recently expressed a similar sentiment regarding Saunders in a pre-summer league post on Bullets Forever.

But in patting Flip on the back for his involvement with the youth, no one should be pointing ‘shame on your’ fingers towards former coach Eddie Jordan. Yes, Jordan used different tactics with his young players. And from the outside perspective/opinion of many (not including myself), those tactics were less than ideal.

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I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, almost since Eddie Jordan got fired from his gig with the Wiz. Well, now that he’s at the helm of the Philadelphia 76ers, this is an appropriate time as ever to publish.

My feeling is that a majority of Wizards fans think Jordan was unjustly fired (or at least weren’t dancing in the streets when he departed), and that even more wish him well.

Count me among both of these groups. Although, when he was terminated, I wasn’t like, “OMG! What an injustice!”

I was more disappointed with the entire landscape of the team, and later resigned to it just being ‘one of those things’, and in the end, maybe it was best that both parties moved on. But we’ll never really know.

In any case, here goes my tribute to Jordan’s basketball career (to date).

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As if it was ‘Blog About Brendan Haywood‘ week … but as you’ll see, it’s not all about him.

Haywood had an online chat session via ESPN last week and took the opportunity to subtly call out a couple of the Wiz kids. And what would be a Wizards offseason without hoping that certain someone finally gains some maturity?

When asked how he could help the young bigs, specifically Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, Haywood responded, “Both those guys have the skill but it comes down to being in shape and wanting to do it. Nothing I can do to help them, they have to want to do it on their own.”

Blatche’s career issues have been well documented. From getting shot during a car-jacking, purportedly set-up by gold diggers after a night of clubbing, to sleeping at the arena because he couldn’t pay rent, to snacking on nachos before a game because he didn’t think he’d play, to soliciting an undercover D.C. cop posing as a prostitute, to getting arrested for reckless driving and driving on a suspended license (three times over), Andray has had plenty bumps in the road, somewhat validating why he was overlooked by many GMs en route to slipping to the second round out of high school.

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I’m a huge Antawn Jamison fan. He’s a classy dude, I’ve nicknamed him ‘The Gentlemen’ (hasn’t caught on), and the women folk say he’s got eyebrows for days.

Jamison is the current patriarchal cornerstone of the franchise. This year’s team MVP? Unquestionably. He possesses the never-quit attitude that should be infecting the locker room via leadership by example … Jamison is quite the opposite of past clubhouse cancers, like Christian Laettner.

But sometimes, everyone needs to be questioned, Jamison being no exception.

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If you like John Hollinger’s vaunted PER rating, you might believe that 2007-08 was the best season of Brendan Haywood’s career, his 7th in the NBA. Haywood’s PER rating 0f 18.3 was 1.1 points higher than his previous career best of 17.2, achieved his third season in the league, and 23.6% higher than the average PER (14.8) in his first six seasons.

It’s been my opinion that last season was a “breakout” year for Haywood, not only statistically speaking, but also in terms of maturity level. He and Eddie Jordan, also aided by the diplomacy of Randy Ayers, were able to bury the hatchet of past disputes, and Haywood showed up ready to play.

It’s also been my opinion that in previous seasons, Haywood has been a big ol’ softie. He earned the moniker “Brenda” and many shared the same qualitative observation. Since, I’ve stopped referring to Haywood as “Brenda” and have blogged a letter of apology in my ’07-’08 player evaluation of him.

However, some have contested that Haywood, statistically speaking, was good the whole time, and that his production was seemingly low because he didn’t get enough minutes, and Eddie Jordan was being a big ol’ meanie. Sorry, I can’t help but be facetious here … reason being, I’ve been in a semi-spirited discussion at Bullets Forever with the Pradamaster and Rook6980 over this very subject. I’m of the opinion that a man, and not necessarily the coach, controls his own destiny. I’ve also always thought Eddie Jordan to be a fair individual, and compliant EEOC style.

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Eddie Jordan was fired just a week ago. On the road at the time, I found out the news via email from Jake The Snake and began to hack out a post, The End of the Eddie Jordan Era: Say Goodbye to the Fall Guy.

Like many, I was surprised, but not necessarily shocked. It wasn’t until that night, as I sat in the Superdome for a great Monday night showdown between the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers, full of raw oysters, crab legs and Ketel-tonics, that it really hit me.

“Sh*t!,” I randomly said aloud. (well, random to those around, but not to me)

“What’s wrong….what happened?,” my dad quickly replied.

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