photo: K. Weidie

More than ever, media surrounding a professional sports team is a battle waged with pixels. Even winning franchises must deal with damage control, getting out feel-good messages about players, feeding the machine. But for teams like the Wizards, the task is even tougher.

Nothing looks good about this season, and fan frustration with team management is quickly coming to a head. Only one NBA team has accrued more losses over the reign of Ernie Grunfeld in Washington (since 2003, 458 and counting): the Minnesota Timberwolves (462). The T-Wolves, propelled by woulda/coulda/shoulda-been Wizards draft pick Ricky Rubio, beat the Oklahoma City Thunder last night—the team that everyone wants to be like. And the Houston Rockets, who managed to turn their roster over faster and more efficiently than the Wizards, are the surprise story of this NBA season.

Meanwhile, the Wizards are 3-20. Sure, there are a plethora of legitimate excuses—injuries (as always), youth, roster turnover, owner turnover, the list goes on…

And so it’s the thankless, unenviable job of team-fueled media—from television to radio to the owner’s blog—to pump out the positive pixels of puffery surrounding such a dead-in-the-water team. Somebody has to combat the cold, cruel vitriol—sometimes fueled by facts, sometimes fueled by fatigue, sometimes fueled by friggin’, frackin’ emotions in that people just want to be able to enjoy the basketball being played by their hometown professional team.

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Well, there is good news on the John Wall injury front. We think. After a visit to the doctor today, it has essentially been announced that John Wall can “do more stuff.”

Specifically, via team press release and New York City orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Altchek:

“John’s examination today showed improvement in his stress injury that will allow him to begin ramping up his activity level. There is still some irritation in the knee which we have treated over his last several visits with a series of three lubricating Synvisc injections, the last of which was given today. He will continue to be evaluated on an ongoing basis.”

After originally diagnosing John Wall’s “pre-stress fracture” as something which would cause him to miss “approximately eight weeks” in late-September, the team has now announced … well, nothing.

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Ultimately, it is what it is — Mike Miller style. What will be with the Washington Wizards will be. Until there are signs that that franchise is truly turning around, those who question “the plan” are obtuse outsiders without context. At least it seems this way, sometimes, as mistakes accrue and ownership looks to provide massaged reasoning via blog pixels.

It won’t be easy is a mantra, stay the well-intended course is the verse, and injuries are the narrative. It’s still hard to tell if something is direly amiss with the Ernie Grunfeld administration and how things are being evaluated in his second life. The track record barely needs mentioning to know how putrid it is. Now, the fires have been further inflamed by a reported trade that never happened.

The Washington Post‘s Michael Lee dropped a bombshell on Ted Leonsis’ pro basketball franchise on Tuesday evening, just as the Wizards were set to tip off against the Hornets in New Orleans. The quick gist is this tweet via @PostSports:

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Andray Blatche is doing good things in Brooklyn. So good that trolling the Wizards is easy. So good that he knows exactly when he will be ready to talk about a new contract.

We’re all too familiar with the fact that the Washington Wizards used the amnesty provision on Blatche this past summer. That no other NBA team made a full, or even partial, waiver claim on his contract. That Blatche signed with the Brooklyn Nets for a one-year, non-guaranteed deal worth about $850,000. That the Wizards are essentially on the hook for the remainder of Blatche’s amnestied contract, about $23 million over three years. Essentially.

So about the new contract that Blatche might want due to his good play with the Nets? Well, it’s too early to talk about all of it, he says. But, there will be a good time to discuss. We’ll let the New York Daily News take it away:

In an interview with the Daily News, the Nets center said he’d like to re-sign as a free agent next summer but understandably couldn’t commit to anything so early in the season.

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Those back home in the Czech Republic call Jan Vesely “Honza.” But why?

It’s not akin to a nickname in the traditional sense of the NBA. TAI’s Lukas Kuba (@Luke_Mellow) writes:

I’m not much into the origins of names, but probably it’s like the name “William” in English, a common nickname is Bill, Billy, etc. In Czech, it’s Jan > Honza, Honzik, Honzicek. The last two ones are mostly for little kids, and actually “Honza” is how you’d call a friend when talking to him/about him, it’s an informal name. I bet none of his friends calls him Jan.

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The Washington Wizards suck. No getting around that. They suck so bad that toward the end of Monday night’s loss, as the San Antonio Spurs wound down a 26-point lead, fans yelled for the defending Wizards to foul. Yes, Verizon Center faithful, those who had not yet headed for the hills, wanted the Spurs to shoot free throws. Why? So fans could have a chance to boo those free throws into misses; so they could potentially win free chicken sandwiches if a Spur missed both.

And then there’s Andray Blatche. Ted Leonsis and Ernie Grunfeld once had the idea of constructing a bridge to nowhere when they rewarded Blatche with a contract extension in 2010. Blatche returned the favor with lazy basketball and an unmotivated existence. Then the Wizards amnestied him last July. Of mice and men, of Andray Blatche.

But everyone had moved on. Well-wishers have expressed hope that Blatche would turn the corner. And he has, to an extent. In 12 games with the Brooklyn Nets, Blatche is sporting a career-high PER of 20.6, which is 26th best in the NBA this season amongst those who have played at least 200 minutes. Still, the revitalized Blatche will always carry with him the stigma of the past. Because the Internets say so.

And sure, Blatche is playing well, but it’s not rare that such evaluations of his nights show up on Nets blog, The Brooklyn Game (from Nov. 23rd): Read more »

[Editor's Note: dedicated Wizards fan, TAI reader, and current Atlanta resident (but from Maryland), Conor Dirks, attended Wednesday's heart-breaking loss to the Hawks at the Philips Arena. Below is Conor's account from the experience. Follow him on Twitter: @ConorDDirks.
-Kyle W.]

The pre-game scene in the ATL.

The process that I undertake in order to watch each Washington Wizards game here in Atlanta is a complicated one, and often mirrored in its tedium and futility by the game itself. But when the team comes to town, streaming the game on my television through a laptop propped upside down to keep it from overheating and having to get up every fifteen minutes in order to keep the screen saver from interrupting the crushing defeat just isn’t enough. So on Wednesday night, I ventured to Philips Arena to see my hometown team play a better team in a town I’ve lived in for the past three years.

But not before listening to some pre-game music: “Unhappy” by Atlanta’s own Outkast.

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Foxhall Rd & Q St. NW DC – photo: K. Weidie

Forgive D.C. sports fans for seeming gloomy – for feeling like there’s a dark cloud hanging over their heads.

Ok, maybe that’s just Hurricane Sandy. But after a sunny September that featured Robert Griffin III’s debut and some incredibly exciting baseball, October’s been much more depressing for local fans; a stomach-punch Nationals loss, the Capitals locked out, and several big injuries to the area’s best young players.

Will the Wizards give us a reason to smile? When the NBA season wrapped up about six months ago, TAI did its first Wizards Optimism Index – a survey of where the team stood, having just ended the 2011-2012 season on a six-game winning streak.

We weighed in using five factors, weighted to reflect their relative importance to the  state of the franchise. Read more »

Yao Ming’s last game as a Houston Rocket was significant, and it happened right before our eyes in Washington, D.C.

November 10, 2010. Rockets versus Wizards. Yao versus Yi (Jianlian) on NBA TV. Millions and millions watching back in China.

Ming started for the Rockets that night alongside Ish Smith, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Shane Battier. Houston’s bench featured Jordan Hill, Kyle Lowry, Chuck Hayes, Courtney Lee, Chase Budinger, and Brad Miller. Jared Jeffries did not play and on Houston’s inactive list was Aaron Brooks, Jermaine Taylor (who the Wizards once traded to the Rockets for cash instead of drafting DeJuan Blair), and rookie Patrick Patterson — John Wall’s teammate at Kentucky, taken 14th overall in 2010, and interestingly enough, born in Washington, D.C.

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Shelvin Mack races down the floor in training camp. Photo: K. Weidie

The Washington Wizards, well, aren’t doing too well this preseason. Randy Wittman’s bunch is also not a full bunch. Surely not the way coach wanted to start his campaign.

John Wall’s knee will continue to be a gargantuan question mark, even as his scheduled return date — toward the end of November — nears. What else would the preemptive resting of a 22-year-old because he was on his way to a stress fracture of the patella mean? It’s a major threat to Ted Leonsis’ rebuilding project until proven otherwise.

Nene is getting fitted for orthotics in order to tolerate the pain in his foot — and play — instead of showing off suits on the sidelines. Since players started convening in D.C. for training camp, Emeka Okafor has dislocated his finger, taken time off due to “rest/soreness” (per various box score reports), and has had a bout with food poisoning via a burger from the George Mason University hotel during training camp. (He’s playing now.) Trevor Booker, because of a hamstring pull, just played in his first preseason game last night (he played well). Kevin Seraphin has missed the last two preseason games with a calf injury. Jannero Pargo’s ribs, Chris Singleton’s shoulder — things happen.

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