Fact: No one composing this blog post knows where Christian Laettner is today. I’m sure someone knows, just not me. Here are a couple of pictures from when Laettner was last seen playing for the Washington, D.C. professional basketball franchise, with whom he appeared 206 games over three-plus seasons…
(disclaimer: most, some, or all of these pictures have come here courtesy of the Internet, a place(s) that you can get to by typing letters in the The Google.)
Here’s Laettner shooting a lay-up, except for the wrong way:
Here’s Laettner’s mug shot-esque photograph in a retro Washington Bullets uniform while he’s about to sneeze:
The Wizards are 0-6 on the road so far on the season, but they are treating faithful fans to a 5-2 record at home. The last time the team started 0-6 away from home came in 2008-09, they won road game No. 7 against the New Jersey Nets on December 2, 2008. The worst before that came in 2006-07 when the Wizards started 0-8 on the road before beating the Knicks in New York on December 6 … and actually, that represents the worst road start in franchise history.
The 1961-62 Chicago Packers, technically the first season in franchise history, actually started their season 0-8 “away from home” — in that their seventh game of the season versus the New York Knicks took place in the neutral territory of Detroit, Michigan. The Packers won their eighth “true” road game, ninth “away from home” against those same Knicks in New York on November 21, 1961.
Of course, current team personnel doesn’t consider those two seasons in Chicago (’61-62 as the Packers and ’62-63 as the Zephyrs) as part of the franchise’s history that counts. If they did, we’d be celebrating the franchise’s 50th season in existence this year. Instead, as a member of the Wizards’ PR team informed me a while ago, the franchise’s 50th anniversary will be celebrated two years from now, marking half a century since the franchise arrived in Baltimore, instead of when they actually started bouncing balls on courts.
So, with history potentially on the line, the Wizards have 10 road games left in 2010 — most are daunting, some not so much. Here’s the rundown: Read more »
What do you write after a team shoots 65.8% (50-76 field-goals) on their way to a 114-83 win over the Wizards?
Chalk it up to the Boston Celtics being a great-passing veteran team at home and the Wizards being a non-passing, relatively inexperienced team on the road and move on, I suppose.
Oh, lest I forget a stat fact that you’ll surely be made aware of by others: the Boston Celtics had 32 assists, the Washington Wizards had 31 made field-goals.
But let’s go back to this field-goal percentage thing. It’s kind of like winning in overtime when you didn’t deserve it … a win is a win.
Sure, the Celtics were pretty hot and likely would have been scorching the nets against most teams on this very night on their own parquet floor. But 65% is 65% … this game won’t be exempt from the Wizards’ defensive statistical record no matter how in the zone the Celtics were.
[A crab cake and egg breakfast with a Bloody Mary and the Free Darko book at the Phillip's in the Baltimore-Washington airport -- no better way to spend time before a delayed flight.]
If you think you know professional basketball history and want to know more … if you faintly know pro ball’s past and want to be re-captured with tales instead of accounts … if you have any level of personal involvement with the NBA, the new Free Darko book, The Undisputed Guide To Pro Basketball History, is a must-read for you.
The souls of the Free Darko collective take many of stories we all know, and many we don’t, and weave them into intricate, seamless patterns that pull together pro basketball history like the Dude’s highly sought-out rug from the movie, The Big Lebowski, pulled together a room.
Want to know the last type of Cigar that Red Aurbach smoked during his career? Dutch Masters. Or how about what shoe Michael Jordan preferred before he was persuaded to sign with Nike? You’ll have read all the book’s side bar texts that quench your thirst for facts.
The Free Darko book reaches far below the surface and brings meaning to the court action like I’ve never seen before. Clean, tight depth that ranges from comparing the NBA’s statistical explosion in the early 1960s to the English agricultural revolution of the 1700s/1800s to a break down of the frequency of head hair styles/types (including facial) of the 1970s.
Not too long ago we took a look at some of the worst shooters in Bullets/Wizards franchise history. Now, especially since shooting is such a concern, we’ll take a look at some the best shooters in team history, specifically from the three-point distance.
[Basketball Court - Georgia Avenue/Howard University - photo: K. Weidie]
Last season was the 31th anniversary of the three-point shot in the NBA. Well, sorta. The three-point line was implemented on a trial basis for the 1979-80 season and set into permanent rule for the 1980-81 season. So, perhaps technically this season is the 31th anniversary of the three-point shot in the NBA. Nonetheless, stats on the shot have been kept for the previous 31 seasons and are available thanks to Basketball-Reference.com.
Kevin Grevey of the Washington Bullets hit the first three-point bucket in franchise history, on opening night against the Philadelphia 76ers at home on October 12, 1979. Evidently there is some dispute as to whether Grevey hit the first three in NBA history; Chris Ford of the Boston Celtics is usually credited with accomplishing this feat, which occurred on the same night.
In mid-September, ESPN.com contributor Tom Haberstroh made an attempt to determine the five worst players in the franchise history of each NBA team [ESPN Insider]. The requirements, along with the implementation of John Hollinger’s PER, were:
“… a player needed to have played at least 10 minutes per contest over the course of at least 100 career games with the franchise. Furthermore, we’ve added the “Bruce Bowen Corollary” to exempt players who started for championship teams.”
And while a standard qualification is necessary to measure across all teams, it’s still subjective. Any of us could find other players just as bad, or worse, using the database of Basketball-Reference.com. Today, I’ll focus on bad shooting players in franchise history.
ESPN.com currently has this “Franchise Five” feature going on for all NBA teams. Basically, they have an interactive page where visitors can vote for the “best” player in franchise history at each position (PG, SG, SF, PF, C).
Here are the candidates:
Point Guard:
Gilbert Arenas, Rod Strickland, Archie Clark, Kevin Porter and Michael Adams
Shooting Guard:
Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Jeff Malone, Phil Chenier, Kevin Loughery and Don Ohl
Small Forward:
Bernard King, Caron Butler, Bob Dandridge and Calbert Cheaney
Manute Bol spent about all of his time as a Washington Bullet before I became a fan of the franchise upon moving to the District in 1990. I barely remember his six minutes and two games during a second stint with the team in the 1993-94 season.
Still, his lore as an NBA player, who was really much, much more as a person, lives on with me and many others. So while I unfortunately can’t recount any personal memories of Bol, who passed away at age 47 yesterday in Charlottesville, Virginia, I suggest you remember his legacy by reading the links and watching the videos below.
When the Bullets drafted him in the second round in 1985, he was measured at 7 feet 6¾ inches in his bare feet — usually rounded up to 7-7 — and he weighed a mere 190 pounds. Mr. Bol had limited basketball skills, but with a fingertip-to-fingertip wingspan of 8 feet 6 inches, he proved to be unusually adept at one aspect of the game: blocking opponents’ shots. Standing flat-footed, he could extend his hand above the rim of the basket 10 feet off the floor.
On a holiday weekend, where you will no doubt be eating in some sort of gluttonous manner, let’s take a quick look at just one of the rotund members of the Wizards/Bullets franchise’s past … Ledell Eackles.
I won’t be getting into too much of my own historical research and perspective on the player in this post … mostly because several great pieces on Eackles have already been written. Let’s take a look …
As offense off the bench, the late ’80s/early ’90s Detroit Pistons had “The Microwave,” Vinnie Johnson. The Washington Bullets had a 240 lb., 6’5 shooting guard who was never in shape, frequently disinterested in defense, and missed more practice than Allen Iverson.
The Wizards have zero chance of landing the fourth overall pick in tonight’s draft lottery. But the last time the team did have the fourth was in 1995 when they used it to select Rasheed Wallace out of North Carolina.
Those were the days when dreams were big and aims were high — ‘Sheed, Juwan Howard and Chris Webber, a murder’s row of bigs. But instead of success on the court, we are left cherishing the video clip below when Webber (not playing and suited) put a “I’m a rookie, kick me!” sign on Wallace’s back during a game (also not playing and suited). Ahh, the memories. Gheorghe Muresan is also shown not playing and suited.
On Friday I tweeted, “I am now the proud owner of a pair of autographed Juwan Howard shoes from when he played in Washington.” Now I’m here to share the pictures.
The shoes were won in a silent auction held at work created to benefit efforts in Haiti. My specific contribution went to Doctors Without Borders. The lady who donated them said her husband was an equipment manager for the team long ago.
Judging from this 2000-01 season basketball card where Howard is wearing the Nike Team Max Zoom, he probably wore these shoes in 1999-2000, which was statistically his worst season with the franchise and his last full one in Washington. Knowing that Howard was probably booed more wearing these shoes than any other pair/season in his career makes them extra historical, I’ll assume.
First, congrats goes to Thomas Pruitt and Wade Smith, the only two respondents to answer all nine trivia questions right. They both win a copy of the book. Also congrats to Marc Salmon, his email address was randomly selected from the entire pool of entries. Marc gets the lucky dice.
Now let’s go over the questions, answers and a bit of team history. In case you didn’t take part in the poll, I’m posting the answers at the bottom so you can take a guess at the questions if you feel so inclined.
#1 Which coach led the Washington Bullets in their ’97 1st round playoff matchup against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls?
To dunk, Juwan Howard had to make his body as straight as possible
and daintily place his off hand to his side.
More Cardboard Bullets are below, but first, please read the story of Juwan.
Last Sunday marked the 13th anniversary of Juwan Howard’s first ever NBA playoff game. Yes, that Juwan Howard and the appearance was with those Washington Bullets, who were bounced from the 1997 playoffs in three games by the cigar smoking Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls
Hard to believe Howard is still playing in the current NBA Playoffs. And despite 1,116 career regular season NBA games, he’s only appeared in 28 total playoff games and is set to appear in number 29 with the Portland Trailblazers tomorrow night.
Howard’s tenure in Washington was memorable, but forgettable. Taken fifth in the ’94 NBA Draft, his first year happened just before the NBA’s rookie contract scale, which was implemented in 1995, partially due to Howard, but mostly due to top pick Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson and his $100 million holdout demands.
Here’s a vision of Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld on Christmas day 25 years ago. Notice his semi-festive tie? Then again, Grunfeld is Jewish, so it probably wasn’t that festive. Here, Grunfeld is a ripe 29 years old, in his third season with the New York Knicks, which was also his second to last in the NBA.
So what’s Grunfeld doing? He’s checking out Bernard King score a Christmas day 60 points, albeit in a 120-114 loss to the New Jersey Nets, while sitting on the bench in street clothes, out with an injury.
