Bang The Gavel

A new NBA season for the Washington Wizards sometimes means new traditions. This year is no different. New Wizards team, new in game announcers, new broadcast team, total loss pretty much all floor seats in the east end of the arena...I could go on but I'll stop there. Almost. The Wizards have decided to insert a new tradition into the pre-game announcements and it's just not working for me.

Get to a Wizards game prior to the team introductions like half of the crowd during an average home game and you might notice that after the lights are dimmed and in between the starting lineups for the visitors and the home team, there's a new pregame ritual where a special guest grabs an oversized gavel and bangs it on an even more oversized sound block (yes, I had to look that up) to get the crowd fired up for the introduction of the Wizards starting five.

I get the intent here. We are in Washington, D.C. where the Supreme Court (and many other courts for that matter) meets and there's a basketball pun tie over there with "court is now in session". Get it? Court. Basketball court. Basketball. Wizards. The reason why you are at Capital One Arena. It's cute, right? And no that's not my objection. Nor is the fact that the sound block just appears to be G Man's old drum head painted with wood colors.

If this were something that really got the crowd pumped up, I'd love it. But it's not. For a couple of reasons. 

First, introducing a new pre-game "get everyone excited" ritual is probably best initiated when the team is good and the Wizards just aren't this year. But more than that, this whole thing seems slid into a spot that needs to be passed over as quickly as possible and the lighting and fanfare employed by the Wizards isn't enough to get it noticed at all.

What I mean by all that is the visitors have just been introduced and the crowd expects the Wizards lineup next, which we get soon enough. If the Wizards really want to pull this off, they should intentionally break the action here and make it obvious that something exciting (or even just different) is happening. The Philadelphia 76ers have a similar ritual where someone rings a replica of the Liberty Bell and the New York Jets (speaking of teams that are no good) have someone famous lead the J! E! T! S! JETS! JETS! JETS! cheer before the game. They both work, because the entire atmosphere is focused on that event. The Wizards' treatment of this pre-game "ritual" needs more emphasis. Turn the lights on or create a custom graphic to blast on the fancy new scoreboard or move it to some other spot. But where it is now isn't working.

I'm interested to see how long the Wizards keep this up in its current format. If they do, they need to get whomever is banging the gavel a better prop than whoever did it during the Spurs game when the head actually fell off the gavel. And try getting some more recognizable folks. Dave Johnson was an awesome first choice for this. But the Bud Light guy from Nationals Park? Not cutting it for me. Get John King to do it. Or past Wizards players. Just my advice.

Apologies on the terrible photo on this post. I can only take so good a pic of this event from where I sit (probably because it's right in the corner of the court). Had to resort to a scoreboard pic.