Seeing that pro basketball fans are essentially suspended from the NBA due to squabbling amongst millionaires and billionaires, passing time might be aided by chronicling all NBA and team suspensions of the Washington Wizards since circa 1995. Why? Well, because we humans love stories about crime and punishment, and to most, the NBA lockout fits the bill for both.  So away we go (with old basketball cards to accompany on occasion)…

[Note: This listing is incomplete and unconfirmed for accuracy; information has been gleaned, copied and pasted from eskimo.com/~pbender and prosportstransactions.com with the understanding that all suspensions and fines might not have been publicized or reflected.]

1/5/95
Bernard King suspended by team for altercation with head coach at practice.

2/3/95
Washington suspended Kevin Duckworth for 3 games for not staying in good physical condition.

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Links, pictures and commentary… (Worth noting: I’m not into April Fools’ Day jokes, in case you were wondering.)

Sure, new media darling Othyus Jeffers got dunked on by LeBron James on Wednesday, but…

…Othyus took it like a good sport, getting a good smile out of it before LeBron even landed on the ground. Ask Jeffers about it (I didn’t), and I bet he’d honestly say, “It’s just basketball.”

And in that, he is right. Getting dunked on is bound to happen, no biggie (if you’re comfortable with being immortalized on the Internets). Life needs good sports, and Jeffers is just that. Can’t say the same about the perpetually crying and bitching LeBron. Can’t believe Ted Leonsis let him endorse his book with a quote.

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The Wizards take on the Raptors in Toronto tonight, still aiming to win their first road game of the year … and they’ll be doing it without Hilton Armstrong.

In a November 24 poll, when the Wizards were 0-6 on the road instead of the current 0-8, 33-percent of voters said the Wizards would notch their first road win tonight against the Raps. My dad recently told me that he thought the Wiz would get their first roadie in Sacramento — in that case, you’ll have to wait until December 8, when the Wizards would face the Kings with an 0-11 record on the road. The NBA: Where Amazing Happens.

Anyway…

Let’s look back and break down the play of the night from Monday’s game versus the Miami Heat. This one involves none other than Gilbert Arenas and Andray Blatche running a pick-and-roll, one where Blatche actually rolls to the basket. Imagine that.

Also imagine something else for a second … the Orlando Magic discussing a Vince Carter for Arenas swap with the Wizards, at least this is what’s being reported by the Orlando Pinstripped Post (h/t: Bullets Forever), also indicating that the trade could involve Blatche, Rashard Lewis and Daniel Orton as well. Read more »

[Juwan Howard gets roasted by several Andray Blatche head shakes.]

Monday night’s matchup between the Miami Heat and the Washington Wizards could have easily been dubbed the “something-has-to-give” game. The Heat front-court (Chris Bosh, Joel Anthony, Zydrunas Illgauskas, the now-injured Udonis Haslem, the recently-added Erick Dampier, and to a much less extent, Juwan Howard) have developed a reputation of being soft, and with good reason.

Emeka Okafor went for 26 points and 13 rebounds; Amir Johnson, who has been a major disappointment this year despite the 5-year, $34 million contract, went for 14 points; Zach Randolph had 21 points and 13 rebounds; Tyson Chandler had 14 points and 17 rebounds; and first prize in the “I-torched-the-Heat” contest went to Paul Millsap, who had 46 points and 19 rebounds in an overtime loss.  The point here is that dealing with semi-skilled to skilled big men is clearly not the strength of Miami.

On the flip side, the Washington Wizards are not exactly known for the play of their big men.  Andray Blatche is the only big averaging in double figures (16.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game), although JaVale McGee is close (9.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game).  Sixty-percent of the Wizards’ scoring comes from John Wall (18 points per game), Gilbert Arenas (18 points per game), the red-hot Nick Young (12 points per game), and Kirk Hinrich (10.9 per game).  When you throw in the fact that McGee came into the first match-up against Miami with a bad back, which meant more time for Hilton Armstrong (two points and three rebounds per game) and Kevin Seraphin (averaging two points and two rebounds in the five games he’s appeared in), it figured to be challenging game.

In the first quarter, Blatche played as if he was hell-bent on taking advantage of the scouting report. Fifteen seconds into the game, he hit a short jumper over Illgauskas, and even though he missed his next couple of shots, he did not stop attacking.  All of the patented moves that Blatche attempts with varying degrees of success (the behind-the-back move, the up and under, the hard drives off the dribble) were on display, and they seemed to be working.  Chris Bosh, Joel Anthony and Juwan Howard all tried to contain Blatche, but to no avail.  He had 10 points and two rebounds after one quarter of play.

Hilton Armstrong took one shot in the 6:54 he played in the first, and McGee did nothing but pick up a foul in the other 5:56.  The score at the end of the quarter was 24-21 in Miami’s favor.

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The Wizards played well against the Heat in Miami on Monday evening, they just didn’t have enough mustard to truly compete against superior talent. They lost 105-94 in a game that wasn’t exactly as close as the final score indicated, yet the final score also indicated the decent level at which a depleted Washington squad competed for the full 48 minutes. Hey at least the Wizards tried in tying a franchise worst 0-8 start on the road. Here’s a screen shot revue of the game … more to come.

“You’ve heard of the show ‘CSI: Miami’? How about ‘OMG: Miami?”
-Steve Buckhantz, pre-game

Buck and Phil Chenier were impassioned about their Wizards as usual on their first post-Thanksgiving road trip, and we ought to be thankful for that.

Nick Young, featuring a less-smiley game face.

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Ira Winderman of the Miami Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Juwan Howard is close to signing with the Miami Heat (H/T to Slam). Finally, after all these years, Juwan will be playing for Pat Riley and the Heat. When the agreement goes through, as pointed out by Winderman, it will mark almost 14 years to the day when Howard signed a $100-plus million contract with Miami, which was later voided by the NBA, granting Howard a return to the Washington Bullets.

I wrote extensively about Howard’s tumultuous tenure in Washington (and 1996 flirtation with Miami) back in April. Him going to the Heat now seems kind of weird, an anti-poetic justice (for Washington fans, not so much for Miami fans). And even though Howard’s agent, David Falk, said the “Cold War” between him and the Wizards was over back in mid-June, he’s surely taking some devious satisfaction over the late Abe Pollin’s former franchise that he’s finally ushered Howard to South Beach to win a championship.

And I suppose this also means that the proctologist has finally removed the NBA’s 17-foot pole from Pat Riley’s rear.

A home for Shaun Livingston?

K.C. Johnson of Chicago Breaking Sports is reporting that the Chicago Bulls have had internal discussions about adding Shaun Livingston to their roster to backup Derrick Rose (H/T to Bulls Confidential and @ShamSports).

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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.

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On April 22nd, I held a Wizards trivia contest to win one of two copies of Stumbling On Wins: Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports by Dave Berri and Martin Schmidt, or some Wizards swag … which, as you can see from the pictures above is a pair of fuzzy Wizards/Zephyrs dice. Fancy, huh?

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?

• Bob Staak
• Bernie Bickerstaff
• Jim Lynam
• Wes Unseld
• Jim Brovelli

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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.

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Seven third quarter Gilbert Arenas turnovers led to eight Dwyane Wade points on five total shots … evidently Arenas said wasn’t getting calls from the refs, or something like that.

Arenas also said:

“I’m always upset when I have turnovers. I’d rather just shoot the ball and get the attempts than get the turnovers.”

Arenas’ 12 total turnovers for the game broke a franchise record that has stood for over 20 years (regular season or playoffs, on either participating team).

Bob Dandridge committed 11 turnovers against the Golden State Warriors (Arenas’ first team) on February 7, 1978 … which also happens to be Juwan Howard’s birthday.

The most turnovers Howard ever had in a Washington Bullets uniform occurred on December 19, 1995 against the Los Angeles Clippers. December 19th is also Tom Gugliotta’s birthday.

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So Michael Jordan made it to the Hall of Fame. Should we be surprised that he didn’t mention Abe Pollin and the Wizards amongst his list of competition fuel? Oh, that’s right, he hasn’t had much success at the management level, so no grounds to prove anyone wrong there. Although, I will admit that pawning off Juwan Howard and his silly contract on Mark Cuban was cigar-smoking smooth. Unfortunately the WaPost’s Michael Lee wasn’t afforded a chance to ask Jordan about the Wiz … it would have been nice to see his reaction to the question in the least.

I still stand behind what I wrote regarding Jordan’s induction speech. However, in discussing it with a co-worker, I’ll admit that he could have been more charming, while still recounting his motivational factors. But Jordan’s message was a conveyance of his personality, and since he’s not some basketball demigod to me, I could care less how he came across … opting to stick with my preference of honestly at face value instead.

[If it feels like I'm posting about Jordan too much lately, then good, we are on the same page. But like I've said before, we really won't have a chance to cover him this much again (until he passes). So, might as well get it out of the way now. And don't worry, there will be plenty on the Wizards of the future coming soon.]

Below is the best of what was said regarding Jordan’s tenure with the Wizards…

Suggested Michael Jordan/Wizards Reading

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The friendly bloggers (and their fans) at the Cleveland sports-based Waiting For Next Year have taken upon the task of creating a Mark Price-themed t-shirt (h/t Sporting News).

Price, the current Atlanta Hawks shooting coach, may still be right for Cleveland Cavaliers fans, but that’s far from the case for Wizards/Bullets fans.

A reminder of how the Cavs fleeced former Bullets GM, John Nash (from this May ’08 post):