Wizards Hold Their Form
Nick Young's gumby hairstyle, courtesy Gilbert.
This afternoon, Antawn Jamison addressed the flowery ornamental treats that have made this series more icing than cake. He sounded let down rather than angry. It was like your boss coming over to check on a deadline project and finding you busy creating lolcats. Even I felt guilty.
"All this talking through the media about this or that is really beneath me, and I'm kind of disappointed that my teammates kind of bought into it," Jamison said. "We've got to do more of letting our game do the talking. I've been saying that from day one. So nothing has changed in my corner. They know what to expect out of me when I come in that locker room. So nothing has changed at all."
In fact, he was largely correct: nothing has changed at all with the Wizards over the past month. Jamison is still dad, the voice of wisdom who knows the difference between wrong and right but manages to tolerate missteps from his rambunctious kids. "We are who we are," he said later. "If we got tight right now and took everything too serious, we'd come out tight. We'd be thinking too much."
Caron Butler is still Uncle Tough Juice, quick with a quip at times, more stern than the commissioner at others.
"Got to be serious sometimes," he said today after no commenting his way through the extracurriculars. "When everyone else is all jittery, got to take care of business." He wasn't smiling.
Mike Wise balling. Seemed appropriate.
And Gilbert is still the hell-raising cousin who drops by for a few hours, breaks all the rules, makes everyone smile, gets the dog stuck on the roof and then scampers off to his treehouse.
Exhibit A: the media were ushered into practice today, only to be greeted by the sound of laughter and the sight of Gilbert attempting to punt a basketball into some upper level of the arena, trying to settle an argument. (The ball nearly reached the top of the 100 level porch but bounced back.)
By the time the full media contingent arrived, the fun was mostly tamped down. Despite much discussion about the physics and probability of success, Gil never punted the ball again. And there was no jovial post-punting banter for the media's benefit; "it's no comment," Oleksiy Pecherov offered. You know it's playoff time when Oleksiy Pecherov is no-commenting.
Still, this was classic Wizards, with Gilbert refusing to compromise, refusing to believe that a 3-1 series deficit must be treated with the grimness of the spike in worldwide grain prices.
"I'd be worried if he WAS like that, because that's not us," Etan Thomas said. "That's not the way Gilbert is. If he wasn't happy and playful you'd be worried, you'd be like, 'something's wrong.' That's not him."
"I have confidence; they have swag," Coach Eddie Jordan joked when discussing his team's mindset. "That's a whole lot different from my confidence."
Cue Cleveland fans: "You can keep your swag Cleveland owns the Wizards and maybe you can cover competitive basketball punting when the Wiz are home AGAIN for the second round we'll send you tickets lol King James Rules!!!1!!1!."
And maybe they're right. Maybe this series would have been different without Soulja Boy. Maybe the world would be a better place without post-practice punting contests, or without Wiz-themed diss tracks, or without Nick Young appearing at practice today with a new haircut, a haircut not often seen in the NBA.
"It's Gumby," Young said. "Gil gave it to me."
Of course he did.
By Dan Steinberg |
April 29, 2008; 2:59 PM ET
| Category:
Wizards
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Posted by: Cleveland fan | April 29, 2008 3:33 PM
Steinberg, thanks for keeping us Wiz fans grounded in our boys' skewed reality. It's easy to forget how enjoyable this team really is when the only noise you hear is the national media sucking the fun out of the Wiz balloon. Ultimately, James and the Cavs are no closer to winning a title than Gilbert and his Merry Men. Sure, they might have the pleasure of stepping all over us on their way to the second round, but last I checked, LeBron's won as many NBA Finals' games as DeShawn.
Posted by: Eric | April 29, 2008 3:41 PM
So when are the Wizards going to get serious about putting together a championship caliber team and TRADE GILBERT - hey I love the guy but face it:
1) They did about as well without as with him
2) There is no successful team where the leading scorer, a backcourt player, was not the TEAM LEADER! It just does not work!(It can work when a big man is the leading scorer mainly cause he does not need the ball in his hands all the time)
3) the most successful, team wise, big time scorers are those who are EFFICIENT scorers - they do not need the ball to put up 30 - (see Mike particularly as his career went on)
4) The Wiz need a really good big man and a really good point guard (use Gil as the bait!)
Posted by: Pete in DC | April 29, 2008 3:43 PM
Nice post, Dan. I'll take a first round exit by a fun team that doesn't treat NBA basketball like a horrible burden. Although I will miss reading about the craziness (Chris Cooley can only do so much to fill the space the Wiz are gonna leave).
Posted by: Jake | April 29, 2008 3:45 PM
I think every GM in the NBA (at least the competent and/or sane ones) is serious about trying to put together a championship-quality team. It's not like it's easy to go from "trying" to "succeeding" unless you get really lucky (or "smart") in drafting or trading.
Given the team the Wizards have now, I don't see how they're going to make it better by getting rid of Gil. It's easy to forget not having seen him play at 100% for over a year now, I suppose, but he is one of the most talented scorers in the NBA. Like, top five. Like, up there with LeBron, Kobe, AI, and Carmelo.
You're not likely to get equal value from any other GM in a trade, because if they have someone that good, they want to keep him, right? What team has an excellent big man or efficient scorer right now, but would be willing to give him up for Gil, if Gil isn't the kind of guy who can lead your team to a championship?
Posted by: Josh | April 29, 2008 4:05 PM
I hear Dirk might be available...
But Dirk on the Wizards wouldn't help things much.
Posted by: B.A. | April 29, 2008 5:22 PM
Dan, thanks for another year of positive coverage of the Wizards. Looking at the Atlanta/Boston game last night, anything is possible.
Lambert
"Wizards Just Do It"
Section 113, Row A, Seat 11
Posted by: Kim | April 29, 2008 5:48 PM
Actually, i have the key for the Wiz win. Why don't we do the Hack a shack method with Wallace. He was killing us on the boards, but if we put him on the line, he's like a less than 50% shooter and he'll be way back at the free throw line so we might actually get a rebound off a bricked free throw!! This would be better than watching titty gibson or d-West rain 3 pointers on us or have Letravel whine about fouls. Of course, this tactic is considered prudent and smart if done by san antonio, if we did it, we'd get fined and proclaimed a menace to NBA society.
Posted by: Vobiwan | April 29, 2008 6:01 PM
Man, i'm good. Wizards insider picked up my thoughts and went with it. Unfortunately Jordan would rather play "pure" basketball and hack lebron instead of "impure" basketball and hack the worse free thrower on the team.
Posted by: Vobiwan | April 29, 2008 8:17 PM
Actually, i have the key for the Wiz win. Why don't we do the Hack a shack method with Wallace. He was killing us on the boards, but if we put him on the line, he's like a less than 50% shooter and he'll be way back at the free throw line so we might actually get a rebound off a bricked free throw!! This would be better than watching titty gibson or d-West rain 3 pointers on us or have Letravel whine about fouls. Of course, this tactic is considered prudent and smart if done by san antonio, if we did it, we'd get fined and proclaimed a menace to NBA society.
Posted by: Vobiwan | April 29, 2008 6:01 PM
San Antonio gets away with it because they generally don't foul when defending, so they can afford to go over the limit because guys like Nash, Diaw and Barbosa won't get fouled if they drive. Hack-a-Ben won't work because the Wizards constantly foul and tend to put their opponents on the line early.
Posted by: | April 30, 2008 1:43 PM
jebron is delusional and cleveland is SCUM
Posted by: prescrunk | April 30, 2008 2:06 PM
Don't care if the Zards win the series, I just want to see them get some payback tonight.
Lebron is (a) a miracle of a basketball player and (b) an annoying, charmless child of a person.
Posted by: Burleithster | April 30, 2008 3:10 PM
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You can keep your swag Cleveland owns the Wizards and maybe you can cover competitive basketball punting when the Wiz are home AGAIN for the second round we'll send you tickets lol King James Rules!!!1!!1!.