Three Signs The NBA Season Is Almost Here

The 2011-2012 NBA season ended a long time ago for me. I've had to endure the NBA playoffs (remember, the playoffs don't usually count as part of the Wizards' season), free agency, Summer League, the Olympics and two months of waiting, waiting, waiting. But finally the NBA is almost back and I can once again experience a time when all teams are theoretically equal, before an 0-8 start, or a 2-6 start, or a 2-7 start or...well, you get the picture.

In a normal year, there are three signs which serve as my security blanket during the couple of months of waiting, waiting, waiting prior to the tip off of regular season game number one. The first reminder that basketball is almost upon us is the first preseason or regular season NHL game, when I am perched high in section 405 of Verizon Center watching the Capitals take the ice and longing for that white surface to be replaced with the hardwood. It usually takes me about a period to get over it and get into the game I'm watching. With apologies to all my NHL fan friends, hockey just doesn't come close to basketball. Maybe I'm getting crotchety in my middle age but I seem to have little tolerance for long scoring droughts (I know, I should appreciate the defensive struggle) or games decided by shootout (read: not much better than a tie or kissing your sister).

But this year is not a normal year for a number of reasons. As it turns out, the NHLPA and the NHL are no smarter than the NBAPA and the NBA were last year and there is no hockey season yet as millionaires and billionaires are still trying to figure out how to split insane sums of money. As a result, this year we just skipped the first sign that the season is near and we have proceeded directly to sign number two, which means the season is even closer!

The second harbinger of the NBA season is the opening of training camp and a season ticket holder open practice. Camp opened this past Tuesday and mercifully, it's at George Mason University again. I loved the camps at VCU but honestly, I'd way rather drive to Fairfax than to Richmond to take in an open practice or scrimmage. Getting to the Patriot Center in rush hour traffic is no picnic either (it took me 13 songs on the new Mark Knopfler album to get there this year) but at least the trip home is quick (less than five songs).

Open practice was held last night followed by a Dave Johnson hosted Q and A session with our new players, meaning the guys who are pretty much guaranteed a roster spot who weren't here last year. I'm not sure these events ever really provide unique insight into how the team will perform, especially with all the media coverage these days. Everyone said there were a great group of guys together and everyone was working hard. They have to say that, right? But if I learned nothing else, it is that Martell Webster is a pretty interesting guy. He's very eloquent and intelligent. During drills where players were required to count out the number of passes made during the drill, he counted out in English except when playing with Kevin Seraphin when he counted in French. He also said he would be an asbestos remover if he weren't playing in the NBA (he was kidding) and genuinely made fun of himself when asked if he had any embarrassing moments in the NBA. The only reason I know anything about Martell Webster is due to this play, where he steals an inbounds pass with a few seconds left and his team down by three, takes it the length of the court and dunks, meaning his team lost by one. It was a moment of almost McGee-like concentration but he was able to joke about it in a way that JaVale never would have. JaVale's response would probably be that he didn't understand why the coaches were upset or something like that. Martell did say he dunked it hard enough that he thought it could have counted for three. He also said he had no idea what he was thinking when he decided on that haircut.

By the way, I really really wanted Dave to ask "Over the last 12 years, the Wizards are about the worst franchise in the NBA. What did you think of this team before you got traded/signed and what makes you think it's going to be any different with you here than the guys we jettisoned last year?" He didn't ask that question and maybe it's best because I may not want to know the answer. I'm actually genuinely hopeful this year and think we could make some noise, despite the fact that our best two players are injured and can't practice right now. I'm deluding myself a little, I know.

Our new players: Trevor Ariza, Martell Webster, Jannero Pargo, Bradley Beal, A.J. Price and Emeka Okafor.

And finally, I really really know the NBA season is right around the corner when I get my season tickets in the mail. They arrived yesterday. I picked them up from the concierge desk before heading out to practice. Their arrival each year is a source of unimaginable joy for me for about 30 minutes despite the fact that there is absolutely nothing I can do with them right at the moment except look at them. Just opening the package and pulling out those virgin, glossy, unseparated sheets of tickets and checking them out thrills me. And 30 minutes is literally the time I devote to these things before realizing they are not actually that interesting as objects and I find something else to occupy my shortening attention span. But for that half hour, I love it.

Only this year, it's sort of a disaster: there are no tickets. Seriously. I have a credit card sized piece of plastic that I am supposed to electronically load up with my tickets from the ticket manager site which curiously has been out of commission for the last two days. Now considering I was about the last person I knew to get a cell phone, I just bought my first computer with more than 48K of memory in 2009 (I loved that Atari 800 in the '80s) and I still write checks by hand and put them in envelopes and mail them to pay my bills, this could be a challenge for me. I'm not embracing this all electronic culture.

So it turns out things are not normal this year but even though things are a little bit different, I still have basketball to look forward to in 25 days and that's without doubt one of the most wonderful times of the year.

No tickets this year???