Best of Wizards/basketball-related links, in bullets. But first, John Wall’s glasses help him and DeMarcus Cousins see into the future…

John: “I see the future, and I’m going to have my own candy bar.”

DeMarcus: “I want to be a candy bar for Halloween in my future.”

John: “That guy in front of me has a sneeze in his future.”

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Lockout thoughts, randomly, and links, etc…

Fix This Mess.
[Southeast-Southwest Freeway - 12th & K St. SE - Washington, D.C. - photo: K. Weidie]

Whomever put the debate over Basketball Related Income (“BRI”) at the forefront of the NBA Lockout argument between players and owners knew what they were doing, assuming they were working in favor of the owners. At least this is in terms of public perception, but does either side care about the public anyway? No, not really, it seems.

Fifty-fifty is what we’ve been taught is fair; “even-steven” is intrinsically connected to our humanity. Disregard concerns otherwise when it comes to the lockout, the focus has been how to split the BRI between owners and players. Under the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”), the players received 57-percent of all NBA BRI, and for the purposes of new CBA negotiations, players have indicated that they are willing to reduce their BRI to 53-percent and have stuck staunchly to that (although recent reports indicate the players might lower their demands to 52-percent).

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Links, commentary, fodder, beef…

Andray Blatche had himself a chat on ESPN.com Wednesday. Normally, would that even happen? Doubt it. The assumption is that this is more the doing of him deciding to re-acquire an agent this summer. Now that power-agent Andy Miller is on the scene — clients of his include: Trevor Booker, Kevin Garnett, Jared Jeffries, Kenyon Martin, Chauncey Billups, Brendan Haywood, Roger Mason Jr., Andre Miller, Michael Ruffin, Sebastian Telfair, Antonio McDyess, etc., etc. — Blatche is hitting the circuit of pumped positivity. And thus here we are.

Anyhow, nothing provocative or ground-breaking in his chat; it totally fits within the norms of prosaic NBA player media & PR fare. The highlights include: when asked about how his roll [sic in a very Ledell Eackles kind of way] has changed over his years with the team, he chats about, “listening to guys like Antawn, Brandon, Caron” … which actually got me very close to seeing if a “Brandon” ever played for the Wizards on Basketball-Reference.com before realizing that he was talking about Brendan Haywood.

Quick flashback: in January, Blatche said this: Read more »

The Washington Post’s Michael Lee reported this afternoon that the Washington Wizards have cut Adam “AdMo” Morrison and Sean Marks, the Kiwi. This is a tribute to each of them.

Sean.

Sean, we hardly knew ya … mainly because you didn’t play in any of the preseason games and sat out a good chunk of training camp with hamstring injury (and don’t worry, I know you weren’t faking). You kinda/sorta played in the Wizards’ Midnight Madness event … well, at least I have a picture where you appear to be on the court. Here’s you observing John Wall in transition …

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[Editor's note: You've seen TAI diagram plays before, but now were going to do it more often as a game-to-game feature ... the best implemented play on a given night, at least in our opinion. -Kyle]

{photo: A. McGinnis, TAI}

After winning a jump ball halfway through the second quarter, the Wizards swung the ball around the top of the three-point line to set up a pick and roll on the other side of the floor.

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A D.C. pic, links and commentary …

[From Fiesta DC / Mt. Pleasant Day 2010 - Washington, D.C. - K. Weidie]

>>>>>>

Last year’s “Our Time” Washington Wizards training camp motto has become “Back To Basics” this year…

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While I and others may criticize and analyze and break down the Washington Wizards to varying degrees, sometimes it’s best to sit back and appreciate that the game of basketball is fun, or at least it’s supposed to be. And that’s just what this team is trying to do, play ball and have fun. Of course, the millions they make comes with strings attached. Darn. So for now, enjoy the fun of some choice cuts from Media Day to Midnight Madness in pictures and video … at least until we starting counting wins and losses, and judging effort, and crunching advanced stats, and deciphering measured locker room comments, and analyzing coaching decisions, and etc….

{Video}

[produced by TAI's Adam McGinnis]

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Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld addressed the media on Thursday afternoon and the major theme of his remarks was the team is in the “beginning of a new era.” While the most newsworthy item took place when the cameras were off, Grunfeld did give highly informational updates on various players.

Here Ernie talks about how John Wall will handle the extra attention placed upon the number one draft pick and discusses the games of the new youngsters:

Grunfeld details why the Wizards brought in two former lottery picks, Yi Jianlian and Adam Morrison:

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A D.C. pic, links and commentary …

[A basketball court, Marie Reed Recreation Center, Adams Morgan, Washington, DC - K. Weidie]

Is this meme too old yet?

Not when the mustache wears sunglasses too.

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“I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolfpack.  But when my sister brought Doug home, I knew he was one of my own.  And my wolfpack, it grew by one, so there were two of us in the wolfpack.  I was alone first in the pack and then Doug joined in later.  And six months later when Doug introduced me to you guys, I thought ‘wait a second, could it be?’  And now I know I added two more guys to my wolfpack.”

- Alan from the movie, “The Hangover”

Just last week I wrote an article about how many former Wizards have now found a home with the Charlotte Bobcats. The list included Dominic McGuire, Shaun Livingston, Michael Jordan and Kwame Brown (and according to Michael Lee, we can now add Javaris Crittenton to that list).  The reunion of Jordan and Brown in Charlotte is particularly intriguing given their failures in Washington.  Now it appears as if the first major personnel move Jordan made upon leaving D.C., is headed this way.

Adam Morrison, who Jordan drafted third overall in the 2006 draft when he was manager of basketball operations in Charlotte, has accepted an invitation to join the Washington Wizards in training camp, according to the Washington Post’s Lee.

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