In terms of winning percentage and shooting, two kind of big things in basketball, this lockout-shortened season could be rock-bottom for the rebuild of the Washington Wizards. And in terms of record books and scoring, it is. They scored 64 points tonight against Chicago, a franchise all-time low, to 78 points for the Bulls. The previous Washington franchise low was 65 points scored in an away game against the New Jersey Nets on December 13, 2002.

The Wizards shot 31-percent from the field on Wednesday in Chicago, at least they shot 36.6-percent that night in New Jersey — and Michael Jordan and Larry Hughes were chucking up shots (14-34 FGs, 31 points combined) instead of Jordan Crawford and Nick Young (6-23 FGs, 19 points combined).

Speaking of Young and Crawford, their shooting and passing stats this year:

>Crawford is shooting 33.3% from the field
while averaging 17.9 FGAs per 36 minutes as well as 3.6 assists/36.

>Young is shooting 37.7% from the field
while averaging 16.8 FGAs per 36 minutes as well as 1.7 assists/36.

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Wes Unseld doesn’t come around much anymore, and it has nothing to do with the lockout. We’re talking the house that Abe built, the Verizon Center.

Sure, he’s part of the franchise’s alumni group and has a seat “for life,” once blogged Ted Leonsis. This was in response to a oddity spewed by New York’s own Peter Vecsey in January 2011, saying Unseld’s season tickets had been “stripped” from him. Dan Steinberg aptly described the curious case on the DC Sports Bog, as both Leonsis and Unseld denied such; and as Mike Wise said, “Let’s put it this way, Tony Kornheiser’s not an evil human being. He has an evil side to him, but he’s not an evil human being. But Peter Vecsey is Satan incarnate.” Always nice to have Kornheiser involved.

Still, season tickets or no season tickets (after all, someone, somewhere had to be miffed enough to drop of a nugget for Vecsey to run with, unconfirmed), Unseld was no where near as present at games last season as he used to be, when Pollin was owner. And that’s okay. He was Abe’s guy. Constancy is neither sacred, nor a vice. Plus, sometimes in life there are other things to do.

New can always be found without the old, but often can’t be appreciated without what’s already been done. And that’s why on this Wednesday, we appreciate Wes, just as the Washington franchise and fans of the franchise always will.

Wes and Connie Unseld.

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Sit back folks. I know it’s hard to digest losing the opportunity to watch John Wall, Jan Vesely, usually JaVale McGee, Trevor Booker, Jordan Crawford, Nick Young, Chris Singleton, and others play basketball for the Washington Wizards. It’s the pits. On the other hand, I shrug my shoulders. What else are those who will inevitably return to the game when they start playing again supposed to do? We get ready for the long haul.

But don’t worry folks, this site will carry on just fine. Friends have asked me what I’m going to do during the NBA Lockout. One, I’m going to miss taking pictures at games. There’s nothing like being right there, and photography from the baseline has, at least for me, allowed for new ways to express basketball from different visual perspectives. I’ll also miss the ability to interview players about things that don’t necessarily pertain to basketball or the game at hand — Christmas presents, nicknames, clothing/shoes, and those who never made it being some of the topics.

And that’s what this Wizards-related website often is all about… an outlet for creativity, no matter the pixel medium. So while there will be no games for a long time, it seems, basketball doesn’t go away. There’s history, there’s some old games to break down, there’s forgotten about projects that deserve attention. Of course, all of this as time with regular life allows. But to exist, we certainly don’t need NBA basketball. They’ll be back, one day.

Dave Stallworth

Dave Stallworth was born in Dallas, Texas on December 20, 13 days after Pearl Harbor. He is one of the all-time greats out of Wichita State. Better than Xavier McDaniel, once wrote Bob Lutz of The Wichita Eagle. For that matter, I suppose, better than Antoine Carr, Cliff Levingston, and Cheese Johnson, who is not to be confused with Cheese Wagstaff.

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If you follow @Truth_About_It on Twitter, you’ll often see a lot of random stuff, but lately you might have also noticed a personally renwed interest in old NBA collector’s cards, some of which I’ve shared with the hash-tag #oldNBAcards. Of course, “old” is relative — most of what I’ve shared comes from the 1990s. However, this past weekend I came across some even older cards (as in, from the early 70s, just under a decade before I was born), specifically pertaining to the Baltimore Bullets.  And this Friday, I’m here to share with you Stan Love… perhaps the first bro/dude in team history. Let’s bask in the glow of a Love card from 1972, then a bullet point run-down on the former Bullet, and finally, another Love card from 1973. Enjoy and Happy Friday.

• Stan Love, from Los Angeles, California, was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets with the 9th overall pick out of the University of Oregon in 1971 — Love was also drafted by the Dallas Chaparrals of the ABA, but opted for the NBA. 
• Love said he found out about being drafted on the radio while driving on a California interstate, said he had to pull over on the side of the road and look at a map to see where Baltimore was.
• Love’s older brother, Mike, was a founder of the band, The Beach Boys; other group members, Dennis Wilson and Brian Wilson, were cousins of the Loves.
• Love had a decorated college career playing for the Ducks (he was inducted into Oregon’s Hall of Fame in 1994), but his time in the pros was relatively disappointing.
• He played two seasons with Baltimore, was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Truck Robinson in the summer of 1973, played a season and a half in L.A., at which point he was waived and later picked up by the San Antonio Spurs (then of the ABA) for 12 games before retiring from basketball in 1975.
• Over four pro seasons, Love appeared in 239 games, averaged 14.7 minutes, 6.6 points on .440 field-goal shooting, and 3.9 rebounds.
• He partied with Phil Jackson — from the 2001 book More Than A Game, co-written by Jackson and Charley Rosen, this part penned by Rosen: “I first met PJ at a postgame party in the spring of 1973 in his loft on West Nineteenth Street, brought there by a mutual friend, Stan Love, a six-foot-nine well-credentialed hippie and part-time power-less forward for the Baltimore Bullets.”
• Other terms across the Internet used to describe Stan Love include: flaky, kooky, goofy, feisty, wacky, California surfer dude, etc.
• Two stories on Love are conveyed in a 2009 piece on BaltimoreStyle.com: 1) “At a game in Milwaukee, he impersonated Tarzan by hanging on the rim after a dunk long enough for the Bucks to score on the other end. All he drew for his effort was a technical,” and 2) “Another time in Baltimore, he was knocked to the floor. [Gene] Shue sent in a replacement. Instead of rising and walking back to the bench, Love “rowed” himself across the floor like an Olympic skuller.”
• Love thought so much of teammate Wes Unseld’s ability, especially his rebounding and outlet passing prowess, that he made the middle name of his son, Kevin, “Wesley” — of course, Unseld’s first name is really spelled “Westley,” but the intent was there.
• Kevin Love, another of course, is that guy in the NBA you often hear so much about — like when he was a 2011 All-Star, the 2011 NBA’s Most Improved Player, and that 30 point/30 rebound game he had last November.
• In March 2008, after seeing Kevin Love play for U.C.L.A., Unseld had this to say: “Passing skill is something you learn. It’s not something you’re born with. Kevin’s had a good teacher in his dad. Stan was a very good player, but he was just a space cadet. Stan was completely different from me, but I loved throwing passes to him so he could score. If Stan scored you could keep him out of trouble.”
• When Love retired from the NBA in ’75, he went on to work as a bodyguard for the Beach Boys, also being tasked as an assistant to Brian Wilson, and to keep Wilson out of trouble and drug free. That didn’t always work out according to various well-known stories and lore, not necessarily by the fault of Stan, however.
• That’s life, kid.
• One Love.

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Weekend pictures of Baltimore and stories from its past with pro basketball…

1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, MD (formerly the Baltimore Civic Center and the Baltimore Arena).

Box of Natty Boh – Soliders and Sailors Monument, W. 29th St. & N. Charles Ave., Baltimore.

Baltimore City Hall.

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Manute Bol, as we further came to realize with his passing in June 2010, was a vastly unique and complex character. The posthumous coverage, as it often does in these instances, helped us peel back the layers of his multifaceted life in order to gain closure with understanding and appreciation.

Most records indicate that Bol was drafted by Bob Ferry, then GM of the Washington Bullets, with the 31st overall pick (seventh in the second round) of the 1985 NBA Draft. Lesser noticed records indicate that Bol was first drafted 97th overall in the 1983 draft (fifth round) by the San Diego Clippers. The selection was sparked by ex-Bullets coach (from 1994-97) Jim Lynam no less, who at the time was head coach of the Clippers. But Bol was not afforded the opportunity to play for Lynam in his first season at the helm of an NBA team, along with the oft-injured Bill Walton in the franchise’s last go-round in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles. The pick was subsequently voided because Bol hadn’t officially declared for the draft.*

Lynam’s intrigue with seven feet and seven inches would later be Ferry’s gain, after Bol spent time at the University of Bridgeport followed by a small appearance with the Rhode Island Gulls of the USBL.* As a blogger, I’m also obliged to mention that the ’85 Bol draft was the same year the Bullets took Kenny Green with their top pick at No. 13; Karl Malone went to the Utah Jazz at 14.

Bol’s first three seasons in Washington, spanning from 1985 to 1988, were before my time as a fan of the franchise. I do, however, fondly recall Bol’s second stint with the Bullets, a mere 10 days in 1994.

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[Emery Rec Center - NW Washington DC - photo: K. Weidie]

I’ve previously used historical statistical analysis in an attempt to determine who were some of the best, and worst, shooters in Wizards/Bullets franchise history.

One post explained that Slick Leonard might have had to worst shooting season in franchise record books. As a member of the ‘61-62 Chicago Packers, Leonard threw up 1,128 shots, second most on the team after Walt Bellamy, but only made 37.5-percent of them. In a nine team league that season 30 players attempted 1,000 or more field-goals, and Slick was the worst of them all.

Others, such as Kevin Loughery and Mitch Richmond, have cemented themselves as some of the worst shooters beyond the window of just one season. Loughery, over 591 career games played with the team in Baltimore, made only 41.5-percent of his 9,209 FG attempts. Richmond, who adeptly bastardized any memories of trading Chris Webber into scorn from fandom toward his aching knees, made just 41.7-percent of the 2,356 shots he took as a Wizard. To note, Loughery and Richmond were two of 26 players in franchise history to play in 160 games or more with the team and average over 15 field-goals attempted per 36 minutes.

Another post noted that Gilbert Arenas is the best long-range bomber in team history, and that some of the franchise’s better shooters — over various time periods, from everywhere on the court… twos, threes and ones — have been Brent Price, Mike Miller, Scott Skiles, Chris Whitney, Tracy Murray, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.

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A developing lockout trend amongst those with an online presence and interest in the NBA has been to scan/photo old basketball cards and share them on the world wide web.

Some say we are doomed to repeat the past, in the future, if we don’t remember it (or something like that). I say the past is also great for present-day zingers, which is why I’m sure I’ll take part in basketball card scanning in the future (which, one really only needs the summertime to do, not necessarily a lockout – there’s also the fact that my sports cards are spread out between my apartment in D.C., a dad’s house, a mom’s house (both in other states), and a friend’s house in Virginia).

Anyhow, in lieu of those old basketball cards, today, I’m here to share with you some Washington Bullets posters from yesterday, equally worthy of nostalgic zingers, if not more so.

What you are about to gander upon (and please excuse the impromptu, perhaps hard-to-view photos of old-tymey wrinkled posters) comes courtesy of Wizards veteran Basketball Facilities Manager Jerry Walter. Jerry just completed his 20th season with the organization in his current area, but has been working home games in some capacity in upwards of 28 years. He is always polite, often wishing folks a good morning no matter what time of day it is, and when famished reporters await outside of the Wizards’ practice court for interview access, Jerry almost always offers, nay, insists that they hydrate with a cup of water.

Near the end of this past season, Jerry brought in some of old franchise posters as a kind display of his glorious endurance with one of the more hapless franchises in the NBA. (Yes, we know there is a plan to change all of this — the haplessness — but admittedly, by said team proprietors, it’s a process that ain’t easy. So until that happens, hapless fans of Les Boulez we will be.)

Nonetheless, many thanks to Jerry for the history. Because it’s not all always about preservation, but rather simply knowing the fact that the past exists (or existed — I’m still not sure how time works thanks to Through the Wormhole hosted by Morgan Freeman).

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The Washington Wizards unveiled their new look and feel on Tuesday during an event held on the team’s practice court. The feedback on the fresh gear has been universally positive and hardly anyone is showing remorse for the Wizard man logo dying a slow death. While I am more concerned about the team avoiding another bottom five NBA finish for a fourth straight season, I understand the significance of the franchise moving the brand into a modern direction with the Monumental ownership group. The red, white and blue colors will hopefully provide the tormented fan-base a much needed boost.

The following video contains footage of the debut, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis’ comments on the change, Jordan Crawford’s feelings about the uniforms, and an assessment from fans buying new merchandise at the team store on the day of the unveiling. Enjoy.

[Apologies to the fan whose name and info I was unable to gather.]

Pictures.

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This is Mike Bibby, son of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, 32-year old member of “Team Dime” and post-game interview backwards hat wearer. Such an unwilling member of the Washington Wizards Bibby was, that on Monday he surrendered a scheduled payment of $6.2 million dollars for the 2011-12 season so he could relinquish hammer and hard hat contributions to Ted Leonsis’ rebuilding project. The Washington team owner subsequently called it, “a piece of unexpected and positive news for our franchise.”

Bibby might have avoided giving his only post-game home locker room interview as a member of the Wizards after a loss to the Dallas Mavericks last Saturday night had I not stopped him as he made his way toward the exit; most other members of the Washington professional basketball press corps were busy giving their attention to another member of Bibby’s now former team. In his answers, Bibby referred to the young Wizards team more as “they” than “us” — understandable, supposedly.

In the exclusive video below, Bibby talks exclusively to those allowed access to the Wizards locker room and answers a question, exclusively asked by someone else,  about getting into the scoring record book for the Washington Wizards, in a less than exclusive manner (as I’ll soon explain).

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{John Wall looks for Kevin Seraphin - photo: K. Weidie}

{Wall looks for a trailing Andray Blatche - photo: K. Weidie}

In contrast to John Wall dropping a Rookie-Sophomore game record 22 assists on Friday night, an NBA team achieving single digits in assists over the course of a regular season game is a pretty rare feat. According to the Basketball-Reference.com database, it’s occurred just 194 times since the 1986-87 season (the extent of BBR’s game box score database). So in roughly 0.3-percent of NBA games over the last 25 seasons. And of course, your Washington Wizards did just that on Wednesday night in Orlando, tallying a mere eight dimes divided up amongst Kirk Hinrich, who had three, along with one each from and John Wall, Kevin Seraphin, Josh Howard, Andray Blatche and Hilton Armstrong.

Teams have now put up a single-digit assist total five times this season. The Orlando Magic dropped  five assists in a 26 point loss to the Miami Heat in just their second game on the 2010-11 season (the day after Orlando blew out the Wizards by 29 points in their season home opener). The Magic also had just nine team assists in a 80-74 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on December 6, 2010. The Portland Trailblazers had eight assists in a 100-86 loss to the New York Knicks on January 11, 2011. And surprisingly enough, Chris Paul’s New Orleans Hornets put up a league season low four assists for a team in a 88-70 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on December 12, 2010.

The Wizards last achieved the single-digit assist mark with nine on December 23, 2008 against the Charlotte Bobcats. That game, Mike James started at the point and went 4-16 from the field with one assist. DeShawn Stevenson and Nick Young were the only guards off the bench and Caron Butler led the team with four assists.

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The faces on the cardboard classics below say: “Hey man, we’re trying over here.”

I’m not sure I believe them all. Or maybe one is trying more than the others … at least as much as a frozen facial expression can indicate. But who’s trying the most? Or which player’s face from the past provides the most hope in the present for the future? Study carefully and vote in the poll below.

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This Skybox basketball card commemorates Darrell Walker‘s rebounding prowess as a guard for the Washington Bullets in the early 1990s. In ’90-91, Walker led all guards with 7.8 rebounds per 36 minutes, amongst those who played at least 15 minutes per game and achieved at least 400 rebounds. When strictly looking at per game stats, according to the search results at Basketball-Reference.com, Tyrone Corbin of the Minnesota Timberwolves averaged more rebounds per game as a guard, but he was more a swing-forward to Walker’s true ability to play the point. [Note: Rounded, both Walker and Magic Johnson averaged 7.0 boards per game in '90-91, but Walker was a fraction above Magic.]

In Washington Bullets/Wizards franchise history, according to BBR, only four guards have played in more than 60 games in a season, averaged over 25 minutes per game and over five rebounds per 36 minutes. Those players were: Larry Hughes (’02-03 to ’04-05), Michael Jordan (’01-02 and ’02-03), Darrell Walker (’88-89 to ’90-91) and Earl Monroe (’67-’68).

From the BBR database spanning from 1946-47 to the present day, only two NBA guards have appeared in more than 70 games, had a Total Rebounding Percentage (TRB%: an estimate of the percentage of available rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor) above 13-percent and a Defensive Rebounding Percentage (DRB%) above 20-percent.

Those two guards are Jason Kidd (2006-07: 13.2 – TRB%; 20.8 – DRB%) and Darrell Walker (1989-90: 13.4 – TRB%; 20.4 – DRB%).

I mention all of this not just to put a classic basketball card of a guard yearning for a rebound on display, but to also note that this season’s Washington Wizards are the tied with the Phoenix Suns for the second worst DRB% in the entire NBA at just 70.6-percent. The Golden State Warriors secure an estimated league-worst 68.5-percent of the defensive rebounds available to them.

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[People joked how Saturday's win in Washington over the Celtics was a road game, but Andray Blatche found some friendly fans courtside to celebrate with after the game ... I doubt he'll get the same reception from Spike Lee in Madison Square Garden tonight.]

{photo: K. Weidie}

The most losses an NBA team has achieved in an 82-game NBA schedule?

The 1990-91 Sacramento Kings went 1-40 on the road … the 2010-11 Washington Wizards are halfway there, in the loss column at least.

But as history is, well, history … the one road win for those Kings came against the Washington Bullets in Landover, MD on November 20, 1990. The zinger is that the 34-year old Bernard King had 45 points that night, but the Bullets fell 87-82 — they played in front of a reported 6,105 fans at the Capital Centre (from Sam Davis’ game report in the Baltimore Sun).

Only two other Bullets scored in double figures, Darrell Walker had 10 and Harvey Grant had 14. The rest of the team pitched in a whole 13 points, seven from the bench. On the Kings’ side, the late Wayman Tisdale led five Sacramento players in double figures — including Lionel Simmons (14), Travis Mays (13), Rory Sparrow (11), and Antoine Carr had 15 points off the bench.

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Ted Leonsis has been extra attentive toward celebrating the history of his new pro basketball franchise. There was the establishment of an official team alumni association back in early October 2010, headed by Bob Dandridge, among several other events featuring franchise greats — such as alumni appearances at the team’s training camp fan fest, having Earl Monroe speak to the team at training camp, co-hosting viewing parties with alumni association members at Kevin Grevey’s restaurant in Falls Church, VA, recognizing various association members (Dandridge, Grevey, Jack Marin, Kevin Porter and Michael Adams) at a home game in December and having Elvin Hayes visit with the team on a recent two-game road trip in Texas. The older fans I’ve spoken with absolutely love this stuff.

Now, the team has announced that they will unveil a new trophy case near section 100 before Friday’s game versus the New Jersey Nets. The case, according to the team press release, will feature new graphics and a refurbished Tiffany & Co. trophy celebrating the 1978 championship. A picture of the case, courtesy of the Wizards’ official FaceBook page, can be seen above. Another can be found on the Wizards.com website.

Leonsis is going above and beyond the call of duty, which makes a recent visit from Peter Vecsey’s slinging fecal matter regarding an inaccurate report of his that Unseld was “stripped” of his season tickets by Leonsis all the more curious … or not, because it’s Peter F-ing Vecsey. Dan Steinberg covered this incident extensively on the DC Sports Bog and Leonsis posted a response on his blog as well. Essentially, through this incident, Vescey further exposed himself for the ugly wart that he is … which we pretty much already knew. So, who cares? Vescey just needs to go away.

Moving on past that noise, in my research of the forgotten 1976-77 NBA dunk contest, I came across a YouTube user, WiltatKansas, who had posted a couple videos of Wes Unseld in high school. The first video below is of the 1963 Kentucky state championship between Seneca (Unseld’s high school) and Dunbar. The second is of the 1964 Kentucky state championship featuring Seneca versus Breckenridge County. Seneca won both games.

The footage is pretty grainy (the first video is in black and white), and there is no sound, but it’s not hard to spot big Wes wearing No. 31 in home white in both videos. (BTW, Free Darko/Bethlehem Shoals came across this last December and I’m only now remembering.)

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