ShareBullets… links, commentary, irreverence… and the team used to be call the Bullets.

>> Chris Webber played a single season in a Wizards jersey (1997-98, the rest were a Bullets jersey), and I documented this fact by recently purchasing a replica from Joint Custody, a vintage store in D.C.’s Adams Morgan. Somebody on the Twittermachine tweeted at me that Webber was “one of the worst Bullets ever.” Not quite.

Turning to Basketball-Reference.com, narrowing down a list those who have played at least 2,500 minutes in a Bullets/Wizards uniform and then ranking them by the worst Win Shares Per 48 Minutes, these would be your 10 worst of all-time:

1. Fred Carter >> 0.11 WS/48
2. Slick Leonard >> 0.11
3. Jordan Crawford >> 0.15
4. A.J. English >> 0.17
5. Mitchell Butler >> 0.20
6. Dominic McGuire >> 0.25
7. Doug Overton >> 0.26
8. Tom Hammonds >> 0.32
9. Juan Dixon >> 0.34
10. Jarvis Hayes >> 0.37

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Let me take you back in the history of basketball, one which we are certainly NOT doomed to repeat. To the 1920s, Washington, D.C. ….

Photos via Shorpy.com.

[1925. Bob Grody & manager Ray Kennedy, Palace Laundry]

[Feb. 15, 1926. Washington, D.C. Palace team, entry in the American basketball league, being taught Charleston by Vivian Marinelli. Left to right: Kearns, Manager Kennedy, Conway, woman playing piano, Miss Marinelli, Grody, and Saunders]

Last week a D.C. neighborhood blog, New Columbia Heights, posted some very old photos of a Washington pro basketball team from the 1920s, the Palace Five Laundrymen.

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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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