Top 10 Wizards

The 2016-2017 NBA season is the 20th that the Washington Wizards have played under their current nickname. By and large, it has NOT been a wonderful ride. But with the team seemingly surging towards more wins than they have had in over 35 years and with point guard John Wall in the All-Star Game this past weekend for the fourth consecutive year, I thought it might be a good time to create a top 10 list of the greatest players ever to suit up for the Wizards. Sort of a mini-20th anniversary celebration.

Now admittedly, I haven't been around for all 20 years of Wizards ball. I mean, I've been alive and watching NBA basketball for all that time but not necessarily paying close attention to the Wizards. I started watching the Wizards as my primary team during their third season under the new name, bought season tickets one year later and am now in my 17th year as a season ticket holder. I figure that's close enough, especially given the team's performance (9th and 13th in the Eastern Conference) in those two years I missed. No matter what list I create, there are always going to be folks who disagree with me.

This list considers a player's accomplishments as a Wizard, not a Bullet or on any other franchise's team. I'm deliberately considering the accomplishments of players who played for the team under both nicknames as Wizards. That both emphasizes performance since 1997 and makes my job a little easier. It also is not a list of the 10 greatest players to don a Wizards blue, black and bronze (later gold) or red, white and blue jersey. Michael Jordan may be among the greatest, if not the greatest, to play in the NBA but he ain't the number one Wizard with just two years under his 38-40 year old belt.

So having said that, let's get right to my list. There are some honors listed under some players' names; these are their achievements while playing for the Wizards (everything before or after is missing) There are also some top five franchise rankings in the list below. These are the spots these players occupy on the Packers / Zephyrs / Bullets / Wizards leaderboard. I know I'm switching standards there. Just deal with it. And finally a quick spoiler alert: none of the players in the cover picture of this post made the list.

10. Marcin Gortat (2013-Present)
Two Postseason Appearances.

I really wrestled with this 10 spot. I was tempted to sneak in someone like Paul Pierce or Emeka Okafor; someone who impacted the Wizards in a teammate development way (Pierce with the whole team; Okafor with John Wall and leadership) but ultimately I decided Marcin's three plus years of steady play meant that I had to put him at number 10. 

I think Marcin's under appreciated as a Wizard. So many fans focus on the games with little offense or quick fouls and ignore the larger body of work. Sure there are bad games out there and Marcin's not the number one locker room leader some fans want him to be but look at the numbers: three plus years averaging double figure points with close to double figure rebounds (for sure double figures this year). Moreover, he's extremely durable; he's played at least 75 games each of his first three years with our team and is poised to do the same this year.

9. Bradley Beal (2012- Present)

Two Postseason Appearances. NBA All-Rookie First Team (2013); Franchise Leader 3rd in 3 Point FG Made.

Before too many people get upset with Brad at this spot, let me say I don't expect that if I made this same list two or three years from now that he'd be at number nine. At least he better not be. Not with his contract.

I believe Bradley Beal is having a fantastic year. All the promise of his first four years are coming to bear in a single season. He's also healthier than he's ever been which I am sure is a huge relief to Wizards fans beyond me. I also believe Brad should have been an All-Star this year. If not on the coaches' ballots then as a replacement for Kevin Love. He and John Wall should provide many many moments for Wizards fans to savor this season and the next few years. He's clearly the second best player on our current squad. And (again) he should be with his contract.

But one year doesn't rocket you to the top of a list like this created by me. I need to see some more consistency first, which I believe I will see for hopefully the rest of this season and the next four beyond this. Beal has turned the corner in major way. And I love it. I just want to see more of it.

8. Nenê (2012-2016)
Two Postseason Appearances.

There may be some emotion behind my number eight selection on this list and I think that's OK. I'm a fan, after all, and this is a blog about being a fan.

If this current Wizards squad ever amounts to something serious, I'll always remember Nenê as the first one in the door. Once the Wizards traded away Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and every other player that resembled a leader in the locker room in the spring of 2010, things devolved into chaos pretty quickly. One year later it was no better; the team had failed to instill any sort of professionalism in the 12 months since the team had been dismantled. The stakes were pretty high: John Wall was supposed to be the face of the franchise and he had nobody to show him how to be a professional ballplayer.

Enter Nenê, on the trading block in Denver because that team was convinced Kenneth Faried was going to be just as good in a couple of years if not in the moment the Nuggets pulled the trigger to swap Nenê for JaVale McGee. Thank God for this trade. Nenê was never a vocal leader in Washington, but he brought a credible presence to the Wizards team. He also showed everyone in Washington what it meant to be a team player after a period of misdirection. Nenê produced in his time in D.C., averaging double digits as a starter. Yes, there was always the next injury looming but I give Nenê a ton of credit for holding this franchise together until John Wall could assume the clear role of team leader.

7. Michael Jordan (2001-2003)

2x All-Star (2002-2003).

I hate putting Micheal Jordan on this list. I thought Jordan's two years in Washington put the franchise on hold just so Jordan and Doug Collins could try to make one more run at playing and coaching in the league. I thought his leadership in the locker room (which spilled out in public all too often) was poor and every move he engineered emphasized getting into the playoffs now at the expense of player development of anyone not worthy to play with MJ. It was completely selfish.

However, he was good, even at 38, 39 and 40. He was clearly the best player on the team those two years he was in D.C. (I know the bar was set pretty low) and he had some spectacular nights. Sometimes he just seemed to will himself to beat the other team. He scored 40 points or more six times in two seasons, including an MCI / Verizon Center record 51 on December 29, 2001, a mark that stood (Gilbert Arenas tied it years later) until John Wall scored 52 earlier this season. Those two years were exciting until they ended and you realized it was all for the glory of MJ. 

Jordan is one of only five Wizards players to make it to two All-Star Games, although the first was a fan vote and the second was likely a coaches' sympathy vote. 

6. Larry Hughes (2002-2005)

NBA All-Defensive 1st Team (2005); One Postseason Appearance.

Larry Hughes is the one guy in my 17 years as a season ticket holder that I wished had not walked away from the team. I don't feel the same way about Trevor Ariza or Paul Pierce or Jared Jeffries or any other player. I understand why Larry did it; it's hard to turn down that kind of money. But he and Gilbert Arenas were a backcourt to behold. Yep, it was fun seeing Gilbert team up with DeShawn Stevenson and for sure D-Steve was a cheaper option but I always thought Larry and Gil could have taken that team to a really good place.

Larry spent just three years in Washington, and he never played a full season (he never played more than 67 games). But the two last years he played at 601 F Street were among the best of his career and his last (the 2004-2005 season) was without a doubt the best. That year he averaged an astonishing 2.9 steals per game (albeit with a lot of gambling that paid off) and led the league in that category. Larry should have been in the All-Star Game that year; his injury right before the voting ended game coaches an excuse to not put him in the game along with Gil and Antawn Jamison. I saw Larry at the Oklahoma City game this year and told him as much. He agreed.

5. Brendan Haywood (2001-2010)

Franchise Leader 4th in Blocks; Four Postseason Appearances.

Brendan Haywood is at the five spot on this list for four simple reasons: (1) he made it to four consecutive playoff appearances with the team; (2) he was the most important defensive player in his years as an established starter; (3) he has played more games as a Wizard than any other player ever; and (4) he was my first favorite Wizards player. I warned you it was a fan's list.

I loved Brendan Haywood playing for the Wizards. Yes, he was selfish; he fought with Etan Thomas (I mean like actually fought with fists) and was reluctant to or just plain refused to mentor JaVale McGee. Yes, he was terrible from the free throw line except for that one season that Dave Hopla got him to shoot 73.5 percent.  But he was the primary starter at center in his second year in the league and held that spot (except for the 2008-2009 season when he was hurt) until the Wizards traded him to Dallas and he was the difference maker at the defensive end. He called the defensive sets for a team which sometimes had few defenders and made up for the mistakes of his teammates. The Wizards would have been a lot worse off if it wasn't for B Wood back there.

I'm putting Brendan unapologetically at the five spot while also conceding there might be a lot of emotion behind this decision.

4. Caron Butler (2005-2010)

2x All-Star (2007-2008); Three Postseason Appearances.

Caron Butler has spent time with nine NBA franchises in his 14 year career but he spent more than twice as long in Washington than he did in any other spot. He also had his greatest success in a Wizards uniform, being named to two All-Star Games. He also acquired his nickname, Tough Juice, while playing too hard in practice at Verizon Center. Nicknames don't really make much difference to me but Tough Juice is such a great nickname that it counts with Caron.

Caron's greatest seasons statistically during the 2006-2007 season and the 2007-2008 season, the two years he represented the East as an All-Star. The work he did along with Antawn Jamison in keeping the franchise afloat was phenomenal. If there's a season this franchise could have collapsed but didn't it was that one. I'll always remember Caron for the buzzer beater at Cleveland in the 2007 playoffs to stave off elimination (at least for one game) and for the monster slam dunk he had in Sacramentto. It's number two in this video.

Good times...

3. Antawn Jamison (2004-2010)

2x All-Star (2005 & 2008); Franchise Leader 2nd in 3 Point FG Made; Four Postseason Appearances.

Antawn Jamison was the guy that first put the Wizards into the playoffs. The franchise had struck out on the postseason in its first seven years under its new name. Jamison got them there in his very first year and he kept them there for the next four years. Before Nenê joined the Wizards in 2011, AJ was the only guy who showed any sort of leadership in the locker room. He was rewarded with the captaincy and with Abe Pollin's undying affection.

Antawn earned his only two All-Star nods while in a Wizards uniform and was the model of consistency on the offensive end, averaging more than 19 but less than 23 points every year he suited up in D.C. Antawn is likely to be one of two players (along with Tom Chambers) who scored more than 20,000 career points who will not be in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (hoping I'm wrong here; maybe in a down year?) and he scored more than 8,500 of them in Washington. He still has one of the quickest shots I've ever seen. I'll forget all about the baseline he let LeBron James have to beat us in the playoffs. There were few better than Antawn in the last 20 years for the Wizards.

2. Gilbert Arenas  (2003-2010) 

All-NBA Second Team (2007); 2x All-NBA Third Team (2005-2006); 3x All-Star (2005-2007); Franchise Leader 1st in 3 Point FG Made / 5th in Steals; Four Postseason Appearances.

And then there's Gilbert Arenas. I clearly love Gil. I mean I named this blog after him for crying out loud. There's only one player in Wizards history who has captured national attention with his play and his antics off the court. Where do I begin? Agent Zero. Hibachi. Oxygen tents. Walk off three pointers. Highest single game point total in franchise history. Throwing jerseys into the stands. Staying at season ticket holder events to sign every autograph even when the rest of the players have gone. Early morning shooting sessions at Verizon Center after sleeping on the couch in the players' lounge. Guns in the locker room. Trampoline dunks at the All-Star Game. His swag was phenomenal. 

Unfortunate about that whole guns in the locker room thing. More unfortunate about Gerald Wallace landing on his knee.

Gilbert is the only player who as a Wizard has been arguably the best player in the NBA. I'll admit it didn't last long but there was a time when he was dropping 60 and 56 points on a west coast road trip during the 2006-2007 season where he was legitimately in the discussion. There were rumors about the Lakers and Wizards discussing a Kobe for Gil deal and the Wiz legitimately saying no. And that was before Kobe's fourth and fifth championships. Gilbert was amazing that season and for the three that preceded it. He was instantly my favorite player (sorry B Wood) and I still love the signed gold jersey I have hanging in my closet with the "Agent Zero" personalization. Gil's the only Wizard other than John Wall and Michael Jordan to be voted as a starter in the All-Star Game and he's the only one to be named to an All-NBA team three times, or at all really. That knee injury...

1. John Wall (2010-Present)

NBA All-Defensive Second Team (2015); 4x All-Star (2014-2017); NBA Slam Dunk Contest Winner (2014); NBA All-Rookie First Team (2011); Franchise Leader 1st in Assists / 1st in Steals; Two Postseason Appearances.

As good as Gilbert Arenas was in a Wizards uniform and as many All-NBA teams as he made, he's still not John Wall. John has more All-Star appearances than Gil, he's a more complete player than Gil, he's a better leader than Gil and I can't tell you how many passes that he's thrown down at the east end of Verizon Center that have taken my breath away from my seats in Section 109. And this season has been the best of all; the leap he's made this year whether it's due to his health or Scott Brooks or just natural maturity is astounding. He's a better player than I could have hoped for this year. He's definitely for me in the top 10 discussion of players in the NBA.

On top of all that, John openly wants to be here in D.C. There is no question that this team is his and he wants as many fans in the building cheering for the entire team (not just him) as he can possibly get. He's already the franchise leader in assists and steals and he's likely to be second in scoring if he plays out his current contract with the team and remains healthy. All this from a guy who rival team executives say can't pass and who most everyone in the media says can't shoot. I don't see any competition for John Wall as the greatest Wizard. Just don't.

So that's my list. Call me crazy for some of these picks but that's what I believe. I took a hard look at (in no particular order) Otto Porter, Paul Pierce, Rod Strickland, Chris Whitney and DeShawn Stevenson but ultimately I went with the ten above. I expect some guys to move up the board quickly if I ever do this again. Wizards back in action on Friday in Philly. Let's go Wizards!

The Bobblehead Bar

This past weekend I took a couple of days off work and headed out on the road for my almost annual NBDL trip, an effort to get me into smaller-than-the-NBA time pro basketball and some parts of the United States I wouldn't ordinarily get to. Before I arrived in Canton, Ohio or Erie, Pennsylvania, I spent a night in Cleveland. This is the second of two posts about that city before we get to some words about the D-League. For my minor rant on how I feel about Cleveland, read the last post.

In 2011, my friends Mike and Bryan and I hopped in a car and drove across America. It's a trip most people do right after they graduate from college. I waited until I was 43. Better late than never I guess. We took the northern route which ran us roughly out to St. Louis; then straight north to South Dakota; then pretty much westward through Deadwood, Yellowstone and the Bitterroot Mountains to Seattle. I recommend everyone take a major road trip in the U.S. at least once in their lifetime. It was incredible to see the country that way.

If you know me at all, you'd suspect we stopped at a lot of bars and breweries on that trip. And you'd be right, of course. The Old Point Tavern in Indianapolis; the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis (total American pilgrimage); our hotel bar at Yellowstone National Park (where we drank the amazing and awesomely named Moose Drool); Pike Place Brewery in Seattle; and countless (OK, so maybe four or five) breweries in Portland, Oregon. But the best bar on the trip hands down was in Cleveland.

When assembling a list of bars to visit in Cleveland I used a very scientific evaluation criteria: wherever people burned LeBron James jerseys the previous summer after LeBron announced he'd be taking his talents to South Beach. That meant two places: Harry Buffalo and The Winking Lizard Tavern. We hit up both while we were in town and found the former to be way too deserted on a non-Indians summer game night and the latter to be too big and sprawling, likely because of its elongated triangular floor plan. Neither of these turned out to be the best bar of that trip. And I didn't visit either last weekend.

The best bar in Cleveland (and in the entire country that summer of '11) for me turned out to be City Tap, which is located right next door to The Winking Lizard. We stopped in there after a disappointing drink or maybe two (the memory is fuzzy after five plus years) at the Lizard next door and I instantly fell in love.

I know, you are dying to know why it was the best. Was it the incredible tap list? Nope, although their range of draft beers is impressive. How about the featured Thirsty Dog brews from nearby Akron? No, not that either. The Carling Black Label in cans? Uh uh, although I love me some Black Label. Surely, it wasn't the UV Cake / Pinnacle Chocolate Whipped vodka shot, right? It wasn't, although just try it sometime and tell me it's not really good. 

No, the reason I fell in love with City Tap is because they have the most incredible bobblehead display I've ever seen in a bar anywhere.

City Tap's beer board. Tell me you've heard of all these breweries. I dare you.

OK so maybe I ought to qualify that last sentence. First of all, the subject matter (all Cleveland and Ohio State) is deplorable to this Wizards fan and Michigan grad but I guess you can't expect anything more considering the location. But if you can overcome that and appreciate the prominent way these things are displayed front and center among the liquor bottles backlit in multiple colors, I would go there about every night until I got sick of the place, which I may never do.

We rolled into Cleveland last Thursday at about 3:30 pm. 30 minutes later we were at the City Tap bar working our way through the beer list. I started with a Thirsty Dog 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale, just because I'm  a fan of the brewery after that one night there five years ago. We sat about where we sat last time we were in town towards the north entrance near the hoop bobbles and away from the Indians bobbleheads on the south side. Since we'd been here last, they actually expanded their collection, moving a good number of the Ohio State football bobbleheads to a new display case nearer the north entrance. This kind of dedication to bobblehead collections is impressive, even if the likes of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love caused the expansion.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, it should come as no surprise that bobbleheads occupy a significant spot in my Wizards fandom world and I'm all in favor of showcasing any bar that goes to the lengths that City Tap goes to demonstrate a commitment to poorly painted overseas manufactured bobblehead replicas of athletes that may or may not resemble the actual athlete. I'm proud to call this place my bar when I'm in Cleveland which is not likely to be very often.

As of last Friday (or likely way before that to be honest but I just became aware of it last week), City Tap is no longer stocking Carling Black Label. That sucks, honestly. Every bar needs a cheap local (Canada) brew to keep folks like me going after guzzling a few pints of the stronger stuff. And no more cake flavored vodka either. Don't let either of those things keep you from going to this place.

Finally (and of course) there's a Wizards connection here. Look on the fifth shelf up in the basketball section and two spots from the left end you'll find former Wizard Larry Hughes, who helped take the Wiz to the second round of the playoffs in 2004 before defecting to the Cavs. I never thought Boogie should have bolted town for Cleveland but they were offering more money so I guess you take what you can get in life. Larry's not waving; I assume he's playing some D.

Save me a bar stool next time I'm in Cleveland. Until then...go Wizards.

Larry Hughes in Cavaliers hell. Shoulda stayed in D.C., Larry. You and Gil could have done good things.

Meet The Team

As of this writing, the Washington Wizards are off to an inauspicious start to the 2013-2014 season, going 0-2 in their first two games with honestly no realistic end to the losing with upcoming games against Miami, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City and San Antonio. It might just take a fluke of a game. I figured we could pick up a couple of easy Ws against the Philadelphia 76ers both here in D.C. and in Philly in the first four games of the season but somehow Philly has managed to go 3-0 to start the year so I'm counting on a loss Wednesday when we play up there at this point. So before I get too frustrated to deal with writing about this team for a while in a positive light, I thought now would be an appropriate time to look back on last Saturday's Season Ticket Holder Party at Six Flags.

The Season Ticket Holder Party (or the Meet The Team Party as it used to be called) is one of the most important events of the year for the rabid season ticket holder. I once left a business meeting in Roanoke, VA early so I could get back to D.C. for this thing. It's the event where fans like me can stand in line for about an hour to get some stuff which is essentially worthless autographed by my favorite players and add it to my rapidly expanding autograph collection, which is displayed in various locations throughout my condo in and around my also expanding bobblehead collection. And yes, I know I'm too old to be collecting autographs and bobbleheads. Let it go!

This is how it all starts: standing in line to get to the spot in the park when you really stand in line.

I've attended the Season Ticket Holder Party / Meet The Team Party every year since the 2003-2004 season. I missed out the first three years of my tenure because the team didn't have this sort of thing during the Michael Jordan years (presumably because it would have been a complete mob scene if MJ was signing) and I think I bought tickets too late the first year I signed up in 2000-2001. The format and location of this event has changed over the years drastically. I love the current format because it rewards resourcefulness and planning (which I have in spades) and aggressiveness (which I don't have; just can't knock little kids out of the way) is of little to no value. Let me explain.

The first couple of years I went to this event at Verizon Center were pretty much a free for all. The players were rarely at tables signing in an orderly fashion but were instead just standing around in random spots around VC or in some cases giving locker room tours. I remember talking to Jared Jeffries one year as he helped kids into the moon bounce set up at the west end of the building. I think that same year I almost literally bumped into Gilbert Arenas while trying to get my bearings and Kwame Brown was giving locker room tours; we each shook his hand before the tour and he introduced himself ("I'm Kwame"; yeah, no kidding!). In those days getting autographs was literally a mad scramble: it was almost impossible to plan because there was no rhyme or reason to where guys were located and the lack of lines meant that sometimes getting something signed involved pushing your way to the front of a loose mob. There were also no name tags so it was sometimes difficult to tell who was who. My friend Mike helped me identify Larry Hughes one year by the "LH" tattoo on his neck.

There's plenty of this going on. Notable here are Jan Vesely knowing he's just had his fourth year declined on his rookie contract and John Wall, who is not exactly Mr. Personality during these things.

The event stayed at Verizon Center through the 2009-2010 season (with one random year at the Newseum) but the team decided to change the format once we started to make the playoffs. In those middle years of my season ticket holder tenure, the team decided to distribute color coded tickets to attendees which allowed you to stand in one (and theoretically only one) line to get autographs from 2-3 preselected players. There were ways to get additional tickets if you tried, including grabbing more than one ticket the years they handed them out at the door and trading for different colored tickets with other fans the years they mailed them. These years were the worst. They rewarded neither resourcefulness and planning nor aggressiveness. It didn't matter how early or late you got there and you had no control over who you wanted to stand in line for: your fate was predetermined by the color of the ticket you owned. It also hindered any ability to get a single year's team collected on a single ball or whatever other object you elect to get signed. I like to use the box the season tickets come in.

Chris Singleton, Jedi Knight, with Bradley Beal and Glen Rice, Jr signing away furiously.

Then when Ted Leonsis took control of the team, he moved the event out to Six Flags in Prince George's County. This year the event was held on a Saturday afternoon in the picnic area of the park since the place was still open to the public; the past three years, it's been held at night on a weekday. In all four years I have been going to Six Flags for this thing, the format has been essentially the same: players are arrayed in different positions around the park with orderly lines set up and start signing about an hour after fans are admitted. For those who are resourceful and can plan, the hour before signing allows scouting out of locations to determine who is where and laying out the ideal sequence to get players in priority order. It's been tight the last two years but I've been able to get the entire team both years so I can check that box in my neurotic obsession about this stuff.

Basketball cards: my new favorite item to get signed.

Because of the rush associated with this event, there's very little opportunity to interact with players which is too bad (conversation after all slows down the line for others and hinders the annual complete set of signatures quest). But some players can't help themselves and I can't get by Kevin Seraphin without a couple of sentences in French (after a couple of sentences my language skills betray me) and without him showing stuff to his neighbor. Kevin's one of those guys who loves being semi-famous and having fans. He has his own hashtag on Twitter (#KevinSeraphinLife) and loves the spotlight that being a backup center for an NBA team affords him. He's humble but there's also no question he has an ego that he likes to have stroked. Last year I pulled up a picture on my phone of him as Superman and he made me show it to Earl Barron who was sitting next to him. This year he had to show Trevor Ariza the gold basketball card (above) I handed him so Ariza could be impressed by the kind of products Kevin inspires I guess.

This is the sort of event that makes me feel a little more engaged with the team. I know most of these guys must hate sitting at tables for an hour signing stuff for fans who should have outgrown this stuff years ago but I think it's great the team makes this happen. Fans are the reason these teams exist so I guess for one day anyway it makes me feel good as a fan that we get something exclusive for the money that we are forking over. Maybe one day this event will cease having so much value for me. Until then, I'll be leaving business meetings early or whatever else I have to do to get over to this each year.

This year's season ticket holder box, signed by the team.

The Playoff Years: 2004-2005 Through 2007-2008

The Wizards 25-57 record in the 2003-2004 season was poor enough to earn the team the number five pick in the 2004 draft. With the fifth pick, the team drafted Devin Harris out of the University of Wisconsin, but Harris never played for the Wizards. Instead, the team sent him along with Jerry Stackhouse and Christian Laettner to the Dallas Mavericks for reigning Sixth Man of the Year Antawn Jamison. It was the second major trade with the Mavericks in the last four years, but unlike the 2001 in-season trade which was essentially a salary dump, the acquisition of Jamison was designed to make the team substantially better. And it did.

That year, the combination of Jamison at the power forward spot with Gilbert Arenas and Larry Hughes in the backcourt were just spectacular. Arenas and Jamison were voted by the NBA coaches to the Eastern Conference All Star squad and Hughes might have joined them, had he not broken his wrist in the January 15 victory over the Phoenix Suns, a team at that time as hot as any other. After the season, Arenas was voted to the All-NBA Third Team and Hughes was voted to the All-NBA Defensive First Team but it was the team success, and not the individual honors, that made that season so special.

The team posted a 45-37 record, the best mark for the franchise since the 1978-1979 season, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference and a return trip to the playoffs for the first time since 1997. The team clinched their playoff berth on April 13 after a home victory against the Chicago Bulls and a loss the same night by the New Jersey Nets to the Indiana Pacers, which we watched on the scoreboard screen from our seats in Section 402 of the MCI Center after the Wizards took care of the Bulls. It would be the first of four consecutive playoff appearances, the longest streak since the Bullets made the postseason five years in a row from 1984 through 1988. Brendan Haywood, who had been my favorite player since his rookie year in 2001, and Jared Jeffries rounded out what would become a solid starting five. The bench on paper was a concern, with Juan Dixon, Jarvis Hayes, Etan Thomas and Michael Ruffin being the top reserves, but the team won. They beat the teams they were supposed to beat, posting a 26-9 record against teams that ended the season with losing records, and they were clutch in close games, going 20-10 in games decided by five points or less.

The first round playoff opponent that year was the Chicago Bulls, a team that had won two more games during the regular season than the Wizards. The Bulls took the first two games in Chicago before the Wizards evened it up at 2-2 with two victories at the MCI Center. The fifth game was tight and the Wizards would end up with the final possession of regulation in a game tied at 110. Then, with time winding down, Gilbert Arenas let fly a step back jumper over the outstretched arm of the Bulls' Kirk Heinrich with 0.3 seconds remaining. The shot hit the bottom of the net and the Wizards took the game and came home up three games to two. The photograph of that shot is awesome. I have a copy signed by Arenas and I pull it out and look at it sometimes when I'm longing for better times. I like to study the faces of the crowd; there is almost every emotion you can possibly experience at a sporting event on the faces of the Chicago fans. I'm sure their faces looked a lot different 0.3 seconds later. When Hinrich was traded to the Wizards before the 2010-2011 season, I thought about asking him to sign the photograph too, but I decided to not be that cruel.

The Wizards took game six and the series at home after being down big early, going ahead for good when Jared Jeffries stole the inbounds pass off the back of Chris Duhon and ran the length of the court for the slam. The crowd was going absolutely crazy; I can't wait for the now-Verizon Center to be like that again. In the second round of the playoffs, the team laid down and lost in four straight to the Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O'Neal and the rest of the Miami Heat, a team we had not beaten in seemingly forever. Despite the second round performance, the 2004-2005 season was memorable in so many ways and gave us something to build on and look forward to. The Arenas game five winner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcajwfVHTYI) and Jeffries' steal in game six (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_seuj1YRJT4) are still fun to watch. I just hope those aren't the best moments I'll have as a Wizards fan.

In the 2005 offseason, the Cleveland Cavaliers decided Larry Hughes was the guy they needed to pair with LeBron James to make the team into a winner and offered him a five year, $70 million dollar deal. Ernie Grunfeld and the Wizards decided not to match. Good decision. Despite the team's success in the 2004-2005 season, Boogie had a history of nagging injuries like the broken wrist he sustained that year and $14 million a year was just too much to pay, something the Cavaliers would find out during the next two and a half seasons, before they elected to ship Larry to Chicago in a mid-season deal. To replace Larry, Grunfeld sent Kwame Brown along with Laron Profit to the Los Angeles Lakers for Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins in a deal that still defies common sense. Brown was almost a certified bust and Butler was an up and coming small forward in the last year of his rookie deal. I guess the Lakers felt it was worth taking a chance on Brown or maybe they knew that they wouldn't be able to retain Butler at the end of the season. Whatever the reason, the Wizards immediately inked Butler to a contract extension. Another good decision.

The 2005-2006 season was successful, but just a little bit less successful than the previous season. The team again made the playoffs, finishing the season with a record of 42-40, good for the fifth best record in the conference for the second year in a row. Individual success also continued: Gilbert Arenas was selected to the Eastern Conference All Star team and the All-NBA Third team for the second year in a row.

In the first round of the playoffs, the team drew Larry Hughes, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The two teams split the first four games, each team winning once at home and once on the other's floor. In game five in Cleveland, the Cavaliers edged out the Wizards by a single point in overtime, meaning we had to hold home court in game six in Washington or be done for the season. Game six also went to overtime. Toward the end of the extra session, Gilbert Arenas got fouled and stepped to the free throw line for two shots which, if he had made both, would have given the Wizards a three point lead. Then the first notable incident between Lebron James and the Wizards franchise happened. Rather than allow Gilbert to shoot the free throws unimpeded, LeBron decided to step to the charity stripe with Gilbert and talk some trash, telling him that if he missed the two free throws, the series was over. It should be noted that this sort of act is now an automatic technical foul, but the officials in that game six decided what LeBron did would not draw an infraction of any sort. Of course, Gilbert missed them both and on the ensuing possession with a few seconds left, Damon Jones hit a jumper to seal the game for Cleveland and our season was over.

The Wizards re-loaded in the 2006 offseason, signing free agents DeShawn Stevenson and Darius Songaila. The team started slow in November, going 4-9, but caught fire in December and January, posting a 22-9 mark through those two months. But it wasn't just that they were winning; the team was hot and Gilbert Arenas for those two months was arguably the best player in the NBA. He scored a franchise record 60 points in an overtime game against the Lakers in LA on December 17 and followed that with a 56 point effort in another overtime game in Phoenix less than a week later. Both those games were big road wins for the team, which doesn't always happen when a superstar fills it up. Then the team came back to Washington and Gilbert continued to impress, this time with game winning buzzer beating shots against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 3rd and then again against the Utah Jazz in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day matinee. I remember watching the Milwaukee game from our seats in Section 109. Gilbert let that shot go and turned around and headed for the locker room before it hit the bottom of the net. He just knew it was going in. And two weeks later he knew the Jazz had no chance at the end of the game with the ball in his hands and he was right again. At the All Star break, the team had the best record in the conference and Eddie Jordan would be named the Eastern Conference All Star coach, where he was joined by Gilbert in his third consecutive All Star appearance and Caron Butler in his first.

Then the wheels came off. On January 30, Antawn Jamison had injured his knee, and it showed in the team's February performance. Jamison would return, but a month and a half later, Butler went down, also with a knee injury, only to return and then fracture his hand on April Fools' Day in Milwaukee. But the biggest blow came on April 4 in a home game against the Charlotte Bobcats. Late in the first quarter, Gerald Wallace of the Bobcats fell into Gilbert Arenas' leg; the way Wallace fell twisted Gilbert's leg in a way it was not supposed to bend and Gilbert tore the meniscus in his knee. He would never be the same player again.

The Wizards ended that season with a 2-8 record in the final ten games and limped into the playoffs without Arenas or Butler as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference with a 41-41 overall record. The team again drew LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs and this year went down in four straight. With a second playoff elimination in two years at the hands of the Cavaliers, Wizards fans were starting to really dislike both the Cavaliers and James, who often whined and cried his way through games and was routinely booed in Washington. I guess we were trendsetters in that regard. If there was a season in the last 12 years of being a Wizards season ticketholder that I could truly look back on with regret, it would be the 2006-2007 season. It all went wrong so fast.

Despite the 2006-2007 season collapse, the franchise still felt it had a winner in the Arenas-Butler-Jamison led team and made no major changes in the offseason. Arenas had major knee surgery to repair his torn meniscus and it appeared our Big Three were healthy going into the season and poised to take a run at an Eastern Conference championship. They weren't. Gilbert's knee wasn't right and the team shut him down after only eight games, with the team owning a 3-5 record. But the team gelled around Jamison and Butler, who both made return trips to the All Star game that year, and the team finished with a 43-39 record, an improvement of two games over the prior season.

For the third year in a row, the Wizards drew the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, this time as the four-five matchup with Cleveland owning the better record and home court advantage. The series was highly anticipated due to the two teams facing each other in the playoffs the prior two years, but DeShawn Stevenson amped up the rivalry a little after the Wizards March 13 victory over the Cavaliers at Verizon Center. In a post game interview, Stevenson called LeBron James "overrated" and when asked to respond a few days later, James said "With DeShawn Stevenson, it is kind of funny. It's almost like Jay-Z saying something bad about Soulja Boy. There's no comparison. Enough said."

The 2008 playoff series between the Wizards and Cavaliers seemingly featured drama of every sort. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd believe that the NBA fixed this series to allow the Cavaliers to win. Realistically, it's silly to think that the series was fixed; I mean, who would fix a first round playoff series? But there were just too many things that either the officials or the league did or didn't do to handicap our chances for victory so I allow myself to think that we were doomed to lose that series sometimes.

It started in a close game one. In that game, a seven point loss, the Wizards would have benefited from the couple of free throws and possession from LeBron James' flagrant foul elbow thrown to the head of Andray Blatche. The foul was in retaliation for an earlier foul on James after which he writhed on the court in agony for a few minutes in a way only LeBron James can. Only the elbow wasn't called, either as a flagrant foul or as a personal foul. It was missed entirely by the officials. The league quietly handed down a flagrant foul after the fact, not that it did us any good. We were down 1-0 but there was plenty of time to recover.

Game two was a blowout 30 point victory for the Cavaliers, the largest margin of victory in a playoff game in that franchise's history. The game turned in the decisive third period, when Brendan Haywood picked up a flagrant two foul for a shove on James, after which James told referee Danny Crawford that the Wizards were trying to hurt him. Apparently Crawford believed him because he threw Haywood out of the game and the Wizards just couldn't recover after that. 2-0. Now it looked like we were maybe headed for another sweep like the previous year.

Back at Verizon Center, the Wizards took game three by 36 and made it a 2-1 series in a game that featured Soulja Boy in the front row dressed in a DeShawn Stevenson jersey. That game may have been the most entertaining Wizards playoff game ever as Soulja Boy rapped and we serenaded James with chants of "o-ver-rated" and just relished the blowout. But the Cavaliers rebounded to win game four in a game which DeShawn Stevenson received a flagrant foul for knocking off LeBron's headband during the game and the NBA piled on with a $25,000 fine after the game for what they described as a "menacing gesture" made by D-Steve in the first quarter.

So the Cavaliers headed back to Cleveland up 3-1 with a chance to close out the series in the next game. But they couldn't. Caron Butler made sure of that when he hit the game winning layup with 3.9 seconds to give the Wizards a one point victory. It was back to DC for game six and a chance to even the series at three games each.

But then the league intervened again. In the first quarter of game five, LeBron James became entangled with Darius Songaila on the baseline and in the process of getting untangled, Darius' hand hit James' face. LeBron acted as if he had been cold-cocked, snapping his head back and drawing a technical foul, continuing a sequence of over reactions and flops that he had been engaged in for the entire series. A day passed before the NBA handed a one game suspension down to Songaila late in the morning of game six. Despite our efforts, the team lost and went down to the Cavaliers for the third straight year.

After the series, DeShawn Stevenson summed it up perfectly, declaring "It just shows you he gets any call he wants." Even Papa John's, a corporate sponsor of both the Wizards and Cavaliers, understood James' fake histrionics, handing out t-shirts at Verizon Center with the number "23" and "Crybaby" on the back. In the end (and it was unfortunately really the end), the Wizards had been beaten three straight by the Cavaliers. I'll never root for that franchise or LeBron for the way he beat us those three years.