Posts tagged ‘Abe Pollin’

{ Yes, I actually own this jersey }

Are you inundated with Michael Jordan posts/readings/articles yet? Sorry. If you’ve found yourself here, you’re at the point of no return. But dude is the G.O.A.T., and unfortunately, we won’t have another chance to reflect upon his career this much until his death.

Being a Wizards blogger, I’m obliged to write about Jordan’s time in Washington … sort of. You see, when MJ was playing for the Wizards, I was finishing my last four semesters of college. During those years away from DC, I lost touch with the team I’d grown to love unconditionally. And since the MJ experiment occurred way back at the beginning of the millennium, I didn’t have the advantage of blogs, streaming online video, NBA league pass, and the what-not to adequately keep tabs.

Thus, I’m apathetic toward memories of Jordan in Wizards blue. At the time, I thought his front office presence, and his subsequent comeback to the hardwood, could be nothing but good for a perpetually floundering franchise.

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flickr/afagen

Why is Abe Pollin willing to pay the luxury tax?

First and foremost, he wants to win now, not later … the guy doesn’t have much ‘later’ left.

Second, the Wizards are relatively financially stable, ranked 15th in the NBA by Forbes in franchise value, 14th in revenue and 10th in operating income. The rankings could be better considering that D.C. is the 8th largest media market in the U.S. (in 2006). Then again, being in such a large media market helps bring in revenue from other sources.

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I was on a break outside the other day, catching some fresh Penn Quarter air, taking a stroll around Freedom Plaza, when this little kid came up to me, and said, “Hey Mister … don’t you know that the Wizards need another big man? Haywood, Jamison, Blatche, McGee, and McGuire aren’t going to cut it.”

“Easy lil’ fella,” I told him. “We’ll keep looking around to see if we can add someone else, but we feel comfortable about what we have currently and the depth of our ballclub.”

The kid then kicked me in the shin and ran away.

I suddenly woke up from my slumber and realized those weren’t my words, those were Ernie Grunfeld’s words. I had a mission …

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flickr/art crimes

The rumors,  the possibilities … they must be tired because they’ve been running through my mind all night. It’s getting a little crazy leading up to the draft, but bloggers, MSM types, and the Internets wouldn’t have it any other way.

First of all, I’d like to remind the basketball world, despite the fact that 99% of it won’t see this post, that the Wizards are not “desperate“ to shed salary.

I’ll simply point to a Washington Times piece from late March highlighting that owner Abe Pollin would pay the luxury tax in order to win a championship. No, this doesn’t mean Ernie Grunfeld won’t be looking for creative ways to save money, he just won’t be making any wholesale giveaways in the process.

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We now know the scapegoat threshold on an NBA season in the District of Columbia: 10 losses against a solo win. As head coach of the Washington Wizards, Eddie Jordan is no more. If the WizzNutzz only had the foresight to include this among their Screaming Headlines…..

Someone had to take the fall. The Wizards crack medical staff? Well, they can’t exactly control the environment in which they work, but by most accounts, they are no medical staff of the Phoenix Suns.

The most glaring problem for the Wizards during Jordan’s tenure was bottom-of-the-barrel defense. Despite these facts surrounding the team’s stars: Gilbert Arenas, a bad defender; Caron Butler, a bad defender; Antawn Jamison, a bad defender; Antonio Daniels, a bad defender……when the pattern of defensive inefficiency creeps into its sixth consecutive year, the ultimate responsibility falls on the shoulders of the head coach.

All the tinkering and gimmicks in the world…..match-ups zones, doubling the ball off screens, the scheming of Randy Ayers (and to a lesser extent, Flip Saunders, who made a cameo in training camp as an instructor of zone defense)…….could not circumvent the fact that it’s easier to get rid of a coach than make roster adjustments.

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A lot of people are drooling over JaVale McGee today (myself included….and justifiably so). The poll on the Wiz-Jazz game blog at Bullets Forever even indicates that McGee should be last night’s player of the game. I will politely disagree. Yes, the Wizards would not have won with game without the young Choppa, but my game MVP is none other than Antawn Jamison.

The Gentleman Jamison spoke words about the attitude in the locker room and backed them up. Statistically, it wasn’t one of his better games….AJ’s stat line actually teeters on mundane (for his standard). But he made his presence felt…..Jamison was all over the court, getting his hands on loose balls, hitting a huge trey, and overall, TCOB.

The Most Important Stat: Sure, the Wizards out-rebounded, out-stole, and out-blocked the Jazz, but getting to the free-throw line was crucial. I noticed that for about 95% of the night, the Wizards refused to settle and were persistent in getting into the paint….which led to the Wiz shooting 40 free-throws. But the key part, unlike in the Milwaukee game, was that Washington took advantage of getting to the line and made their free-throws, sinking 32 to shoot 80%.

A game to build upon? We can only wait and see. (oh yea, this also happened)

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When the Washington Wizards decided to pick up the third-year option on Coach Eddie Jordan’s current contract, extending him through the 2009-2010 season, I thought, “Well, that’s a little random.”

There have been questions about Jordan’s status from year to year…..whether it be general disapproval from fans, the fact that he wasn’t an ‘Ernie Grunfeld’ selection, or that Jordan’s hand-picked assistants were only renewed on a year-to-year basis.

I’ve been a staunch supporter of Jordan. Sure there are issues, as I outlined in his evaluation. But I factor in his DC resume, and an appreciation that for the last four years, I haven’t had to cross my fingers when ping-pong balls start mixing in late May.

But in terms of the timing, I was perplexed as Prada at Bullets Forever….why now? Perhaps my curiosity was more the result of surprise at the unexpectedness of the re-up. But after further pondering, it was a good move by GM Ernie Grunfeld and Owner Abe Pollin.

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flickr/ableman

With the late July legal win for the Washington football franchise, it’s safe to say that the Redskins will be the nickname of the team for the foreseen future of countless generations. Essentially, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that a 16-year old Native American lawsuit attempting to invalidate a trademark on the Redskins name was not filed within a timely manner of when the trademark was issued in 1967, and to do so now would cause the franchise too great of an economic hardship. The court did not comment on the racially offensive nature of the legal battle and the case now heads back to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Recently, the pot of questionable racism was stirred when The Big Lead compared the use of “Redskins” to the “eye slant” photo of the Spanish men’s basketball team, and then when Mr. Irrelevant refuted the comparison. Debates such as these will unquestionably continue as long as Redskins is the team nickname.

What is a Redskin? The reasoning behind the meaning seems to split into three areas of thought: the skin color of Native Americans, the warpaint Native Americans used before battle, or the bloody scalp remnant resulting from a Native American crossing the path of a bounty hunter.

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