Believe it or not, in the clip you are about to see, Charles Barkley doesn’t even talk about the trade that Mark Cuban just fleeced the Wizards for. Although, he surely will trash the move at some point.

In going down their All-Decade NBA lists and highlights, the TNT crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley couldn’t resist mentioning a specific sensitive moment in the Wizards’ failed history … The Michael Ruffin Ball Toss.

Ruffin’s infamous gaffe, the one where he tossed the ball in the air with around three-seconds left only to see Mo Peterson of the Toronto Raptors catch, shoot, and make a crazy buzzer beater to tie the game (the Wizards would go on to lose in overtime), wasn’t officially apart of any All-Decade list, but the guys could help but mention it.

“The second dumbest basketball play I’ve ever seen,” said Kenny Smith.

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Just over three minutes left in a close game, Wizards up by one point against an almost equally bad team, the thought crossed my mind….do I hope they lose?

I knew the Clippers and Kings, two of the other top three worst teams in the league, were playing each other last night. It would be “nice” to have better chances in the draft.

But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it left. All along, I’ve been against “tanking” or even hoping for more losses just for the possibility of maybe having a better shot at the top pick/Blake Griffin. It just doesn’t seem like good basketball karma, not like it matters with the Curse O’ Les Boulez anyway. But still, we’re talking principles…..principalities.

So eff the lottery it was, I was pulling for my Wizards to win, because that’s what fans do. And a win is what I thought we were getting when Juan Dixon squirmed for a layup with 47 seconds left, putting the Wiz up 96-90.

But nothing ever comes easy. Two straight Raptor threes later, the few of us on the Bullets Forever game thread were screaming for the ghosts of Anthony Parker, Michael Ruffin and Mo Peterson to be exercised.

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