Wizards forward Antawn Jamison hasn't been able to help his team on the court after suffering an exhibition schedule shoulder separation. But he's trying to inspire his mates in the locker room. Friday night, that meant the post-game gastronomy in Indianapolis had to suffer.
Washington fell to a rather miserable Indiana team by 16 points. According to the Washington Post's Michael Lee, Jamison gave the business to his teammates in the locker room after the final buzzer. Lee reports that a tray of snacks had been "tossed into a corner, shattered to pieces, with fruit and candy scattered everywhere." Quelle horreur!
The Wizards are hoping that a healthy roster, a few new additions and a new head coach will help the team get back to relevance and into the fairly stacked upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. But reconstructing a group that won just 19 games a year ago might be a project that will take longer than a single campaign to complete.
The good news is the Wizards have plenty of positives going for them as they head into the season.
Michael Lee of the Washington Post followed up recent Wizards rumors in a piece this morning on the No. 5 pick and Caron Butler. Lee said the 'Zards and Suns discussed an Amar'e Stoudemire trade, but D.C. balked when Butler became a requirement from Phoenix's end.
Washington GM Ernie Grunfeld famously has little interest in keeping No. 5. Phoenix needs to do two things in short order: get younger, and get rid of its (spiritual) question marks up front (Stoudemire and Shaquille O'Neal), one way or the other. So can the Wizards and Suns arrange a deal without involving Butler, Gilbert Arenas or Antawn Jamison?
After much discussion, rumor mongering and ballyhoo, Yahoo! Sports reports that the Washington Wizards will make former Pistons and Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders their new head coach, reportedly agreeing to a four-year, $18 million deal.
That's not Yankees money or corporate bailout money, but for the Wizards, that's a pretty hefty chunk of change.
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.
Only one NBA team can legitimately claim its season ended before it began. Starting center Brendan Haywood, Washington's defensive anchor, tore a wrist ligament during a preseason practice. The injury basically ensured a mediocre defense would be destined for completely awfulness.
But Eddie Jordan's Wizards have always scored efficiently and frequently. Surely, the offense could save Washington. That'd be nice ... except that a month prior, the team's most potent scorer -- Gilbert Arenas -- had another surgery completed on his knee. His return date went from December ... to January ... to post-All Star break ... to Saturday.
You can understand how Washington finds itself at the bottom of the standings.
Part of FanHouse's coverage of the NBA's All-Star weekend, coming to you live from Phoenix.
PHOENIX -- The All-Star festivities will be a little different this weekend, with the addition of the GEICO/HORSE Game on Saturday. If you've ever touched a basketball for longer than about six seconds, you have played a version of HORSE, so getting to see the big boys toss up crazy shots will be interesting.
During the media time on Friday, some of the bigger names talked about the game and who they thought might be the toughest to face in the NBA. The answers might surprise you.
By the end of the night, none of them will have scored as many points for the Tar Heels than Tyler Hansbrough. Psycho T is just nine points away from passing Ford and become the all-time leading scorer in UNC history. The Tar Heels host Evansville tonight.
When records fall, there are two stories to follow. One is the greatness of the player who is toppling the record. We all know about Hansbrough and what he has meant to the Carolina program. But the second story is about the record itself and who held it.
It is amazing that Ford has kept this record since graduating in 1978. Again, guys like Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, Jamison, Vince Carter and more have came and went since Ford. Sure, most of the best scorers since 1978 have left early for NBA riches (I think that Joseph Forte would have owned the record if he hadn't left after his sophomore season) but that shouldn't diminish the record.
There was a dead certainty that some changes would be occurring in the Washington Wizards' organization following the team's 1-10 start.
And because it seemed unlikely that Ernie Grunfield would fire himself, and it was already too late to start trying to trade Gilbert Arenas or Antawn Jamison and because Caron Butler is the truth ... well, it stood to reason that the first scapegoat would be Eddie Jordan. According to the Post's Wizards Insider, that has now come to fruition.
According to sources familiar with the situation, the Wizards have relieved Coach Eddie Jordan of his duties. Jordan was informed of the decision this morning.
Ed Tapscott, who had carried the title of Director of Player Development but traveled with the team and essentially served as an extra assistant coach, will take over coaching duties, starting with a practice that will begin today at 11 a.m.
Again, I don't know if it's deserving -- Jordan has done a pretty fine job of coaching up what is a quasi-limited roster since he's been in Washington. And additionally, he's currently missing about $110 million worth of said roster ... but yeah, the team is in the basement of a very winnable division, Gil and Brendan Haywood are talking about not coming back this year if the playoffs aren't an option, and someone has to get blamed. If the reports are accurate, looks like that guy is Jordan.
It doesn't seem that long ago that the Southeast was an afterthought. I'm aware that sounds stupid as this division attempts to rise to serious L-bound prominence, but it's true -- before Dwight Howard and before Dwyane Wade and before Josh Smith and before Jeff McInnis ... what was there?
It doesn't particularly matter now; the division is still only an erstwhile powerhouse; you would never see a prediction coming that any one of these teams can contend for the NBA title right now, and that's what matters in these sort of things.
Of course, Orlando is a different story of sorts. Maybe. At least we have to wonder: Does Hedo Turkoglu Still Have the Special Sauce?
Antawn Jamison, Washington Wizards fan and bloggers everywhere can breathe easy: Gilbert Arenashas agreed to ink a lower-than-max deal which will reportedly pay him $111 million over six years.
Arenas told the Washington Times and Washington Post that he was offered a maximum deal in the neighborhood of $127 million on Tuesday, the first day of the free agency period.
"(The Wizards) offered me the max, and I'm basically giving back $16 million," Arenas told the Washington Times from China, where [he] is traveling as part of promotional tour for a shoe company. "This is in line with what I've been saying the whole time. You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don't wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can't do anything about it."
Jamison was putting the screws on Arenas to resign, Wizards fans were worried they would be mediocre and fail to entertain, and well, we bloggers just like Hibachi hanging out in the capitol. It makes for good news.
Arenas had two separate max deals on the table from the Wizards and the Warriors, but no one really thought he was going to do anything other than sign again with Washington.
Agent Zero also noted that he took less than the max, and that is true. So kudos to him, but remember, Jamison did the same thing so Gil could get paid, and without any additional cap space, this is a second round team. In other words, not taking the max actually benefits Arenas in the long run as well.
Wizards forward Antawn Jamison hasn't been able to help his team on the court after suffering an exhibition schedule shoulder separation. But he's trying to inspire his mates in the locker room. Friday night, that meant the post-game gastronomy in Indianapolis had to suffer.
FanHouse 
Michael Lee of the Washington Post followed up recent Wizards rumors in 
Ready or not, here Flip comes. 
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, horesnss.jpg)
Part of FanHouse's coverage of the NBA's 
North Carolina is one of those programs whose history drops jaws. Just the names of the players that have come through Chapel Hill are amazing. 
There was a dead certainty that some changes would be occurring in the Washington Wizards' organization following the team's 1-10 start.
