Posts for category ‘Ownership’

Future basketball historians may heavily sway their chronicles toward the 2009-10 Washington Wizards season. The infamy surrounding the heavily dramatized whirlwind that was Gilbert Arenas, locker room guns and court cases, and the losing that magnified it (or that it magnified) will go down in D.C. lore just as much as team media guides will gloss over the affair.

Meanwhile, Arenas continues to be in the contradictory mode of ‘they wanted me out, but I gave them plenty of reasons’ on Twitter. He is very ‘woe is me’, while claiming a lesson has been learned. If only Arenas knew how to not keep himself from proving maturity when it counts.

The abrupt end of one long-running and significant ownership era resulting from the passing of Abe Pollin will only add to the natural sensationalizing of ’09-10. But old flames — the one time poster boy and the patriarch of D.C. pro basketball — passed by new sprouts on their way out.

The 2010-11 season, on one hand, as another lottery year for the franchise, might be as forgettable as the rest. But a change in ownership is a very important event. Just think about how crucial ownership is to your opinion of the Washington Redskins.

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“Basketball in my country is not so popular, but after this night, I think — I hope, that the basketball will be more popular. I will do my best to help that.”
-Jan Vesely, Draft Night 2011

Jan Vesely wants to put Czech Republic basketball on the map. Good luck.

“The Czech media have been really lame covering the story,” direct-messaged Yon Pulkrabek via Twitter. I’d sent out a tweet wondering if any follower spoke Czech, and the instant world of the Internet connected us.

Pulkrabek says he’s lived in Prague permanently for the past decade, working as a translator, journalist, and editor. He grew up in upstate New York to Czech émigré parents and has been a fan of the Boston Celtics since the 1980s, keeping up with their recent success thanks to League Pass, streaming web video and his DVR. Now, Pulkrabek has taken an obvious interest in the Washington Wizards.

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Tension arises from the final Washington Wizards game of the season. Many fans were content with the loss to Cleveland. The 100-93 defeat on Wednesday means they stand-alone with the fourth-worst record in the NBA, and not tied with two other teams (New Jersey and Sacramento) for the fifth worst record, which could have had major implications on the NBA Draft Lottery. Other the other hand, they lost to Cleveland and looked pretty terrible in doing so.

Here’s where the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” conflict arises. During the game, Comcast’s television play-by-play man Steve Buckhantz mentioned multiple times how Flip Saunders instructed his players before the game that he wanted them to treat it like a playoff affair. But removing John Wall, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee from the fourth quarter equation (when Washington went into the final period with a 74-71 lead), and then later taking out Jordan Crawford three and a half minutes into the period (the Cavaliers having taken an 81-76 lead), clearly swings the philosophy from treating it like a playoff atmosphere to tanking for the lottery. Worth mentioning that Wall “tweaked” something or another during the game (didn’t look major, better to be safe than sorry), Blatche and McGee were playing like they didn’t deserve to stay on the floor (we’ll get to them), and Crawford was 2-14 from the field (the lackadaisical demeanor assumed by some on the team clearly having an effect on the unit as a whole).

Flip Saunders told the Washington Post:

“I thought our first, main group played really well. I probably would like to see them play the whole game, the way they were playing. We were moving the ball, we were really active and pretty much dominating in many aspects. But it was a good opportunity for us to see a lot of the young guys.”

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A D.C. pic, commentary, and links …

[Shaw Library: 7th St. & Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

So the Wizards lost to the Chicago Bulls on Friday night, putting their preseason record at 2-1. They got out-rebounded 48-32 and after the game, Wizards coach Flip Saunders said it wasn’t so much a result of the three-guard lineup. Via Wizards Insider:

Saunders said the disparity had nothing to do with size or inexperience. “Our bigs played really lethargic, very tired tonight. Very much with a lack of commitment. We have to play harder than the team we’re playing against. We can’t afford to let teams play harder than us, because we’re young and we’re going to make mistakes. And you have to make up for those mistakes with effort plays.”

“MESSAGE!” — And Flip was calculated with his message or call-out to Andray Blatche (three rebounds in 25 minutes), JaVale McGee (five rebounds in 18 minutes), and Yi Jianlian (three rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench). Of course, these numbers don’t tell the full story, exactly how many rebounds the Wizards allowed their assigned opposition to get.

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[Editor's Note: Beckley Mason has contributed to Wizards player previews on TAI, this is his first piece. You can read more about him here. - Kyle]

In late-September when Wizards owner Ted Leonsis spoke publicly about the NBA owners’ position heading into the 2011 CBA agreement, he quickly learned that David Stern will not accept anyone breaking the company line in the form of a 100 Grand — a fine, not the candy bar. As owner of the Washington Capitals, Leonsis has come to appreciate the benefits of the NHL’s hard salary cap rules.

“In a salary-cap era — and soon a hard salary cap in the NBA like it is in the NHL — if everyone can pay the same amount to the same amount of players, it’s the small nuanced differences that matter,” Leonsis told the press at a breakfast reception he hosted for the business community in Northern Virginia.

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Ted Leonsis is a man of lists. He believes in lists.

In fact, his original “list” of 101 things to do in life, which arose from a day of reckoning in 1983 when a plane he was on was forced into a crash landing, actually landed him an appearance on Oprah.

But getting on the media mogul’s show wasn’t the point. Making that original list helped bring direction and focus to Leonsis’ life. He achieved a lot, financially, before making his list, but clearly, through telling his story in his book, The Business of Happiness, he achieved far more value and meaning in his life, over monetary concern, after making the list.

And thus, as a big believer in lists, shortly after taking over the Wizards last June, Leonsis sought input from his team’s community on what he could do to make their basketball experience and relationship with the franchise better. And with that input, he started making another list.

Evidently, that list grew to the point where a simple benchmark of achieving 101 total improvements in the quality of life for Wizards fans (and Capitals fans, and Mystics fans … since the Verizon Center that houses all teams was part of the package Leonsis fully acquired in June) became a list of 101 accomplishments in 101 days, with more likely to come.

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Ernie Grunfeld recently, somewhat, let the cat out of the bag regarding an impending team color scheme change — which was really inevitable anyway, it’s just that hearing a formality from the team president of basketball operations before it comes from the blogging owner of transparency, Ted Leonsis, perks up some ears.

Leonsis made himself available to the media toward the end of Monday’s Midnight Madness, even though I imagine he was pretty exhausted from his travels. He had meetings regarding the NHL, American Express and the NBA in New York City during the day on Monday, and said, “I didn’t think I’d get back here in time. I was really tired, but I walked in and all these kids were screaming and hollering, and now I have a lot of energy.”

I figured I’d ask him about the color change (to red, white and blue), to see if he was ready to make some sort of announcement … that’s not an “as you know” as the end of the press conference.

[As an aside, I think I'm ready to claim "As you know..." as Ernie Grunfeld's go-to equivalent of Antawn Jamison's "And things of that nature ..." and Mike Miller's "It is what it is."

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Back in early August, when it was revealed that the New Jersey Nets had filed paperwork to change their team name, I got curious, did the Wizards do the same thing?

Evidently so, as team president Ernie Grunfeld let it slip this afternoon that the team would be switching their colors to red, white and blue for the 2011-12 season.

When I asked in August, team spokespeople were relatively mum … aside from a “Ted likes red” {wink, wink}. A league spokesperson wouldn’t comment either, other than indicating that, “if a franchise wanted to change its team name or colors, paperwork must be filed 24 months prior to the start of the season when the team wants to make the change.”

Basically, it became understood that the Wizards would eventually change their team colors to incorporate red, but an announcement would be made on their own terms, i.e., with the marketing pizazz that Ted Leonsis has became known for (See: Midnight Madness, PA Announcer Tryouts). Read more »

[Author's Note:  The editor of this site, Mr. Kyle Weidie, cannot stand Tony Kornheiser.  He thinks Tony is old, out of touch and unnecessarily negative about all things Washington Wizards--especially Gilbert Arenas.  He acknowledges Tony was a great sports writer at one time, but Kyle thinks those days are long gone.  I am a huge Tony Kornheiser fan, and I enjoy his articles, his books, PTI and his radio program, so for me to even get this article on Truth About It, is a coup of epic proportions.  Keep that in mind as you read please. -Rashad]

Washington Wizards Owner Ted Leonsis made an appearance on Tony Kornheiser’s radio show yesterday on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C., and his main focus was to discuss the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Challenge.  That event, which will take place on October 23rd, will feature several events (20 mile cycling, a 5k Walk, and a 3K walk just to name a few) that will start and end at the Washington Monument on the National Mall.  This event is designed to assist those individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and Best Buddies International (a charity that Leonsis is actively involved with), and the Special Olympics (founded by the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver) have partnered to make this event possible.

After Leonsis spent several minutes discussing this worthy event, Tony asked him to address some issues related to the Washington Capitals and the Wizards.  The Capitals-related issue involved Leonsis and his beef with the writer of this article.  But since we are a Wizards blog, we’ll spend more time delving into the basketball portion of Tony’s queries.

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As described in a previous post, the Wizards held tryouts for the position of in-game public address announcer at the Verizon Center on Monday night. Prior, 220 applicants where whittled down to 50 invitees … around 31 showed up. That was narrowed done to 16 hopefuls who were further narrowed down to five. More due diligence was performed, but by the night’s end, the team still had not decided who would serve as pre-game hype man for Gilbert Arenas, John Wall, Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee & Co.

Shortly before 1 pm on Tuesday afternoon it was announced that Ralph Wesley will be the voice of Wizards games — Wesley was my personal favorite after the round of 16 (and the round of five). There were a lot of great voices, but the best, most unique one prevailed. Below you’ll find a recap of the night in photos, followed by video of Wesley’s winning performance at the bottom. Enjoy.

Senior Director of Game Operations Danny Zollars (splendid name BTW) calls out the audition numbers of the 16 who’ve made it to the next round.

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