Is That It?

From 2012 when I started this blog until two years ago, I wrote and published a post each fall called Free Stuff! That annual post was a preview of the Wizards promotional schedule and my writing of that column was generally accompanied by a circling of key dates when good stuff would be available at the doors of MCI Center / Verizon Center for me to add to my Wizards shelves at home. Lunch boxes, nesting dolls, action figures, stuffed G-Wizes and the top of the top giveaways: bobbleheads.

Last year I wrote about the Wizards promotional schedule but I didn't call it Free Stuff! becasue there was barely any stuff on it. I thought maybe this year (and I'm pinning this all on the fact that Ernie Grunfeld is gone for some reason) would be different. Maybe this would be the year when the Wizards would put out an honest to goodness promotional schedule.

It's not. 

This year's promotional schedule is:

• October 30: Schedule Magnet.
• December 18: Rep The District T-Shirt.
• April 15: Thomas Bryant Bobblehead.

That's it. Three nights. A schedule magnet, a t-shirt (that will surely be XL only and thus completely unwearable) and a bobblehead. Pathetic. There are teams out there giving away more bobbleheads than the Wizards are giving away things. This is awful.

Now being a Wizards fan, I have to see the bright side in getting disappointed year after year after year so I'll say two things here. First, I'm thankful the bobblehead isn't Bradley Beal or John Wall since those two seem to be the Wizards' default positions for the annual bobblehead. Second, last year the Wizards had three items on their promo schedule and added a pair of socks later on. Maybe there's hope for a fourth item. Probably a poster.

I'm disappointed. But then again, that's nothing new for me as a Wizards fan. I did circle April 15 on my calendar (or more accurately I took that game's tickets off the Ticketmaster resale site) and I will be showing up that night. 

The picture at the top of this post is the picture used by the Wiz in their announcement. Why? There's nothing Bradley Beal related or Rui Hachimura related about this announcement.

That's all I got here. Out.