Free Money!

This may be the shortest, most useful blog post I have ever written about the Wizards game experience.

Got Washington Wizards tickets? Got a Capital One card? If you answered both of those questions in the affirmative and you actually can stand going to Wizards games lately, you need to start putting those two things together, if you are not already.

There are many ways to enter Capital One Arena before a Wizards game. My pattern for probably the last 10 plus years or so is to usually go in through the main entrance on F Street or the back entrance in the alley near Clyde's and then head straight upstairs to the second level to buy the cheapest (and that's a really relative term) beer in the place up in the Budweiser Brewhouse from my bartender, Roxy. 

Now everything has changed.

Before this year, the last thing I would think of would be to enter Capital One Arena on the east side of the building. It's just further to walk for someone who is coming from either the Gallery Place Metro exit at the southwest corner of the building or from further west all the way at Metro Center. Plus it's not like there are lines at the door at most Wizards games I attend. Nobody is looking to see this team play the Jazz on a Tuesday or Magic on a Saturday. Do I really need a dedicated entrance with a marginally shorter line so I can inside the building maybe five minutes faster? Those five minutes may end up just offsetting the extra walk I have to make to the southeast corner of the building.

Thumbs up for the Capital One line!

The answer, as it turns out, is yes, I do really need to go to that dedicated entrance. It is a shorter line, although let's face it, the lines for the Nets, Clippers and Pelicans games weren't all that long to begin with. If nothing else, the whole metal detector process seems easier and quicker.

But the real reason I've been entering the building through that door is they folks checking my Capital One card have been handing me $5 off concession coupons every game I've done this. And $5 concession coupons means $5 off food like David Chang's new spot on the west side of the building or the build your own tater tots stand on the east side (I know they are bad for you but they are seriously really freaking good!). It also works on beer and in the Budweiser Brewhouse, which means my first 25 oz Budweiser is now $4.25. How awesome is that? And if you detest Bud, you can get something else (Budweiser is my only choice of beer at Cap One; just is) at a $5 discount instead.

Think that extra walk isn't worth anything? It's at least worth $5. Get yourself over there with your Capital One card tomorrow night against the Rockets. If nothing else, you'll likely get money off your beer or food (unless it's Dunkin' Donuts which isn't playing along here). No card, no coupon. But if you've got a card, you will likely get one. Hey, you might even get two. 

It's happened.

Says it's good on 100 and 400 levels only but it works at the Budweiser Brewhouse.

The Polish Machine

Right before the beginning of the 2013-2014 NBA season, I was sitting in a bar in Clarendon having one or two (or maybe more) beers when I saw the ticker on the bottom of the ESPN screen announce that the Wizards had traded starting center Emeka Okafor and their 2014 first round draft pick to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Marcin Gortat. Okafor was coming off a comeback year with the Wizards and had re-established himself as a legitimate defensive minded center on a team with playoff aspirations. 

Yes, I said aspirations. At that point, the John Wall version of the Wizards had yet to make the postseason.

Unfortunately for Okafor, there was a mysterious back injury which promised to sideline him indefinitely (it would be this calendar year - or more than four years - before Okafor's next NBA game) and the Wizards needed a solution. For the Suns, they flipped Gortat's expiring contract for a first round draft pick. For the Wizards, the team got a starting center in his prime on a one year rental with the hope that they could re-sign him long term going forward. The Emeka Okafor era was over in Washington. Time to see what Marcin Gortat could do for the Wizards.

Turns out Marcin was a pretty good Wizard. His stats rank better than any other big man the Wizards (I said, Wizards, not Bullets) have ever had. Over his five seasons, Marcin managed to place seventh all time on the franchise rebound list (fifth in defensive rebounds and seventh in offensive and overall, if you must know); third in field goal percentage all time; and eighth on the franchise blocks list.

Yes, you can get pretty far up these lists if you play enough games in Washington and there have been so few long tenured players in this organization recently that in some categories, it's easy to measure up on the all time leaders list in just five years. But Marcin genuinely produced in his time in Washington. He averaged double figures in scoring every year except last season and at least 8.7 boards per game each year with the exception of last year. He also was a perennial league leader in screen assists (4th last year and 1st in 2016-2017) and seemed like the perfect screen and roll partner for John Wall.

And, unlike a number of other Wizards players over the last five seasons, Marcin showed up  healthy, in shape and ready to play pretty much every game. His regular season games played totals over his five years in D.C.? 81-81-75-82-82. The 75 game season was affected more by his mother's illness requiring him to leave the team for a few games than it was by anything else.  Bottom line, Marcin kept himself in shape and came to the arena ready to play every single week and month. And he wasn't shy about letting folks know how proud he was of his conditioning. Of course, that's where things went a little south.

When Marcin joined the Wizards in the fall of 2013, they had just drafted Otto Porter. Marcin took one look at Otto and knew he needed some serious time in the weight room to bulk up and made it one of his missions his first year in D.C. to add some pounds to the rookie's frame. It was exactly the kind of mentoring that teams should want and expect out of their veterans. 

Unfortunately, finding fault with his teammates' conditioning seems to have been more of an issue for Marcin than he could really be expected to contain. After a loss in January of 2016, Marcin was quoted "they've got to take care of their bodies. At the end of the day it's the players' responsibility. I personally can't understand how this is possible, how people can constantly get hurt." That rant of sorts was seen by me as a direct criticism of fellow front court mate Nenê who admittedly had difficulty at times in his career setting foot on the court each night and was at times seen as a bit of a diva. But on a team, you have to keep that frustration in house.

Marcin didn't. It happened time and time again and eventually he couldn't even stop with franchise cornerstone John Wall, tweeting "Great 'team' victory" after a March 2018 victory over the Toronto Raptors in a game that John Wall missed. While Marcin downplayed the significance of the tweet, the press made a lot of it, perhaps even more than should have been made. But whether Marcin's intent was accurately inferred or not, it seemed that this incident was turning out to be a tipping point of sorts. The conventional wisdom with the Wizards became that what was really holding this team back was locker room chemistry and that Marcin Gortat was a cancer that needed to be cut out.

So now we are 16 games into the post-Gortat Wizards era after Marcin was traded this offseason to the Los Angeles Clippers. His replacement, noted non-locker room chemistry guy Dwight Howard, has been a dream signing, producing on the court and remaining quiet off it (I know, it's only 16 games...). Yet the Wizards are not fixed. In fact, they might be worse. Their record through 16 games? 5-11 with bad losses already to Orlando, Brooklyn, Dallas and Oklahoma City amid a notable lack of passion and effort. Like really noticeable.

So what's the problem this year? Maybe it's the coaching. Maybe it's the front office's failure to adapt to the modern NBA. Maybe Brad and John don't like playing with Otto? Or resent his salary? Maybe Markieff Morris needs to sit? Maybe it's the rotations? Maybe it's conditioning? Maybe Brooks needs to stagger his starters more? (he does) Or at least some? Maybe Troy Brown needs more time on the court during games? Maybe the Wizards need to realize they have a real G-League team of their own and use it properly? Maybe it's rebounding? Maybe it's effort? Maybe it's the fact that one or more of their three max deal players lack motivation? 

Whatever it is, it's not Marcin Gortat's fault. And given the start to this year, it probably wasn't Marcin's fault last year either. There's something way more wrong with the Wizards than a starting center. I'm not saying the Wizards trading Marcin this off season wasn't a good idea. Marcin is averaging fewer minutes, points and rebounds than any point in his post-Orlando career. He's also on a team with a winning record and surprisingly in the playoff picture at this early point in the season.

I have a personal tradition at Wizards games when a former player returns to Washington. If I felt that player contributed in his time in a Wizards uniform and left on good terms (i.e. not Jared Jeffries) then I'll give a personal standing ovation. Marcin Gortat is going to get one from me on Tuesday. And he'll have deserved it.

New Cap One Signage, Ranked

Over the summer, Capital One Arena underwent a significant transformation. New seats were installed, the entire lower level concourse was renovated and there are a significant amount of new dining options in the building. I posted a quick rundown on this blog of what I saw at the September Wizards open house a couple of months ago.

The coolest of all the renovations, in my opinion, is the installation of new signage at the entrances to the lower level seating sections. Now it's true that the purple and yellow signs were one of the more objectionable design decisions made when MCI Center was built, but it's not just the removal of these monstrosities (i.e. addition by subtraction) that makes this upgrade the coolest part of the renovation. The new signs celebrate the history of the building and the history of the Wizards, Capitals and Mystics that call the building home. All told, there are 22 of these things. Let's rank them shall we? Why not? We rank everything else in life it seems.

Inevitably in any sort of comprehensive ranking like this, there will be some excellent entries and some real stinkers. That's totally true of this list. Some of these signs are awesome while others are not unique in any way to 601 F Street NW, which really sort of sucks. In some cases, the event depicted on the sign didn't even happen in the building at all and I've taken that into account sometimes as I'm counting them down from 22 to 1. I'm including the section where each sign is located in parentheses in case you want to check out your own favorites.

22. Capital Investment (101/102)
I get that Capital One paid for all these new signs but this is ridiculous. This is not an accomplishment in any way. It's just paying money. If I could have ranked this sign lower, I would have.

21. WWE (112/113)

Come on. Really? WWE? You only have 22 of these signs and decide to devote a whole sign to WWE? I guess they pay money to rent the building when they come to town. Money talks at 21 as well as 22.

20. Tim McGraw & Faith Hill (108/109)
There have been many, many, many concerts held at 601 F Street NW over the last 20 or so years. Was Tim McGraw and Faith Hill really one of the best? I have a hard time believing this. I've seen Bob Dylan twice in this building. And while one of those shows was not Bob's best, I'd go with Dylan over McGraw and Hill.

19. Inaugural AFL Game (115/116)
Nobody really cares about the AFL, do they? This four team league (half of which Monumental Sports owns) is barely on life support. At least they didn't make a sign out of the electronic sports league. I'm thankful for that at least.

18. (NCAA) Tournament Host (105/106)
I was truly tempted to put the building hosting NCAA basketball games below Tim McGraw and Faith Hill but ultimately basketball won out over country music here, even though basketball is exactly what the building was designed to host. Neither is really worth making remarkable enough to put on a permanent sign in the building in my opinion but they didn't ask me.

17. Wizards Draft Bradley Beal (113/114)
16. MVP Comes To DC (119/120)
Only time will tell if these two events are really as important as they seem right now. Sure, both players are elite in their own leagues but their time in Washington has been either (a) really short or (b) just not that significant from a team perspective. Yes, Elena Delle Donne has taken the Mystics to the WNBA Finals after forcing a trade to Washington two years ago but what if that's it? Does she really deserve a sign in the building? I'd go out on a limb here and suggest that the Mystics in the Finals is more deserving of a sign, but perhaps that happened too late in the construction process.

Bradley Beal has made an All-Star Game. Once. What if Beal gets traded? What happens to his sign? It has to get replaced, right? And why Beal not Wall? Isn't Wall getting drafted more significant right now than Beal getting drafted? I'd say it is. I'd also say that Monumental Sports was looking for a way to get Beal into the mix somehow and this was their only chance. 

Neither of these things happened in the building, by the way. That in addition to the uncertain significance of these two events puts these two 16th and 17th. In a few years, they could be a lot higher. And I have no idea what's up with the color on these two pictures. It's completely operator error.

15. Beyoncé (118/119)
I struggled with putting Beyoncé higher than Delle Donne and Beal but at least she performed in the building. Not much else to say on this one.

14. Gonchar Hat Trick (110/111)

There have been 140 hat tricks in Washington Capitals history through the beginning of the 2018-2019 season. Sergei Gonchar has one of those, on January 4, 2000. I'm not sure why this particular hat trick was picked for this sign. It wasn't the first hat trick at MCI Center (Peter Bondra had the first four of those). The caption on the sign says it was just the second in franchise history by a defender. Is that really worth it? I'm not sure. Seems like a stretch to me.

13. Snow-vechkin (117/118)
12. Playoff Goals (114/115)
Caps fans are hating me right about now, I'm sure. Actually who's kidding whom? The likelihood of any of the 12 or so people who read this blog being enough of a die-hard Capitals fan to actually hate me is slim at best.  I put these two at 12 and 13 because honestly, there's enough love for Alex Ovechkin later on in this countdown and these are just two of his 20 career hat tricks. Both of these happened to come against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which I am sure is no accident. The 2009 game is ranked higher because it's a playoff game.

11. 2001 NBA All-Star Game (103/104)

I may have short-changed the All-Star game on this list but looking at everything below it (meaning higher ranked), I can't honestly justify moving it higher. I never really valued the All-Star Game until I attended for myself in New York in 2015 and even then I didn't really value it as a contest, just as an all-weekend event. Shown in the photo above? Allen Iverson, David Robinson and Dikembe Mutombo. No Wizards participated in this game even though the starting forwards for the Eastern Conference were Anthony Mason and Antonio Davis. The Wizards were not good in 2001.

10. Prince (104/105)

Non-basketball, non-hockey stuff hasn't done very well on this list but let's face it, the WWE, Beyoncé and Tim McGraw/Faith Hill are NOT Prince. According to my (not very exhaustive) research, it appears Prince only played the building once, on August 14, 2004. If that's really the case, I would have made sure the date was on Prince's sign. Prince playing is every bit as important (actually, way more) as Sergei Gonchar scoring a hat trick.

9. 1978 NBA Champions (120/121)

I struggled with this one more than any other. The Bullets won the NBA Championship in 1978, 19 years before MCI Center opened. It's a distant memory and not associated with this building in any way. It's also the single-most memorable thing the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards franchise has ever done and that's not likely to change any time soon. If this list were just about significant events in Wizards etc. and Capitals history, this would have to be number one or number two. But it's not. It's about celebrating events in MCI Center / Verizon Center / Capital One Arena. At least that's how I see it. Sorry to all the Bullets fans out there who are still pining for the old name.

8. WNBA Comes To Washington (106/107)
I'm sure there are folks out there who think this is way too high on this list, especially since it's higher than the Bullets winning the NBA Championship in 1978. I don't care. The WNBA is the longest running significant women's team sports league in the United States. The Mystics have been around in D.C. for 20 years and just capped off their most recent campaign with an appearance in the WNBA Finals. The success of the WNBA is important. It deserves this spot on this list. 

7. Earl "The Pearl" Monroe Number Retired (111/112)

I never saw Earl Monroe play but I've run into him in New York a couple of times during 2015 All-Star Weekend and I get his place in basketball (and Baltimore Bullets) history. Maybe a little biased pick prioritizing a Bullets / Wizards historical event over some sporting events actually held in the building but hey, it's my list. I was there on December 1, 2017 when the Pearl's number was retired. I still have the mini-banner giveaway they handed out that night.

6. 1000th For Hunter (107/108)

Dale Hunter is one of four Washington Capitals (right now) with his number retired. Hunter spent 19 seasons in the NHL and 12 years in Washington. As of the beginning of the 2018-2019 NHL season, only 87 players had recorded 1,000 points in the NHL. Hunter is the only one of those who also has 3,000 penalty minutes (Hunter is second all time with 3,565). He's likely never to be passed in penalty minutes by a 1,000 point scorer. Hunter's 1,000th point came at MCI Center on January 9, 1998 when he actually recorded his 998th, 999th and 1,000th point in the same game.

5. Game Winner (100/101)
The Wizards have made it to game seven of the second round of the NBA playoffs just once and John Wall's game winner in game six at home in May of 2017 did it. Wall doesn't hit many game winners. This one was the biggest I've ever seen him hit. He was absolutely on top of his game at this point and it's deservedly memorialized in one of these signs. After hitting the shot, Wall jumped up on the scorers' table and declared himself pretty much king of Washington. I missed that. I was too busy hugging my friend Mike and jumping up and down.

4. Southeast Division Champions (109/110)

I feel bad having this event so far up this countdown. As I've already pointed out in my September blog post, the Wizards didn't actually clinch the Southeast Division at home. But since it's the only thing this team has won in the 18 plus seasons I've had season tickets, I'm throwing myself a bone here.

3. Ovechkin's Debut (102/103)

It is quite frankly difficult to put anything that has happened at MCI Center / Verizon Center / Capital One Arena ahead of all that Alex Ovechkin has accomplished in his time in Washington. Certainly for the purposes of this post, I find it difficult to put anything Wizards-related ahead of the Great Eight (although I did). And yes, Ovi did make his debut at MCI Center (not on the road) on October 5, 2005 and yes, he scored in his first game. Twice, actually.

2. "I Called Game" (116/117)

It seems odd to me that I'm placing one shot in one playoff game by a guy who ended up being a rent-a-star for a single year above all other Wizards moments but I am. I know Ted is deliberately exiling Gilbert Arenas by not including anything Agent Zero did in Washington but for all the great game winners Gil hit, this one was better and more important. Too bad the one in game six didn't count.

1. Champions (100/121)
I mean is there really any competition for this? The only championship won by a non-AFL resident of the building and it was clinched in the building. No contest. This is number one.

There you have it. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. At least until Elena Delle Donne makes the Mystics into champions or Bradley Beal wins the NBA Most Valuable Player award. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong. This is clearly a list heavily sponsored by Ted Leonsis. The complete absence of Wizards prior to John Wall's arrival is testament to that. I still think Gilbert Arenas at his best was better than any other Wizard at his best.

And yes, I'm still having doubts about that nine spot.

The Patch

Let's face it. So far this season, the Wizards stink. It's either poor coaching, poor roster assembly, lack of effort, lack of caring or all of the above which has gotten the team off to a 3-9 start through last night's victory agains the Miami Heat in southern Florida. Tied with the Atlanta Hawks was not where I thought we'd be 12 games in. 

By the way, it's definitely at least poor roster assembly.

From the opening tip against Miami in the season opener at Capital One Arena on October 18 to the final buzzer last night at American Airlines Arena, the mood of Wizards fans and Wizards Twitter has been like a pendulum the last month. Calls of "Fire Ernie!" (they should, and I mean now) and "Fire Scotty!" (they should soon unless...) and critiques like "John Wall looks out of shape" (he does) and "the Wizards don't like each other and that's why they look like they don't care" have turned to guarded optimism after just one road win against a maybe playoff hopeful. I actually saw one tweet this morning proclaiming the Wizards as a title contender. Not sure how beating the 2018 version of the Miami Heat gets you to championship hopeful but that's where some Wizards fans are right now. I feel their pain. Truly.

And don't worry, that situation will likely correct itself this week.

About a week and a half ago, the Wizards released some news about their jerseys for the young season and it was about as good and bad as the team has been so far this year. Just hours apart the team revealed this year's fourth jersey (dubbed by Nike as the City Edition just like last year) and then announced they would be joining 27 of the other 29 teams (Indiana and Oklahoma City are the lone holdouts) in the NBA in slapping advertisements on their threads for this season and presumably forever.

A close up look at this year's Wizards City Edition jersey.

Let's cover the good really quickly then move on to the point of this post. This year's City Edition uniforms are exactly the same as last year's but instead of being mostly white, they are mostly black. I think Wizards Twitter about exploded when these things were revealed. In the midst of pretty much the maximum level of angst experienced by Wizards fans (the team was 1-6 at the time) this year's fourth uni got almost universal praise. I'm not as psyched about black uniforms as just about everyone else in the D.C. area I guess. I think they are OK. If nothing else, the Washington Monument shows up way better on the sides of the jerseys than it did on the whites last year. It's also going to be really difficult for me to not buy the truly excellent City Edition black with red D.C. flag t-shirt that Nike brought out to accompany these things though.

Now that's out of the way, let's talk about jersey sponsorships. I knew this day would one day come when the Wizards would cave and let some company pay some money to slap their advertisement on the Wizards jerseys but it doesn't mean I have to like it. This stinks. It's purely a money grab because the league can. The press release announced this news as "more than a patch" and they are absolutely correct. It's a violation, it's unnecessary, it's ugly and it just plain sucks. I thought when the Wizards finally did this that I would roll over, having been desensitized to this stuff by 27 prior franchises. I didn't. It's truly terrible. I hate it. The only thing worse about the jersey patch is I know there's no going back.

And yes, this is all about the principle of the thing. It's not at all about GEICO, the company who the Wizards are allowing to befoul their jerseys. I actually love GEICO. When I was first trying to get car insurance for myself they were the only insurance company willing to let me buy insurance despite a flawless driving record and I've been with them ever since. But their name does not belong on my basketball team's jersey any more than GE belongs on the Boston Celtics jerseys or Zatarain's belongs on the New Orleans Pelicans jerseys or Bumble belongs on the Los Angeles Clippers jerseys. 

OK, the Bumble thing is pretty appropriate.

The Wizards aren't the only team afflicted with the GEICO ad on their jersey. The brand new Capital City Go-Go also get an extra large sponsorship from my favorite insurance company on their kit every game this season. I'm not so upset about this branding. There's no way the G-League makes money for the NBA owners and ads have been rampant in the NBA's development system for years. I actually find the GEICO wording less objectionable than the "Capital City" wording on the team's blue jerseys. Could they have found a worse font for these things? I'm not sure they could.

But the team that really got screwed by this partnership (remember...it's more than a patch) are the Washington Mystics. Sure, advertisements looks awful on NBA jerseys but if we had to have them, they couldn't really have made them any smaller and the GEICO fits in pretty well into the space on the left shoulder. Ditto for the Go-Go branding but at least they put the GEICO at the bottom of the jersey which allowed the name of the city (sort of...I still don't like the Capital City name) and the team nickname to be where it belongs on the shirt. But the Mystics jerseys look like they are playing on the GEICO company basketball team.

Look, I get the WNBA takes a back seat to the NBA and apparently also the G-League. But unless you have some kind of great seats or some kind of great eyes, it's going to be difficult to tell that you are rooting for the Mystics or the city of Washington when you are at a game. Sure the name (in logo form) is still on the jersey, but it's about as big as the GEICO logo on the NBA version although the font size is way smaller. 

I know the Mystics are not the only WNBA team to have this happen to them. In fact most of the teams are using this same strategy of having the sponsorship across the top of the uniform and the team logo on the shoulder. Notable exceptions include the Chicago Sky who have sold advertising space both across the top of the jersey AND on the shoulder (and so have no team identification at all) and the Las Vegas Aces who are using the NBA model with the team name where it belongs and a small advertisement on the shoulder.

The reason the Mystics can't use the Go-Go style of design is that the bottom of all the WNBA jerseys features the Verizon logo. But I don't see why the Mystics can't force the GEICO logo into the same spot that the NBA places it just like the Aces have done. How much is GEICO really paying for the WNBA sponsorship anyway?

Call me old-fashioned. Call me resistant to change. Call me just plain old and stuck in the past. But I don't like these things one bit. I've been watching teams playing European soccer with very large advertisements across their chests for as long as I can remember and I guess I accept that. But there's no good reason for the NBA to do this except to generate slightly more (and I do mean slightly more) revenue. I hate this. Thank God they are still selling jerseys without the ads. Although considering the Wizards performance the last couple of years, I'm sticking with my old Adidas John Wall jersey for as long as I can I'm thinking.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Fire Ernie!