As the Washington Wizards close out their home season tonight against the Celtics, one can’t help but checking the work on last year’s No. 1 overall pick, and Wizards rookie guard John Wall has one big obstacle in his campaign for the NBA’s Rookie Of The Year–Blake Griffin. What’s odd is that Griffin, last year’s No.1 overall pick, sat out all of 2009-2010 with an injured kneecap. So this comes down to Which Guy Played Better For His Awful Team?

The former Kentucky Wildcat [Wall] is averaging 16.3 points and 8.5 assists per game this year. Perhaps the league’s most exciting young player, Blake Griffin, leads all rookies with 22.5 points per game. –NESN.

Wall is in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, although the consensus pick appears to be Griffin, whose Clippers (31-50) are languishing near the bottom of the Western Conference and will be a lottery team just like Wall’s Wizards. –Washinton Times.

But not everyone is down on the Great Wall Of Chinatown. Yeah, I’m still calling him that. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no news that the Washington Wizards have been in the process of reverting back to their franchise’s classic red, white, and blue color scheme, because I guess that’s what you do when you play in the nation’s capital. But now one image of a piece of NBA apparel seems to have unintentionally leaked what might be the new Wizards logo. Of course, this is just the old logo with the blue and gold swapped out for blue and red.

So is it the actual new logo? Wizards owner Ted Leonsis is keeping mum.

We won’t get into confirming or denying the validity of any logo designs. We appreciate and understand the excitement surrounding the new color scheme, and we are planning a comprehensive brand launch.

I doubt that’s it, because it looks like total ass, and the one thing the NBA usually gets right is its branding. After all, they changed the team’s name from the Bullets because so many people in DC were getting murdered. Sometimes you can be too right.

A gripe I’ve always heard from those who aren’t as fond of the NBA as I am is that players don’t take the regular season very seriously. Unfortunately, many of these complaints are validated when guys mail it in like Andray Blatche did last night in an 87-80 loss to Chicago.

If you’re a fan of perpetually awful teams like I am, you sometimes delude yourself into believing that your team isn’t that terrible. But when you watch one of your star players, who would warm the bench on a contender, make the laziest play you’ve ever seen, you feel pretty miserable. So miserable, in fact, you start to reassess a lot of the decisions you’ve made throughout your life. Then you start drinking heavily. Bills fans know where I’m coming from. Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

It has often been said after the dismissal of a prominent head coach that “You can’t fire the infantry.” On Saturday, the Orlando Magic actually did that, executing two blockbuster trades that saw nearly a third of its roster heading elsewhere. The bigger of the two deals was arguably for Gilbert Arenas, who finds himself leaving DC after seven years as a Washington Wizard.

The Magic sent forward Rashard Lewis to Washington and Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus and Marcin Gortat to Phoenix in a separate trade. Orlando also gave Phoenix its 2011 first-round draft pick and cash and received Suns forward Earl Clark.

“We needed a little bit more punch,” Magic president Otis Smith said. “All those guys coming in have an ability to move the ball. After looking at our team through 25 games, we were missing a little something. I thought change was needed.”

–Fox Sports.

From Phoenix, Orlando acquired Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu, who rejoins the team after departing for Toronto as a free agent in 2009. It’s an insanely busy roster shuffling, and one has to wonder now if the state of Florida’s new Big Three will get their act together like their counterparts down south. Arenas, Hedu and Dwight Howard is no LeBron, D-Wade and Bosh, but it’ll be fun to see how close they can make the comparison.

Washington Wizards rookie John Wall did The Dougie, whatever the hell that is, last night before nearly posting a triple double in his DC debut against the Sixers. Wall posted 29 points, 13 assists and nine steals, but it took his team overtime to beat a team that still hasn’t won a game.

But enough about the game. Let’s talk about this dance that Wall tried to pull off during pre-game introductions last night. I have a feeling that this could divide America along racial lines, and that’s really saying too much. But hey, if dude can work it like that, and then play five quarters of basketball, then I guess I can dig it.

Img via.

As the Orlando Magic opened their season last night in the brand new Amway Center, the focus wasn’t on the game so much as it was on all of the wonderful side stories going down at the same time. For instance, as ESPN points out, the story wasn’t about the Magic making a statement in their new state-of-the-art-arena as much as it was about top draft pick John Wall’s debut for the Washington Wizards. Other outlets have concentrated on Magic fans booing NBA commissioner David Stern, as if no other team’s fans in the NBA would commit such an act. And of course so many people are focused on the game as a warm-up for tonight’s anticipated first act* in the new Magic-Miami Heat rivalry. But they’re all so wrong, because only one story mattered…

Tiger Woods is back, baby.

The world’s most scandalous golfer has been a sideline fixture at Magic games for years, as he calls Florida’s nipple his home, but amid his adultery scandal, Woods was absent for most of last season’s games. He even received a much better welcome from the crowd than Stern, even though Woods wasn’t given the pleasure of a public announcement. But if he was, I imagine it would sound like: “Coming to the stage next we’ve got Cinnamon and Labial with their disappearing baseball bat trick, and also a special welcome to Tiger Woods!”

Tell us about this magical experience, USA Today… get it? Magical? *pulls rabbit from butt*

Read the rest of this entry »