Or maybe you can just ask John Wall if he wants to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl. There’s a sign in the famed D.C. haunt that says the only people who eat free are Bill Cosby and the Obama family. Surely an exception can be made should Wall ever bring an NBA title to Washington.

Oh, the Wizards haven’t even drafted the kid yet? Okay, I’ll hold my horses.

The quintessential Ben’s dish:
a chili half-smoke with mustard and onions, and chili-cheese fries.

By the time John Wall actually wears a Wizards uniform we will have heard just about everyone give their opinion about him being in D.C. — we’re talking some Ouija board channeling Abe Lincoln type stuff. Or at least getting DeShawn Stevenson’s neck tattoo to speak on it.

Already in the month of June we’ve had failed Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden and failed 6’10″ Washington Bullets point guard Chris Webber elicit verbiage about Wall, courtesy of the DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg.

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I have no idea where this came from or what it means, but it’s time for some must-read links.

Tired of Caron Butler yet?

Washington Post: Michael Lee provides even more insight on the crazy year in Washington from Caron Butler’s perspective. Great read.

A couple interesting tid-bits & quotes:

“It was a team where the expectations were severely high and we obviously underachieved.” – Caron Butler. For the record, Caron was one of the first, if not the first, to declare championship aspirations, saying “people shouldn’t be scared to mention championship,” late last August. Of course, Antawn Jamison followed with his own claims in mid-September and I defended the proclamations of both. Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood opted not to speak about any championship potential during the preseason media day. The issue: Caron’s use of the word “severe” implies that the expectations were unjustified and placed upon the Wizards by someone else.

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People talk about the fall of Agent Zero, how about the fall of Tuff Juice?

Mike Prada of Bullets Forever writes “the” definitive piece on Caron Butler’s 2009-10 season, but with some historical perspective as well. Below I’ve put a great quote from the article, but the whole thing, “Caron Butler was a big part of the problem with the 2009/10 Wizards,” is much longer and is really a must-read.

So what’s the theme of Caron Butler’s season?  It’s very hard to function when you’re dogged by resentment and dreams of personal success.  Butler has moved on to Dallas, where he’s now shooting more than Dirk Nowitzki and generally wasting possessions like he did in DC.  His game has declined with age, sure, much like other 29-year olds who have been as injury-prone as him.

But this is not your typical decline.  Much like Kevin Garnett, Butler has declined while kicking and screaming about the wonder days that were.  He’s the last person to accept the fact that he isn’t the player he once was.  He never figured it out in DC and he doesn’t appear to have figured it out in Dallas.  Worse, his decline was accelerated by lingering resentment of his co-star that only grew when that co-star started missing games.  That co-star is now on a different team, but Butler still stubbornly pushes on, trying to show he deserved his past status.

And really, this is a story about how precious one’s state of mind is in this game.  Butler went from being one of the league’s most unselfish and professional players to one with too big an opinion of himself that resented his teammates.  It was a dramatic shift and it couldn’t have happened to a more unexpected guy.  If it can happen to Butler, it can happen to anyone.

Want more on Caron?

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Back on January 16th, the Wizards beat the visiting Sacramento Kings and propelled their record to 13-26. The next day, a Sunday, the team would get a much needed day off before their match-up against the Portland Trailblazers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday.

Caron Butler in particular said he would enjoy having Sunday off because that meant he would be able to watch his “childhood hero,” Brett Favre, play one of his “good friends,” Tony Romo, in the NFL Playoffs.

Butler had trouble choosing who he would root for … although, his “shot out” to Romo (video below) seemed to indicate, in my opinion, that he was pulling for old man Favre. In any case, the Vikings won …  surely Caron would have been happy regardless, and Redskins fans were definitely happy.

But why is Butler boys with Romo in the first place? Well, as the picture above indicates, they were both on the 1998 All-Racine County (Wisconsin) basketball team. Romo is that fella wearing #35 on the far left. Butler is who you think he is. Who knew?

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Most Washington Nationals probably couldn’t name a current Washington Wizard, aside from Gilbert Arenas and Andray Blatche, both likely more known for infamous reasons. Well, there is that National who recently attended a Wizards game, Nyjer Morgan, but he rooted for the other team.

However, couple of the newer Wizards, transplants from Dallas on what could be just a temporary stop in their careers, have no problem representing the local baseball team.

The Post’s Michael Lee reports that Josh Howard, who attended the Wizards-Knicks game Monday night in NYC, was sporting an over-sized all white Nationals cap afterward. And of course, there’s the picture of James Singleton above. He wore that red Nats cap after a loss to the Charlotte Bobcats, the infamous Blatche benching game.

But enough about that. Here’s some more Wizards and their hats from throughout the season:

BALL CAPS

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Now that the franchise worst 16-game losing streak has departed, it’s time to remember the players who have departed the Wizards this season — via trade or release, not suspension or injury, and only those who actually received minutes.

Below you will find portraits of the departed along with their story from the night pictured and a video clip of a selected quote. Enjoy … I think.

{DeShawn Stevenson}

Depart Date: February 13, 2010

On Halloween Night after the Wizards defeated the New Jersey Nets 123-104 in their home opener, pushing their record to 2-1, (the only time it would be better than .500 this season), Stevenson spoke about how, unlike last season, everybody now wants tickets to Wizards games and that he wasn’t going to dress up for All Hallows Eve.

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Today the Wizards signed Shaun Livingston to a 10-day contract. Yes, that Shaun Livingston. The once Magic Johnson-esque prodigy who devastatingly injured his knee in just his third season in the NBA. On February 26, 2007 at the 8:10 mark of the first quarter, Livingston went up for a fast-break layup and came down awkwardly on his left leg, tearing his ACL, PCL, MCL and lateral meniscus. He also dislocated his patella and tibia/femoral. Ridiculously painful sounding doesn’t even come close to describing. Seeing it happen is even worse. I’m not going to even link the video.

But get this weird, connected sh*t. Not a week after Livingston’s injury, on April 4, 2007, Gilbert Arenas originally injured his knee against Gerald Wallace and the Charlotte Bobcats. Guess who Livingston’s then team, the Los Angeles Clippers, were playing on his fateful night. You guess it, the Charlotte Bobcats.

Video evidence confirms that at the time of Shaun’s injury, Wallace was on the court, but on the other end — remember, it was a fast-break opportunity for the Clippers. But do not forget that Wallace was on the court making contract with Josh Howard when he originally injured his ankle in 2008.

It would be really weird if Howard suffered his recent knee injury against the Bobcats and not the Chicago Bulls. However, guess who checked in for Livingston after he got hurt? Wizards assistant coach Sam Cassell. Exactly. Weird sh*t.

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I’ve written about Caron Butler and Josh Howard being different players off the court. But what about on the court? To get the best perspective, I turned to Rob Mahoney of the ESPN TrueHoop Network Dallas Mavericks blog, The Two Man Game. In addition to his Mavs blog, Rob does great work all over the internet, including his contributions to Hardwood Paroxysm and NBC’s Pro Basketball Talk.

Below is the question I asked Rob about Howard and his answer, and then my response to his question about Butler.

Tell me about Josh Howard. I know about all of his off-court stuff. I know about some of his “can’t control what the ball do” statements regarding on-court stuff. I know about a debate between you and Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com over whether Cuban and the Mavs were coddling/babying Howard too much. Any other reasons why Howard fell so far from grace in Dallas? Did you get any indication that he was a disturbance in the locker room? Or can his down year mostly be attributed to injury issues? The Wizards likely see J-Ho as just an expiring contract, but he certainly will play. How healthy is he now? How motivated do you think he will be to contribute to his new, yet very, very bad, team?

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Howard’s decline has been truly bizarre. From 2005-2007, Josh was a rock; he ignited the Mavs’ offense in the first quarter, played solid perimeter defense, and showed tremendous versatility in terms of scoring the ball. It looked as though Dallas had come away with a complete steal with the 29th pick in the 2003 draft, and Josh was named an All-Star in ’07 to commemorate his rise. But Howard was injured virtually throughout the ’07-’08 season, and even when he returned to action for the Mavs, he was visibly limited.

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Sorry for the long title, but there’s a decent bit to cover here.

The Edict Under Which Ernie Grunfeld Works

We already know Mark Cuban is a pretty smart dude. To get that rich, you gotta be. But we never figured he was smart enough to pull one over on Ernie Grunfeld, the man who spent years honing his trade in the Big Apple. Not only did Cuban (and Mavs GM Donnie Nelson I suppose) get everything they ever dreamed of in a trade with Washington, but they also got the Wizards to pay them “cash considerations,” and they didn’t have to send the Wizards their trade exception in exchange for Fabricio Oberto, as was supposedly discussed.

If you’re the Wizards ownership in limbo, guess you gotta spend money and give away value to save money, perhaps for the sale of the team. With part of potential majority owner Ted Leonsis’ ’10-Point Rebuilding Plan’ being to always seek a “pick and a prospect,” we now have some insight that, perhaps, Grunfeld was working under edict of the Abe Pollin estate to cut costs no matter how much it might set the franchise back in the future. Abe’s dream of his team winning another championship has been put to rest, now the Washington basketball patriarch’s squad could be being dismantled just to appease the financial gain of those he left behind.

Sorry Wizards fans, the legacy of Abe Pollin still haunts the franchise. Not until Leonsis takes over can you rest assured that the team you love will be firmly headed in a positive direction, or at least open with fans on that direction, which would likely sooth baffled impatience in these current trying times.

Mark Cuban, a brilliant cat he sure seems like right now. But he’s also a goober. You know, the type who hams it up beyond necessity while being unfunny and cutesy enough to make you roll your eyes and think, “this” guy. Some of this is evidenced in a video interview Cuban did with Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. Sure, Cuban is probably a nice man, but he’s also annoying with a kitschy style of charm. Good for him, I suppose. He’s rich and most of us aren’t. He wins.

Mark Cuban On Brendan Haywood’s Media Knowledge

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Two of the three below are gone, the third on this Wizards Mount Rushmore might be gone by President’s Day. And that would make not one, but two banners needing to be removed from the 6th Street facade of the Verizon Center in 2010.

“Character, Commitment, Connection”

-Wizards 2009-2010 Season Motto

The Wizards aren’t putting Josh Howard’s face next to that on a banner anytime soon … unless they want to ad a fourth ‘C’ for cap space. Like Caron Butler, Howard was once an All-Star. And like the one they call Tuff Juice, the one they call J-Ho has recently fallen far from basketball skill grace.

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The Wizards headed into the All-Star break with a close loss in Charlotte on Tuesday, ultimately thanks to a tough game-winning shot by Raymond Felton that put the Bobcats up 94-92 with 1.6 seconds left. Losing should come as no surprise. After all, the Wizards are 17-33. But hey, commend the team for appearing to try and for playing a decent Charlotte team down to the wire on their home court, where they are now 19-6.

The Wizards did some good things in the game. But since it was a loss, it’s probably more telling to concentrate on the bad things they did, which, when added up, contributed more to them losing than any of the good things contributed to them coming close to winning … if any of that makes sense. Hence, let’s take a look as some stories and screen shots highlighting instances where things went wrong.

A Butler That Is A Matador

Whether you play in the NBA or just at your local court, when you get the ball stolen from you, your pride is hurt. And you want to redeem yourself. Some don’t even try and simply commit a frustration foul. Some gamble like a hero for an almost unattainable steal. Some just bite the bullet and play good defense, knowing their time for redemption will come with hard work.

Caron Butler, against the Bobcats, chose another route. After casually dangling the ball in front of Gerald Wallace on offense, with something in his usual repertoire of unproductive hesitation and fake moves, Caron got the ball ripped from him (first frame below). He then backpedaled in the opposite direction, readying himself to defend Wallace.

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Crittenton most definitely on the trade block

The Washington Post’s Michael Lee first tweeted almost a week ago, “Interesting angle w/Crittenton suspension. He could become a viable/valuable trade chip by Feb. 18 since a team won’t have to pay him.”

And we figured as much since the previous day, in his press conference addressing the Arenas/Crittenton suspensions for the rest of the year, Ernie Grunfeld indicated that there were no restrictions in discussing a trade of either with another team.

On late Tuesday, ESPN’s Chris Sheridan reported the same thing, with a couple more details.

#FreeMikeJames

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This fan, or maybe he’s not a fan, aided by his lower-level seats near the Wizards’ locker room tunnel, took the necessary steps to make himself noticed at the Wiz-Knicks snow game on Saturday night.

Some might have approached this guy to take stock of what angle he was playing with his customized jersey. Was he simply stating the fact of Arenas’ plea? Is wearing the jersey of a guilty man an act of defiance? What does the bottom treatment a la Fred Flintstone’s moo-moo signify? Is he or is he not an advocate for Gilbert Arenas? All good questions. I’d like to think that the distinguished Dan Steinberg would have sought this fellow out for blog fodder. Me? I figured that whatever this guy’s jersey meant, it was best left unknown, like the Arenas situation itself.

Furthermore, scenes from pre-game warm-ups …

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It was one of those “it is what it is” games. The Wizards gave effort and got beat by a very good team, falling 115-103 to the champion Lakers. Flip Saunders told his players that if they would have played with the same effort against the Heat and the Clippers, they would probably be looking at four wins during the now complete season long six-game homestand instead of two.

The second quarter was where the match was lost. Los Angeles put up 30 points, the Wizards put up 15. Otherwise Washington outscored L.A. by three. In the second, and for pretty much the entire game, the Lakers resembled the time-tested analogy of a well-oiled machine. Even though they were 1-7 from three in the period, they shot 56% on 14 made field-goals, got three steals, two courtesy of Shannon Brown, and shot 9-11 in the paint.

Meanwhile the Wizards turned the ball over seven times leading to nine Lakers points and only got one assist. They also gave L.A. six second-chance points in the second. Instead of a well-oiled machine, the Wizards played like they ate butter drenched popcorn for a pregame meal. Unforced turnovers served as the calling card of the hapless.

Wizards 2nd Q Lineups

>> time on court together, points scored-points given up (turnovers in parenthesis)

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As you can imagine, it’s not fun to be in the locker room after a losing effort, especially after the poor showing the Wizards gave to their home crowd on Friday night. But if you like watching people and their mannerisms as I do, being in a room full of divided millionaires is great fodder for the brain, but not so much for Wizards fans.

Enough of the train-wreck analogies and how their imagery seems too painful on the eyes, yet unavoidable to watch. No, these 2009-10 Washington Wizards are like a ship going down in deep waters. The vessel is sinking fast and everyone wants to bail.

I’m not going to claim the post-game emotion was more distraught after the 112-88 loss to Miami than it has been for any of the other 28 losses this season, but it certainly was one of the most interesting, at least in terms of home games since I’m not a traveling blogger.

The post-game scene made it clear that Caron Butler going rogue on Flip Saunders was just a microcosm of an entire team trying to read the same old, tattered book, but with everyone turned to different pages.

I don’t want to portray that players are at odds with each other or that others have stopped listening to Coach Saunders. That is not what I witnessed, although I can’t speak for what goes on behind closed doors and in the minds of individuals.

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