Banner Night

At first, I didn't think they'd do it. In today's win all or win nothing NBA environment, I thought there was a good chance the Washington Wizards would skip the ceremonial raising of a Division Championship banner. I mean how silly is it to watch a piece of cloth pulled up from the hardwood court to sit among similar banners hanging in the rafters of Capital One Arena when all you have done is finished first in a five team division? Come on, it's five teams. You should be winning once every five years on average.

But the Wizards don't win the division once every five years. In fact, as I've ranted and raved about many many times in this blog, they haven't won one since 1979. That's 38 years ago. And they've never won one as the Wizards or in the District. Last time they hoisted one of these things, it was in the 1970s, a year removed from an NBA Championship and they were called the Bullets and played in Maryland. As if all my fears about the Wizards skipping this thing that I'd waited through 17 years of being a season ticket holder for weren't enough, I attended the Washington Capitals season opener earlier this month. They won a division last season. No banner raising.

Then on Monday we got an email from the team. Get to the arena early on opening night for the "special pregame programming" that was supposed to last all of 15 minutes starting at 6:30. This had to be it, right? Right.

Wrong. My original instinct was right. The promised "special pregame programming" was a ruse. It never happened. I was in my seat at 6:30 on the dot, ready for what I was sure would be a cathartic banner raising after 17 years of being a Wizards season ticket holder. I got bubkus. Nothing. Nada. The banner was already in place when we got to Capital One Arena tonight. And to make matters worse, it was just a tack on to a new compendium of franchise division championships banner. Sure the 2016-2017 Washington Wizards are there at the very bottom but I really wanted one of my own. I'm disappointed and disheartened. I get that it's JUST a division championship but come on...it's been almost four decades. 

It's almost difficult for me to say that I'm so proud of this team for finishing first in the Southeast Division last year. Difficult because it sounds so silly to be celebrating something that a lot of franchises (including the Wizards apparently) don't even bother celebrating any more because just winning a division means nothing compared to what that team's expectations have become every year. But I'm not a fan of those other teams and I don't have that expectation. Yet. I hope one day I will. Until then, I'm going to revel in knowing there's finally a banner hanging in the rafters for a team that I watched, one called the Washington Wizards, even if the team paid it no mind whatsoever. 

Congratulations to all those fans who have suffered years and years for this moment, even if we really didn't get our moment. I'm right there with you. Let's see one of these a lot more often in the next decade please, starting with this season right in front of us.

At least, I guess, I finally get to see the Capital Bullets banner I've been after the team to raise for years. Wizards are 1-0. This was a missed opportunity for me. Huge mis-step by the team.

Southeast Division Champions!

 

Tonight the Washington Wizards clinched the NBA's Southeast Division Championship. I'm so happy and proud to say I was there when it happened even though it was on the west coast. It was a game the Wizards had no business losing and then ironically had no business winning.

It is the first division title for the franchise since they adopted the Wizards nickname and the first since I first bought season tickets in the fall of 2000. Finally, my team has won something and I couldn't be more happy. I can't wait to get my hands on a Southeast Division Champions t-shirt, which will be ordered as soon as they are available online or picked up at Verizon Center next week, whichever comes first.

Why am I so happy about this? Know how long it's been since the Wizards franchise last won a division championship? 1979. 38 years ago. That year the NBA had 22 teams in four divisions. The Jazz were still in New Orleans, the Nets were still in New Jersey, the Kings were still in Kansas City, the SuperSonics were still in Seattle and the Clippers were still in San Diego. The Rockets and Spurs were in the Eastern Conference and the Kings, Bucks, Pacers and Bulls were all in the Western Conference despite all those four cities being east of both Houston and San Antonio. The SuperSonics that year beat the Bullets for the NBA title, Moses Malone was the league's Most Valuable Player and George Gervin led the league in scoring.

As you might expect (and if it wasn't obvious from the paragraph above), in the 37 seasons between championships a lot has happened in the NBA. The league has expanded to 30 teams by putting franchises in Dallas, Miami, Charlotte (twice), Minnesota, Orlando, Toronto and Vancouver (who have since moved to Memphis). One of the Charlotte expansion teams moved to New Orleans to replace the departed Jazz who moved to Utah. Three teams have changed their names not related to a city move: the New Orleans Pelicans who ditched the Hornets nickname, the Charlotte Bobcats, who picked up the Pels' unwanted Hornets name and my beloved Washington Wizards, who decided the world was just too darned violent and would rather not be called the Bullets anymore. Some folks are still clinging to the old name.

Of course there have been 37 champions crowned since the end of the 1978-1979 season but only 11 franchises have managed to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy over those years. The Lakers have won it all 10 times, the Bulls are second with six, the Spurs follow them with five and the Celtics, Pistons, Heat, Rockets, 76ers, Warriors and Cavaliers fill in the rest of the years. Congratulations to all those franchises I guess as well as the Trail Blazers, Suns, Knicks, Magic, SuperSonics, Jazz, Pacers, Nets and Thunder who made it to the Finals but couldn't pull it out. At least you made it.

There have been lots and lots of Division winners since '79 too, just not the Wizards. 28 different teams to be exact, including one franchise (the Seattle SuperSonics / Oklahoma City Thunder) who won at least one under two different names. The Spurs have raised the most banners since the 70s with 19, the Lakers are just one behind and the Celtics and Heat round out the list of 10 plus division winners since the 80s began. Before this year, just four teams were without titles in their current incarnations: the Brooklyn Nets (who did win four while in Jersey); the Charlotte Hornets (who didn't win one the first time they were in Charlotte or when they were called the Bobcats or under their current identity); the Memphis Grizzlies (who stand with the Hornets as the two only completely win-less franchises); and the Washington Wizards.

Now the Wizards are off that list. I feel a weight lifted. Congratulations to the 2016-2017 Washington Wizards for winning the Southeast Division. And to me, for persevering this long. Well, 17 years anyway.

The madness, and I use that term lightly, once theWizards had clinched.