Oh, the Wizards. Even when they win, they lose. Washington (4-16) won their first road game of the season Saturday night, defeating the Bobcats 102-99 in Charlotte. It was the Wizards' first road win since April of last year, in fact. It also meant they are no longer the worst team in the NBA (shocking, I know). That's good news, right. Exciting stuff. Because I am a glutton for punishment, I watched the whole game (we'll ignore the fact the Wiz only won by three despite Charlotte being without five players, including their top two scorers). Dan Steinberg, aka @dcsportsbog, captured the jubilation on interim coach Randy Wittman's face after this rousing road victory (stoic, stone-faced excitement from the Fred Gwynne look alike...@recordsANDradio had a few choice pics in there too). And I was lucky enough to grab this gem of a pic as the game ended:
This is where I'm about to go off the rails. The Wizards had just won their first road game of the season (and fourth game in 20 tries), and what's this I see? Rashard Lewis is autographing a sneaker for a woman 15 seconds after the game ends (no, seriously, it was 15 seconds after the game). No time for you, Coach, my $22 million dollar ass needs to sign this autograph, for this particular woman. But wait folks, it gets better. THE WOMAN IS ANDRAY BLATCHE'S MOTHER. RASHARD LEWIS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT A RARE ROAD WIN AND IS IGNORING HIS HEAD COACH TO AUTOGRAPH A SNEAKER FOR 7 DAY DRAY'S MOM. [many thanks to @trevorjackson85 of Wizards Extreme and @jpoe82 for this picture, and the one below]
Slow down, overly angry typer, how can you be sure that is Blatche's mom? Well, luckily for us, Comcast chose to show her and her friends enjoying the game earlier. Take a look at the shirt. It's the same woman. And, before you say I have something against Blatche (a dude who played eight minutes in the Charlotte game and may or may not have left with a calf injury/excessive pouting) and am just making up that this was his mom for effect, I did a little digging.
Here is a story about Blatche's mom from the Syracuse Post-Standard. I did some particularly shoddy copy/paste/snipping work of the article pic and another pic from the game. Look at the picture of the woman. I'm no facial recognition expert, but those two faces appear extremely similar. It's Blatche's mom.
So, to reiterate, a guy making 22 million dollars a year blew off his coach after a win to immediately sign a sneaker for the mother of an underachieving, pouty teammate, who just so happens to be the captain of this sinking ship.
Ladies and gentleman, your 2011-2012 Washington Wizards.
Couldn't care less.
ReplyDeleteGood for you.
ReplyDeleteThey just need to drop the whole 'Wizards' thing and go back to the Bullets.
ReplyDeleteAnd now that sneaker is now ebay with a reserve of $1000.
http://goo.gl/6zh5
It could be worse. Your favorite team could be the Knicks.
ReplyDeleteI believe Wiz are just three games behind them in the standings...
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that they are saying Baron Davis will be their savior when he returns, um, that's not a good thing.
ReplyDeleteNice insight, Hubie.
ReplyDeleteTJ is rapidly approaching get off my lawn territory. I don't think Lewis' decision was a great one, but it doesn't really bother me either. So he autographed a shoe right after the game. Okay. Was Wittman going to have a detailed X&O session with him on the court right after the game? Doubtful. It takes more than this to fire me up. Sorry, Teej.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to bore you, TR. And Mark, it was really just an excuse to rant, but you gotta admit it's odd for Lewis to be signing a sneaker for another player's mom, especially if it's useless Blatche's mom.
ReplyDeleteSo at least we can agree this post was useless, I suck, and no one cares. Par for the course.
You didn't bore me. I find your anger entertaining. I just think you're getting old. And you watch waaay too much of the Wizards, which is slowly driving you insane.
ReplyDeletecome down off of that ledge teej.
ReplyDeleteI just had a TJ-level meltdown at the grocery store b/c they stopped carrying my favorite granola cereal.
ReplyDeleteCould be the head cold or could be TJ's influence on me...
Teejay is prone to tilting at windsocks.
ReplyDeletei think t.j. is justified-- if one of my players blew me off right after the game to sign a sneaker, i'd make the team do some sprints. but i guess if i tried that in the nba, latrell sprewell might choke me.
ReplyDeleteI saw a woman melt down at the supermarket because they were out of truffle oil.
ReplyDeleteOld Man Yells at Cloud
ReplyDeleteMore enraging to me is just watching the Wizards play. There are 4 and 5 minute stretches where they take nothing but bad shots, attempt nothing but bad passes, and commit nothing but stupid fouls. I absolutely hate this team. They need to let Young and Lewis go after this year, find a big man who actually plays big and runs the floor, and pick up a reliable veteran for leadership. What does the draft look like for big men? Not having cable anymore, I have watched zero college b-ball.
danimal, i am a man on a ledge...indeed...
ReplyDeleteMayhugh, hope you're watching tonight...
ReplyDeletewhat a weird season pitt is having
ReplyDeleteDeepest draft in years, Mayhugh. All the bigs are a fee years away from truly being impact players though, per usual.
ReplyDeleteThe Magic aren't much better to watch these days. Everyone is over Dwight Howard's act. He won't acknowledge his role in the lack of chemistry in the locker room or on the court (despite regularly questioning his teammates' talent & desire) and everything is finally falling apart. In spectacular fashion. 6 straight losses. 58 points last Monday at Boston. Blown 27 point lead at home against Boston three days later. And tonight, a loss to the 76ers in which they scored 42 points. Total.
Have you seen what Notre Dame is up to?
ReplyDeleteThis year's draft claims to be talent rich...oh really? All these guys are flawed as shit. Davis, Drummond...guys I forget...
ReplyDeleteNotre Dame's turnaround is most surprising. They dont even seem good. But they play hard in D and very well together on O. Pitt got their PG, who's also one if their 3 best players back. Might be that simple for them.
ReplyDeleteSullinger
ReplyDeleteI meant to ad a ? to that.
ReplyDeleteSeems I misread the score/time. The Magic scored 69! And lost.
ReplyDeleteWoodall's return has been the key. But I don't want it to seem to simple in my response, less TR call me Hubie again.
ReplyDeleteI think I resent the Blatcheploitation of this post.
ReplyDeletei suspect most of you have already seen this, but if you haven't, you must go to the internet and find footage of blake griffin's dunk over kendrick perkins. i say 'dunk', but in reality it was something from an entirely different species.
ReplyDelete