{flickr/simplistic.designs}

This Sunday April 25th will mark the 13th anniversary of the Washington Bullets’ 1997 opening first round playoff game against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. That game represented the franchise’s first playoff game since May 8, 1988 … or, the first in eight years, 11 months and 17 days to be exact.

The ’96-97 Bullets team featured the present-day likes of an ESPN NBA analyst (Tim Legler), a special assistant for the Golden State Warriors (Calbert Cheaney), an analyst for NBA TV/TNT (Chris Webber), a guy who is still playing in the NBA playoffs (Juwan Howard, Portland Trailblazers), a Kentucky Wildcats basketball assistant who was recently charged with a DUI (Rod Strickland), a guy who was last year fired as head coach of the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants (Jaren Jackson), a guy who is currently a community liaison of sorts for the Wizards (Gheorghe Muresan), a guy who attended the March 27, 2010 Wizards-Jazz game with a lady friend (Chris Whitney), and a guy who assists the DeMatha High basketball program because that’s where his sons played (Harvey Grant) … among other cats.

Recently Webber went on the Dan Patrick Show and recounted a story from the ’97 playoff match-up against Jordan’s Bulls (via Sports Radio Interviews): Read more »

[Editor's Note: For all of you sneaker heads out there, Adam Douglas, Truth About It.net photographer, got some shots of what the Wizards and Bulls were sporting last Friday night. Also check out Adam's pictures from the game in his latest edition of "Under The Hoop."]

Chris Richards – Chicago Bulls

Read more »

JaVale McGee has the unique combination of athleticism and coordination to go along with size and length that is matched by few, if any, in the NBA. The kid has a 7’6″ wingspan, and that’s his 2008 pre-draft measurement. I’m sure he’s grown since then.

Watching him play can be a sheer baffling beauty because of his natural ability, but also frustratingly maddening because of his lacking basketball instinct. It makes you wonder, this is the guy whose mom was a WNBA player, the guy whose baby-carriage used to saddle up next to the hardwood?

Maybe all of that is just the equivalent of sleeping with the book under your pillow to study for a test. It’s one thing to be around the game all your life, but that doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re learning the wrong things.

Flip Saunders calls McGee a Catch-22. Partly for McGee’s freakish ability to score, the good part, and on the other hand, for his playing self-centered basketball, for shooting every time he touches the ball.

Read more »

I don’t want to pick on Randy Foye. He’s a good guy who wants to succeed in the most honorable way possible. His numbers have also been admirable as of late. Over the last five games, Foye has averaged 20.6 points, 7.8 assists, 1.8 turnovers, 4.0 rebounds and a block and a steal. So, I can’t exactly blame Foye for having the ball in his hands at the end of regulation, the first overtime AND the second overtime with the game on the line, but I can blame the Wizards as a team for putting Foye in those situations.

It’s absolutely unfathomable that neither Antawn Jamison nor Caron Butler — the stars, the studs, the captains, and perhaps two Wizards in the midst of their swan songs with the franchise — had the ball in their hands in any of those crucial waning moments where the game was lost, but could have been won. Remember the game winners Caron Butler hit against Toronto and Indiana last season? I do.

But the Wizards fought the whole way. Butler, Jamison and Brendan Haywood combined for 77 points, 46 rebounds and 159 minutes. The team limited turnovers, only six, and shared the ball to the tune of 23 assists. The bench didn’t provide much, aside from an eight point flash from Earl Boykins, and got outscored 27-14. Andray Blatche put up a stat line of three missed shots, two rebounds and three fouls in 10 minutes.

The Wizards lost 121-119 to the Bulls in double-overtime. Oh well, nothing new. It bes like that sometimes. Read more »

{ 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.

Read more »

Seems like I’ve heard about it before, but maybe I didn’t think much of it at the time, or just forgot, as it occurred way back in 2003, before the ‘blogging era’.

But there I found myself, coming home to an on television Friday night, checking out game six of an incredibly boring Heat-Hawks series.

Dan Marino was courtside, ESPN showed his retired jersey in the rafters. Little curious to see it hanging in a basketball arena, but okay … I’ll go with it.

I once ate at Dan Marino’s steakhouse in the gloriously classy Hooters Hotel & Casino in Vegas … or is it delightfully tacky, yet unrefined? In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Marino’s steakhouse. Plus, you gotta give the guy credit for going from the prince of coal mining country to the king of South Beach … the equivalent to Biggie Smalls going ashy to classy.

Read more »

The Wizards lost to the Bulls last night while giving the kiddies floor burn much to the delight of Wizards malcontents who would find negativity in just about anything (and no, despite popular belief, I am not one of those people).

He came in cool wearing black and chewing gum.

The headlines today say that Obama should attend more Wizards games…..sure, why not?

But dammit if the Wizards shouldn’t give that kind of effort and energy all the time…..the guy only lives in the same city.

But props to the President….he sat court side, had himself a beer, and seemed to take a bit of heckling well (he was openly cheering for the Bulls).

Read more »

Preparations and giddily being made for a possible Barack Obama visit to the Verizon Center this evening where his hometown Chicago Bulls will attempt to propel an orange sphere into a metallic ring tinseled with nylon.

While the President can fill football stadiums, he’ll probably only muster around 8,000 or so to come see him possibly watch what could be considered a basketball game.

The Washington Wizards, who have been seen performing acts that resemble the game of basketball at various times during the season should be in attendance. However, there is no word if the team will show up on the court.

Read more »

The Wizards winning last night (pictures to come), the commencement of a four-day weekend, and videos like this:

Link Rec:

We have a tax problem, and the only prescription is more trades [Bullets Forever]
Read more »