Posts tagged ‘espn’

{flickr/Keith Allison}

No, this isn’t a joke … although, with the season going the way it is, you’d think it might be.

But really, what’s the harm in Flip Saunders & Co. using one play selected from a pool of civilian submissions. At this point, it can’t hurt. Right?

The details of the contest, via ESPN, are below … and more can be found by following the link at the bottom. (However, this will take you to an ESPN Insider page, so you might need an account).

Read more »

On Thursday, along with J.A. Adande, I participated in a Live Chat Q&A about the Wizards on ESPN.com.

There were a ton of Cavs fans/Wizards haters in the house … and I avoided each and every one of them. {Pat on back, they were hard to resist.}

Really wish I could have stayed longer to answer more questions about the Wiz. There were so many I wasn’t able to get to. Being on the other side for the first time, now I know how hard it is. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience … so I thank ESPN for including all the TrueHoop Network team bloggers in these chats.

Anyway, here’s the recap (via Cover It Live):

Read more »

flickr/Keith Allison

If the Washington Wizards prefer to lie amongst the weeds and surprise everyone, a panel of 53 ESPN experts is trying to make that happen (despite the Wizards being voted by the same ESPN panel to have the biggest turnaround this upcoming season).

Tied with both Philadelphia and Toronto to achieve 39 wins, and finish seventh through ninth in the East (the averages actually break out to PHI – 39.4, WAS – 39.1, TOR – 39.0), the ESPN panel believes that the Wizards will be fighting just to make the playoffs.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix and The Wages of Wins Journal both seem to think the Wiz will be significantly better than sub-40 wins, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe some of the ESPN experts think the Wizards’ defense won’t be up to par, or that their frontcourt is too thin and they desperately need an upgrade. Of course, when Mike Prada of Bullets Forever wrote the two previously linked pieces, he had improving the team to compete for a championship in mind, not so they can solidify a playoff position. Still, both defense and frontcourt are valid areas of concern.

Read more »

As if it was ‘Blog About Brendan Haywood‘ week … but as you’ll see, it’s not all about him.

Haywood had an online chat session via ESPN last week and took the opportunity to subtly call out a couple of the Wiz kids. And what would be a Wizards offseason without hoping that certain someone finally gains some maturity?

When asked how he could help the young bigs, specifically Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, Haywood responded, “Both those guys have the skill but it comes down to being in shape and wanting to do it. Nothing I can do to help them, they have to want to do it on their own.”

Blatche’s career issues have been well documented. From getting shot during a car-jacking, purportedly set-up by gold diggers after a night of clubbing, to sleeping at the arena because he couldn’t pay rent, to snacking on nachos before a game because he didn’t think he’d play, to soliciting an undercover D.C. cop posing as a prostitute, to getting arrested for reckless driving and driving on a suspended license (three times over), Andray has had plenty bumps in the road, somewhat validating why he was overlooked by many GMs en route to slipping to the second round out of high school.

Read more »