[Hilton Armstrong with his last NBA team, the Houston Rockets.]

Hilton Armstrong you say? Hilton Armstrong I say.

The Wizards have signed him to a 1-year deal for the veteran’s minimum of $992,680. I suspected something might be up as I stood watching the conclusion of the Mavericks-Bucks game, awaiting the Wizards-Clippers game. Armstrong was exchanging pleasantries with Wizards personnel, including Flip Saunders and VP of basketball administration Tommy Sheppard, that were much beyond a “Hi, how ya doin’?” Not long after, news of the signing made its way around the gym.

How should you feel about Armstrong? Well, let’s read a bit of what others have written about him.

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Sixteen losses in a row and counting. The Wizards showed some bright spots in Tuesday night’s loss to Houston, such as JaVale McGee. Actually, he was pretty much the only bright spot. Well, James Singleton played okay.

Andray Blatche’s 31 points, 10 rebounds, four steals, three assists and three blocks you say? Well, when you play 41 minutes and receive the ball ALL. THE. TIME. (he took 23 shots) you are supposed to put up those numbers. He still has too much Tin Man in him … no heart … especially when it comes to rebounding toughness.

The Wizards mostly showed that they did not deserve to win. I’m sure some are saying, ‘Hey, those guys competed without Foye, Thornton, Gee, etc.’ But the Rockets also competed without Kevin Martin, Shane Battier and Jared Jeffries. Plus, the Wizards were beaten by Chase Budinger. Enough said.

Nonetheless, below are the notes and observations I took/made as I watched the game on delay at my leisure.

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Okay. It’s not worth playing the “what if” game with Jermaine Taylor. You do remember Jermaine Taylor, right?

Jump back to June 25, 2009, the night of the NBA Draft and “this guy’s” (me) birthday. Oh yea, Michael Jackson died that day too.

Draft night was a bit anti-climactic for Wizards fans. They were already having paper goodness dreams of Randy Foye and Mike Miller teaming up with the Big Three, et al., also knowing that there was no way fan draft darling Ricky Rubio could slip to the departed fifth pick. Oh, wait …

In any case, pick #32 was worth paying attention to. Would the crafty Ernie Grunfeld, a man seemingly able to load his team with win-in-the-now veterans and promising youth (now with fleeting promise), find another second round gem a la Michael Redd?

“Anything is possible!!” Grunfeld screamed from the draft war room. “Loading up the pump, I’m loading up the Uzis, I’ve got a couple of M-16s, couple of nines, couple of joints with some silencers on them, couple of grenades, got a missile launcher. I’m ready for war,” said Grunfeld, quoting Kevin Garnett under the tutelage of Flip Saunders. [Note: Grunfeld did not say any of this.]

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After Tuesday’s game against the Rockets, James Singleton said, “After every game I go home and watch film. I look at more of the negatives than the positives because the positives are going to happen. But the negatives you want to keep to a small minimum.”

And while there isn’t any adjusting I can personally do for this Washington Wizards basketball team, these screen-shot posts tend to focus on the negatives for the same reason outlined by Singleton. The positives are going to happen because that’s what the Wizards are trying to do. I want to know when they weren’t trying. And away we go…

“This” guy.

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On Christmas day, Yahoo’s Marc Spears reported, according to at least one NBA executive, that the Wizards were “open for business.” Of course, this could simply mean that Ernie Grunfeld has fielded a call, or made a call, and has had a discussion involving the potential possibilities past “hello.” You know, pretty much doing the job a general manager of a team falling way below expectations should be doing in gauging the value of his players.

No biggie and certainly to be expected despite the initial judgement phase of 20 games being extended to 40 games by Flip Saunders, which is probably a reflection of Grunfeld’s thinking … or at least the message the team president of basketball operations wants to convey to the media and the players.

Spears also reported that Gilbert Arenas is on the table and that the Wizards think highly of JaVale McGee and are unlikely to include him in a deal unless the pot is really sweet.

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{via Sports Illustrated Vault}

An unfortunate part about being a Wizards/Bullets blogger and only 29 years old (and only having moved to DC in 1990), is that timing has deprived my memory and knowledgeable grasp of franchise history. But we all depend on people before us to tell the stories we don’t know. The more accounts there are, the better depiction we get of what actually transpired. This is what’s so great about team blogs, or “sites” maintained by sources which not apart of main stream media. They provide a more in depth view from wider angles, making the lore that much better for the future.

For my last birthday, a friend gave me ‘The Great Book of Washington, D.C. Sports Lists‘, written by Andy Pollin and Leonard Shapiro and published in 2008. These two guys have an insanely close relationship with sports in the city I love, and they turned to even more brilliant minds for assistance when composing their lists. While the book doesn’t exactly satisfy my desire for Bullets history tid-bits (to be expected in a Redskins town), it comes highly recommended for its Washington sporting facts, which are considered mostly minutia by ‘official’ historical accounts, but extremely savory to serious fans.

In reading, which I still continue to do, some lists twice, I came across some eyebrow raising commentary regarding the relationship between Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I previously had little knowledge of Hayes outside of him being a great player, and a member of the ’78-79 championship team. I simply haven’t taken the time to dive into research about him as I’ve done for more contemporary figures during my fandom period (such as Kevin Duckworth, Robert Pack, Larry Stewart, Scott Skiles, and Haywoode Workman).

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It’s popular to associate the Wizards’ second round pick with pictures of cash these days.

straight cash homey - flickr/Steve Wampler

For the second year in a row, the Washington Wizards sold their second round draft pick. Good move? Bad move? It’s Washington Wizards Point, Counter-Point.

[previously on Point, Counter-Point: Why Didn’t The Wizards Get Vince Carter?] Read more »

Some links as I waste my Sunday away, preparing for a couple game sevens, wearing my smelly, dirty homemade Ron Artest shirt, hoping for a Rockets win, or two close games in the least.

This past week, the Washington Post hosted a roundtable of Wizards bloggers. Each blog weighed in on what the team should do at a given draft position. Pretty cool when you think about it … MSM and Bloggers hanging out and stuff.

Pick #1: Keith McMillian, Washington Post
Pick #2: Truth About It.net (this place)
Pick #3: Wizards Extreme
Pick #4: Bullets Forever
Pick #5: WizzNutzz

Misunderstanding Media
Detroit Pistons blog, Full Court Press (on mlive.com), cited four paragraphs from the Bullets Forever contribution on Wizards Insider. Problem being, author Dave Dial failed to accurately represent that it was a blogger roundtable. He quoted three paragraphs written by the Pradamaster of Bullets Forever and one from Michael Lee of the WaPost without distinguishing the two authors. Dial also led with, “The Washington Post’s ‘Wizards Insider’ gives more credence to the fact that if the Wizards do not land in the top two picks they will look to trade the pick,” which is inaccurate. Yes, it is well known that Ernie Grunfeld sees the pick as an “asset”, i.e., trade-bait. However, the roundtable was speculation, and not necessarily an official team report as Dial’s use of the word “credence” seems to implicate.

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As I’ve stated, Ron Artest was unjustifiably tossed from Friday night’s game against the Lakers, which has since been downgraded to a flagrant 1.

The best part about Arest’s ejection wasn’t the quiet exit, but in the midst of slapping dejected fives to anything that moved, Ronnie tossed one the cheerleader’s way, via her pom-pom, and moved on in a matter of fact manner.

Seriously. It’s supposed to be the EENNN BEEEE AAAAA playoffs. Teams send messages to each other. Let it be.

Instead, NBA refs get to be the ones sending messages. Is that what fans want? Doubt it.

So I’m watching Ron Artest, who was having a terrible ‘crazy pills = horrible shot selection’ Ron Artest kind of night in the first place, get kicked out of game three in Houston with a flagrant 2 for no apparent reason.

Hard foul on softy Gasol, no biggie … just a sharp knock of the ball out Pau’s hands, the Euro goes flop-flying, and all of a sudden it’s D-Day. Artest gets kicked out because there is less than a minute on the clock, the Lakers have the game in hand, and because he’s Ron Artest.

“I don’t think that was a flagrant …. You know, I’m an 80s baby, so that shoulda been two shots and be done with it.” -Kobe Bryant

Back to game two.

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