[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 40, Washington Wizards at Utah Jazz; contributors: Rashad Mobley , Adam McGinnis and Adam Rubin from behind the television screen. The title of this post references a Band of Horses song, "The Great Salt Lake."]

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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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On Saturday from 1:30-3 pm at the Potomac Yard Best Buy in Alexandria, NBA great and Georgetown alum Eric “Sleepy” Floyd will be making an appearance. The event is in conjunction with the NBA’s relationship with HP and the launch of Windows 7. Other former NBA stars will be making appearances at Best Buys across the country … Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Los Angeles, Clyde Drexler in Houston, Earl Monroe in New York, Dominique Wilkins in Duluth, GA, B.J. Armstrong in Chicago, and a ‘TBD’ in Philadelphia. You can click here for the full schedule. There’s also a sweepstakes where you can win tickets to an NBA Playoffs or Finals game, or a new HP computer.

I’ve been invited to attend and will have a chance to speak with Sleepy. I’m sure I’ll be asking about his days in the NBA … playing in Golden State where he once scored 29 points in a quarter, playing in Houston alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, his days as a Georgetown Hoya where he still stands atop the school’s career points list (and where he was on the receiving end of a 1982 Michael Jordan NCAA title game winner), and what he’s been doing with his life since/how he’s involved with the game of basketball.

Anyone is welcome to come out from 1:30 to 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 24th. Sleepy is slated to take pictures, sign autographs, etc.. The Potomac Yard Best Buy is located at 3401 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Alexandria, VA.

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After being dormant for a bit, Wizards player evaluations for ‘08-09 are picking back up. DeShawn Stevenson is up sixth. My thoughts are below, you can check on a full report on Bullets Forever.

[Previously: Oleksiy Pecherov | Juan Dixon | Etan Thomas | Javaris Crittenton | JaVale McGee]

flickr/Keith Allison

DeShawn Stevenson was a nice role player. Played defense, played hurt, nailed the open three. Through the ’07-08 season, Ernie Grunfeld had himself a steal to the tune of a reasonable 4-year, $15 million contract he signed Stevenson to in July of 2007 (after swiping the free agent from Orlando the previous season for a cool million, Stevenson having rejected a 3-year $10.5 million offer from the Magic in the summer of ’06).

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See that fella above? That’s “Dinner Bell” Mel Turpin, a member of the cursed Washington Bullets/Wizards draft history … sorta.

Turpin was taken by the Bullets with the 6th overall pick in the famed 1984 NBA Draft … the Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and of course, Sam Bowie draft. Bowie was a teammate of Turpin’s at Kentucky, and while both are known as busts, it’s Bowie’s name that most often gets mentioned amongst NBA basketball infamy.

With Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland already holding down the paint, Turpin was immediately traded by then GM Bob Ferry to a team currently generally managed by his son Danny, the Cleveland Cavaliers. In exchange, the Bullets received Cliff Robinson and Tim McCormick, who was promptly sent to the Seattle Sonics, along with Ricky Sobers, for Gus Williams.

Williams lead the ’84-85 Bullets in scoring (20.0) and assists (7.7), while Robinson was fourth on the team in scoring (16.7) and second in rebounding (9.1). That Bullets team improved by five wins over the previous season’s mark to finish 40-42, but still lost to Barkley, Julius Erving, and Moses Malone in the first round of the playoffs.

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