Posts tagged ‘randy ayers’

It was easy to deduce that a certain jovial nature had returned to the Wizards’ clubhouse, one that had the DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg display a sense of giddiness as he exited the locker room after Tuesday’s win against Philadelphia.

Of course, this mostly started with the release of the team’s biggest character, Gilbert Arenas, which was thus reflected upon the team’s biggest smiley goofball, Nick Young.

The latest theme involved Young being placed in a box, on a shelf, to just gather dust. Now, who exactly placed Young in said box could be debated. It would be easy to assume that it was completely at the behest of the coaches. But given the amount and nature of chances Nick has been given this season, it’s better to conclude that he placed himself in the box. The coaches simply sealed him up with a minimal amount of tape.

Wizards fans now hope that Tuesday’s game wasn’t just Nick taking a peak out of the box and that he will jump out feet first. If he keeps playing disciplined defense like he did against Philly, and limits unnecessary dribbles, there’s no reason to believe why Young can’t mature as a third year player and build on his most recent effort.

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I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, almost since Eddie Jordan got fired from his gig with the Wiz. Well, now that he’s at the helm of the Philadelphia 76ers, this is an appropriate time as ever to publish.

My feeling is that a majority of Wizards fans think Jordan was unjustly fired (or at least weren’t dancing in the streets when he departed), and that even more wish him well.

Count me among both of these groups. Although, when he was terminated, I wasn’t like, “OMG! What an injustice!”

I was more disappointed with the entire landscape of the team, and later resigned to it just being ‘one of those things’, and in the end, maybe it was best that both parties moved on. But we’ll never really know.

In any case, here goes my tribute to Jordan’s basketball career (to date).

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If you like John Hollinger’s vaunted PER rating, you might believe that 2007-08 was the best season of Brendan Haywood’s career, his 7th in the NBA. Haywood’s PER rating 0f 18.3 was 1.1 points higher than his previous career best of 17.2, achieved his third season in the league, and 23.6% higher than the average PER (14.8) in his first six seasons.

It’s been my opinion that last season was a “breakout” year for Haywood, not only statistically speaking, but also in terms of maturity level. He and Eddie Jordan, also aided by the diplomacy of Randy Ayers, were able to bury the hatchet of past disputes, and Haywood showed up ready to play.

It’s also been my opinion that in previous seasons, Haywood has been a big ol’ softie. He earned the moniker “Brenda” and many shared the same qualitative observation. Since, I’ve stopped referring to Haywood as “Brenda” and have blogged a letter of apology in my ’07-’08 player evaluation of him.

However, some have contested that Haywood, statistically speaking, was good the whole time, and that his production was seemingly low because he didn’t get enough minutes, and Eddie Jordan was being a big ol’ meanie. Sorry, I can’t help but be facetious here … reason being, I’ve been in a semi-spirited discussion at Bullets Forever with the Pradamaster and Rook6980 over this very subject. I’m of the opinion that a man, and not necessarily the coach, controls his own destiny. I’ve also always thought Eddie Jordan to be a fair individual, and compliant EEOC style.

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