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OK, so it wasn’t ‘all’ about Nick. It was all about a poor showing from two teams that couldn’t care less. What had happened (at least according to Twitter)? Let’s check to story of Washington’s home finale loss to Philadelphia.
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 »
You know the scene in heist movies where the culprit-to-be is waiting for just the right moment to sneak past the rotating video surveillance cameras, or for the right time to dart past high-powered lasers as they focus their energies to burn/singe/kill intruders in another area of the fortress? Well, all that was kind of like what Jordan Crawford had to deal with as he attempted to go to the free throw line for Jan Vesely last night. Except instead of cameras or lasers, it was three NBA referees.
Let’s first take a look at the action in GIF form… Notice Crawford’s calculated, measured steps, which operate contrary to Crawford’s normal basketball modus operandi. Vesely doesn’t know exactly what to do, he just knows to accept as doctrine whatever the kid from Detroit says in this strange land called America.
The maneuver was actually successful, initially. Crawford even went so far as to make an actual free throw before parties responsible for keeping track of such things noticed. If it weren’t for the sideline referee and/or scorekeeper and/or those darn meddlin’ kids, Crawford might have gotten away with it, too. Instead, the violation was caught and corrected. Vesely, who had been fouled by Tyrus Thomas, went to the line and missed both. Actually, Vesely went on to miss four straight free throws. Actually, Vesely is 1-for-9 from the charity stripe on the season. Let’s check the extended video…
ShareBullets: links, shares, stories, and irreverence…
The San Antonio Spurs recently released some new, alternate jerseys, which you can find modelled above by Kawhi Leonard. Here is what the Internet thinks of them:
Rick Pych, president of business operations, Spurs Sports & Entertainment:
The new design simply features our iconic ‘spur’ logo and it is positioned over the heart as it has such enormously deep roots with our team, fans and the entire community. It’s the first-ever NBA jersey logo without any writing or peripheral design on the front of the jersey…
Kelly Dwyer, Ball Don’t Lie: Read more »
ShareBullets: things from around the web…
With the Wizards reportedly unwilling to pay anything more than the veteran’s minimum, John Singleton moving on and Roger Mason signing with the New Orleans Hornets represents cost-considered moves for the Washington franchise (see cliche phrase: “It’s a business”). In a sense, this is a disservice: not finding a way to reward the efforts of Singleton and Mason while offering some constancy to a young team. In reality, the Wizards weren’t offering much playing time. Shooting from Mason would have been nice, the same with the grit of Singleton, but with roster capacity now at 13 — and the need to see how all the new feature parts fit together first– the Wizards can afford to hold off on filling the last two available spots, per report of the Washington Post’s Michael Lee. Not retaining Mason and Singleton was not part of an ideal offseason plan for the Wiz, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t come along an inspire the team from the end of the bench just as well.
>> ESPN’s Marc Stein reports (via Twitter) that the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat are interested in Andray Blatche. Both are solid organizations and could help turn Blatche into something. Each city also drastically differs in nightlight options, which understandably could have a significant influence on the overall “Party All-Dray” experience. Blatche has for the past couple of offseasons made his home in Miami. So there’s that. San Antonio has the Riverwalk. Also:
“Everyone knows San Antonio is a great city… they do have some big ol’ women down here,” famously said Charles Barkley.
Destination Blatche: To Be Determined. Read more »
With the above tweet, Bradley Beal committed his first act of social media as member of the Washington Wizards. And social media reacted: Wizards fans, members of the Florida Gators basketball community, Beal’s family, and his new Wizards teammates — all more than happy with the outcome.
“Few of the guys have already reached out to me, so I’m starting to develop a relationship with the guys already,” Beal revealed at his press conference in Washington D.C. ”Trevor Booker texted me. I talked to John last night. Chris Singleton texted me saying ‘FSU’, I told him like ‘no way.’ Trevor Ariza texted me as well. All these guys have reached out to me and I am glad that they all have did that. It shows me that they care, and they are ready to get going.”
To the Tweets…
ShareBullets… links and random relevance…
[Capitol Rebuilding]
TAI’s Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) will be a judge at the Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown this Saturday at the National Capital Barbecue Battle in downtown Washington, D.C.
NOTE: Look, I don’t profess to know why Truth About It.net has found itself as the intermediary between Jordan Crawford’s Twitter account-cum-letters from camp as transcribed by the WizzNutzz… I just know that these things need a venue, which kind of makes TAI like a cross between Larenz Tate in The Postman and Larenz Tate in Dead Presidents — stuff is about to get weird, futuristic, apocalyptic, violent, or all or none of the above… Oh, and someone might have their face painted like a mime at some point. In any case, communique as-is below… Goes without saying that none of the following represents the thoughts, ideas, etc. of those at TAI … nor is any of this censored (with the exception of two of these: “*”), because this site, nor Tweets from @JCraw55 (which is what all this is based off) are venues for such. -Kyle W.
———- Message ———-
From: Wizz Nutzz <wizznutzz@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 12:33 AM
Subject: j craw camp letters 2
To: truthaboutit@gmail.com
dear Kyles,
J Craw LUV we use he tweets from camp letter to give incite into NBA lifestyle!!! he say, “EXPLAIN NOVEMBER, DIG?” and we do below!!! insides include incites on birds, backcourts, Jerry Sandusky & Ben Sherman clothes — that right, J Craw a mod!!!! +++DUDE BOUNCE IS WOWZERS!!! please to use if you fit!!!
NOTE: If you’re familiar with the work of the WIZZNUTZZ, then there’s no need to explain the unexplainable. If you’re not familiar, then I won’t even try. Either way, with a now dormant WizzNutzz website and a more recently dormant @wzzntzz Twitter account (resulting from what one can only assume is non-basketball reasons within the Mothering Hut), people miss the WizzNutzz. No need to miss them anymore, for now, because here with a Christmas miracle, via electronic mail, is a brief return of the WizzNutzz on Truth About It.net, with an assist from Jordan Crawford’s Twitter account, @jcraw55. I’ve written too much already, so without further ado, the email in full below… -Kyle W.
———- Message ———-
From: WizzNutzz <wizznutzz@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 6:30 PM
Subject: wzntz xclusivce 4 truth abotu ti!!!
To: truthaboutit@gmail.com
kylyle-
we locked out of we site & dont know how get back, but we have LAST MIN incite for Chriosmtas MIRACLE!!! below is a collection of J Craw’s Dec tweets as writ like letter home from camp to we wizznutzz, he best friends & only people who speak same language. it’s HIGHER PLANE SHIT. please to print in apropriate forum on your website should u FIND NEED!!!!
This may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back which then caused that camel to fall on the puppy holding a bouquet of flowers for his puppy girlfriend while they nuzzled wet puppy noses in a field of porcelain angels surrounded by butterflies and rainbows, and ice cream.
Did you hear what JaVale McGee did?
Maybe you read about it. Maybe somebody told you. Or, you can listen to JaVale McGee himself over a tape recorder, via the L.A. Times website, saying, “There’s definitely some guys in there saying that they’re ready to fold, but there are some guys, a majority of us, are ready to stand strong,” when asked by a reporter outside of a National Basketball Players Association meeting if players are standing strong against the NBA lockout, or if some are saying that they’re ready to go back to work.
Maybe McGee was earnest and right, but a negotiator with media concerns in mind he is not.
Across The ESPN TrueHoop Network