NBA Logo Rank, Part 2

Last Saturday I posted part one of my five part ranking of NBA logos, which is serving as my distraction or methadone (whichever you prefer) for the lack of NBA activity this month. I have to do something to keep my mind occupied. I expect the NBA schedule to be released sometime in the next week or so. Until then, let's get to part two of this countdown.

24. Cleveland Cavaliers

It's no secret that I have no love for the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise, their star player, their second star player, their fans or their owner. That lack of love is not, however, the reason why I put the Cavs 24th on this list. Their logos just aren't very good. I dislike the diagonal wordmark and the huge basketball in their primary logo in addition to the sword running in the opposite diagonal direction. There's no refinement or grace in this logo and it's just too busy.

The secondary or partial logos are a little better although I don't understand how the flag is staying on the razor sharp cavalier's sword unless it's just dull. My favorite by far would be the center logo above. Without my glasses on it looks like a red cocktail onion on a miniature sword toothpick, which is an image far more appealing than anything to do with the Cavaliers, especially if I haven't drunk the martini I'm imagining the logo came from yet.

I just think the Cavaliers branding is clumsy. Better than the Clips, Thunder, Nuggets, Pistons, Kings and Mavs but that's about it. And I wouldn't blame Mavs fans for being upset that they fell one spot behind here.

23. Orlando Magic

Let's get this out of the way right away: I actually think the Magic's partial logo is OK. Maybe even more than OK. Maybe good. It's difficult to draw these non-tangible names like the Thunder, Heat and Magic so on that level, I think the folks who designed Orlando's logo actually did a pretty good job. There are some teams ranked way higher in this list who have one good logo as their saving grace. 

But for me and the Magic, I just have one question: is that it? I mean all you have is a shiny basketball with a swooshy looking lightning bolt thing with three stars. Really? That's all you got? I need more out of my basketball team logos. I'm sorry but I just do.

I'm also offended by the font in the primary logo, especially the word "Magic". Where did they find these letters? I'm especially irked by the middle leg of the "M"; why isn't it as long as the other legs of the letter. I'm disappointed by the lack of complexity here. Good effort but it's like getting a naked hamburger patty when I really want a complete sandwich complete with all the trimmings.

22. Phoenix Suns

Why the Phoenix Suns roll out the logos above when they have one of the best NBA logos of all time stashed away in their closet is beyond me. But let's imagine I let that go and evaluate the collection of images based on their own merits relative to the offerings from the rest of the teams in the league.

I'm actually OK with their primary logo. The suns have been using some variety of the streaking skyward basketball sun for a while now and I think it works. I'm not sure I'd put it in the sort of leaning parallelogram with two rounded corners but it's still alright.

It's the other two logos I have a real issue with. The design on the right is especially awful. The colors are terrible (yes, I know they are the Suns colors), the shape of the logo is weird and the negative space sun looks like the logo has been scratched and bitten my some hideous unseen monster. It reminds me of the really really really bad Syracuse University "Artsy SU" logo that the school adopted in the early '90s which most students compared to a stylized dollar sign, which is all the University seemed to care about back then.

Finally, I have to take issue with the "airport code" logo. The graphic of a basketball on fire with a phoenix rising from the image of the flames is I guess acceptable. But an airport code? Really? The concept makes me shudder, especially when I think about the YYZ Raptors or the MSY Pelicans. Not sold. Please, Wizards, never adopt a DCA uni, although I guess it would be better than IAD.

21. Houston Rockets

The Rockets are a team that's suffering from the same sort of malaise that the Magic are suffering from: one logo recycled over and over again, only they do it just a little bit better, even if it's just in the font that they chose. I think the primary Rockets logo is actually fairly pleasing. Depending on the day, I either see the design as two rockets shooting towards space or one rocket on the rise with the scaffold holding it in place next to it.

For those of us who can remember back this far, this Rockets logo replaced one of the worst logos in NBA history, the vicious cartoon rocket racing around a red basketball Earth. Sort of creepy. For that fix alone, the Rockets deserve the 21 spot, no matter how inventive or un-inventive they are. The logo was created when Houston was anchored by Chinese star Yao Ming, which explains the sort of Chinese calligraphy feel to the letters spelling out the name of the team.

If the primary logo here is a success, the secondary or alternate logo is a bit of a fail. The three rockets in the "HR" logo look more like a bank of surface to air missiles ready to shoot down an aircraft invading whatever airspace they are protecting. Good to have in real life maybe but I can do without them in my hoops branding.

20. Minnesota Timberwolves

When I was a kid, I used to spend hours in study hall, mostly in sixth grade, drawing sports logos, mostly football and hockey. Back then, it seemed like all the logos were fairly easy to draw which made them appealing as simple expressions of something that could bring fans together. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves logos are the exact opposite of those logos I used to draw as a kid. How can any 11 or 12 year old possibly draw these things? Just look at how complicated they are. For that reason and that reason alone, the Wolves are relegated to 20th place here. I admit, I'd struggle as a budding architect with some drawing ability to hand sketch the Cavaliers primary logo or the Phoenix Suns airport code logo, but I know I could take a shot at the cocktail onion on a sword shaped toothpick or the ugly Suns graphic pretty easily.

There's nothing necessarily that wrong with Minnesota's logos, they are just too complicated for kids to draw. OK, so I really don't like the wolf howling at the basketball moon. I'm just not into it. Can't quite explain why. Next!

19. Brooklyn Nets

If the Timberwolves logos are too complicated, here's some relief: Brooklyn's ain't. These things in fact might be a little too simple. But somehow they work well enough to crack the top 20 on my countdown.

When I've assembled these lists of mascots, names and logos over the past two years or so, there have been some teams in whichever countdown which move around a lot from their initial placement. Brooklyn is that team in this ranking. I initially had the Nets placed at 27th, but the more I look at these designs, the more I'm convinced that simple is OK here.

Don't get me wrong, the shield shaped logo is poor at best and there's no way any of these things work if they are represented in any colors other than just plain old black and white, but there's an appealing straightforwardness to the "B" in the ball with or without the text ring around it that seems to represent what Brooklyn is all about. And I love the fact that the text in the center logo says "Brooklyn New York" rather than "Brooklyn Nets." It's all about the simple blue collar borough here. It works well enough to place 19th, which in reality is not that much to be proud of.

NBA Team Name Rank, Part 2

Two weeks ago, I posted Part 1 of a promised three part series about NBA team names. Gotta do something to keep my mind on the NBA in August. Here's Part 2.

Category Five: Not Relevant But Alliterative

I can just hear the cries of woe coming from Cleveland now. Yes, the next two nicknames are not relevant and are also incredibly boring, just like the Cavaliers. And yes, the Cavaliers name is alliterative and the Kings name is not. And why am I even separating boring non-alliterative names from boring alliterative names? All good points and questions, but it's my blog and the Cavs ain't going in the same category as the Wizards. No way, no how. And let's face it, nobody from Cleveland is likely to read this anyway.

20. Sacramento Kings

The NBA traces its history back to the 1946-1947 season when the league began life as the Basketball Association of America or BAA. By the start of the 1949-1950 season, the league had been re-named as the National Basketball Association and the Kings, or Rochester Royals, as they were named at that time, were aboard as part of the partial merger with the National Basketball League in 1948. Since they joined the now-NBA, the Kings have had more names than any other franchise except one, mostly due to their continual movement west. Their evolution starts with the Rochester Royals and continues as follows: Cincinnati Royals, Kansas City-Omaha Kings, Kansas City Kings and finally the Sacramento Kings.

As a nickname, the Kings is OK, sort of middle of the road but not relevant at all, especially since the Kings have never been Kings of the NBA (the Royals were once, in 1951). The Kings come in at number 20 only because their name used to be alliterative in Kansas City and to tweak folks in Cleveland. I'm not sure their original name, the Rochester Seagrams, named after the company they played for, would rank any higher on this list, although it's certainly less generic. Shaquille O'Neal famously referred to the franchise as the Sacramento Queens but we won't go there here.

19. Washington Wizards

I see the Wizards placing 19th on this list (as opposed to first on last year's mascot rank) as proof that my rankings on totally subjective NBA issues don't always favor my beloved D.C. hoops team, although placing them this high is probably a little bit of a homer pick. I just finished writing about how the Kings are the second most named franchise; the Wizards finish first in this category and they blow the Kings away in terms of nicknames. Not sure that's a good thing; I'm just saying.

The Wizards joined the NBA for the 1961-1962 season as the Chicago Packers. A year later, they changed their nickname to the Zephyrs. One year after that, they moved to Baltimore and re-named themselves the Baltimore Bullets (they were the second Baltimore Bullets franchise to exist). The year 1963 often appears on Wizards merchandise as the team's founding year, especially when Abe Pollin ran the team. From there, a little nickname stability kicked in, although the team moved. The team was re-named the Capital Bullets for the 1973-1974 season after a move to Landover, Maryland and a year later they became the Washington Bullets which stuck until 1997 when they became the Washington Wizards. Phew! Glad all that's over.

As a name, Wizards honestly is not very good. The name was chosen in one of those oh-so-brilliant public contests (see Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavalier in Part 1 of this ranking) that NBA franchises sometimes participate in and so something like Wizards was really to be expected. The name beat out Dragons, Express, Stallions and Sea Dogs. Honestly, I sort of feel lucky we ended up as the Wizards. At least it's alliterative. Let's move on.

Category Six: Relevant But Blah

So finally we are into franchise names that are relevant in their current locations (other than the Milwaukee Bucks which were covered in the first part of this series). From here on out, there's some good stuff and it gets better with each team. Unfortunately, the first two relevant team names are a little uninspired. The worst of the best, if you will.

18. Dallas Mavericks

So Texas has cowboys, right? And cowboys ride horses, right? And everyone loves cowboys, right? Well, maybe not everyone but enough to base a team name on, right? All that is true, but horses is sort of a weak name so Dallas decided to use the name Mavericks, which is really in the truest sense of the word a name for a stray cow. I'll give the Mavs the benefit of the doubt and say their name is relevant. But it's bottom of the barrel relevant.

17. Minnesota Timberwolves

Just like the Mavericks name is OK because there are horses in Texas, the Minnesota Timberwolves name is OK because there are wolves in Minnesota, although wolves are actually pretty darned fierce so the name qualifies on the intimidation / I'm afraid of the actual thing that you are named after scale. The team name (again) was the result of a public contest and Timberwolves beat out Polars (thank God!). Kudos for the Timberwolves for not adopting either of the city's two ABA franchise names, the Muskies or Pipers. Timberwolves is much better.

Category Seven: Singular Plurals / Weather Related

I hate singular team names; just don't like them at all. It's a personal preference but I've known other people who have felt the same way. Oddly enough, two of the NBA's singular team names are weather related. I'm not sure why, but since there's another sort of weather related team name out there, I've put all four of these into a single category. I just feel the need to categorize, I guess.

16. Orlando Magic

Take one guess how the Magic got their name? That's right, it was a contest, this one sponsored by the Orlando Sentinel. The name beat out Heat, Tropics and Juice. You have no idea how much I long for the Orlando Juice. Can you imagine how ridiculous a Juice home game would be against the Washington Sea Dogs or the Minnesota Polars. The juice would have to have orange uniforms, right?Anyway, as a nickname for Orlando, I guess the Magic name ain't bad. There is allegedly no connection to Disney World (aka the Magic Kingdom) but, come on...really? Who's kidding whom here?

Honestly, I got nothing here. How do you show a picture of thunder?

15. Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder popped up on the NBA nicknames list in 2008, when the team bolted Seattle and left the Supersonics name behind. Good move, here. The Supersonics, named after Seattle's proximity to Boeing's headquarters, doesn't work in Oklahoma. The name was chosen because of the vicious storms the state experiences yearly but also because the United States Army's 45th infantry division, also known as the Thunderbirds, resided in Oklahoma City from their founding in 1920 to their deactivation in 1968. That last part is really awesome, actually.

14. Miami Heat

I get it...Miami is hot. Hot = Heat. Cool!

I still think the Suns should change their mascot to the Jimmy Dean Sun. Just saying...

13. Phoenix Suns

The Suns finish at the top of this category, if only because they do not have a singular nickname, which I've already expressed some disdain for. Oh...and it's hot in Phoenix, just like it's hot in Miami. I guess the Sun is hotter than heat (although that could honestly be debated) and Phoenix is hotter than Miami so that works too.

Category Eight: Accidentally Relevant

Sometimes franchises move from one city to another, refuse to change their nickname and end up with a moniker that makes no sense for their current location (see Category Two in Part 1). Other teams get luckier. With no intent in mind, these franchises moved and somehow the names worked better than in their original cities.

12. Detroit Pistons

So the Pistons are named for the automotive industry that has been the calling card of Detroit for decades, right? Detroit is the "motor city" after all. Well, that's true but the Pistons name has nothing to do with Detroit. The Pistons were named after Fred Zollner's company, a Fort Wayne based outfit which happened to manufacture pistons for automobiles and trains. The team began play in the NBL way back in 1941, initially as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, although by 1948 the Zollner part of the name was gone, shortened simply to the Fort Wayne Pistons. Zollner moved the team to Detroit in 1957 and impressively, gave the team name some thought. Ultimately, he decided the team name worked in Detroit, which it most certainly does.

11. Houston Rockets

OK, so we were wrong about intuitive thoughts on the Pistons name, but the Rockets have to be named  after Houston's prominent role in NASA's space flight programs going all the way back to the Mercury program, the program that featured the first American manned space flights, right? Ummm…no! Like the Pistons, the Rockets are transplants (this time from San Diego) who retained their original name because it just worked. The original name selection was based on the local (San Diego) development of the Atlas rocket; obviously the name worked even better in Houston. The Rockets beat out the Pistons for 11th in my ranking because they are just way more impressive. I'm not really confident I could draw a piston; I know I can draw a rocket.

So that's it. 11 through 20 done. Only the top ten remain. You'll have to wait a week for that.

NBA Mascot Rank, Part 5

So after a month's worth of weekly blogging about NBA mascots, it has come to this: the fifth and final part culminating in the crowning of a mascot champion. At this point, all the mascots left score really really high on the appearance and relevance scales. This last six is without doubt a good looking group and they are clearly representing their franchise name or location. The separation between sixth and first will be subtle but I'll do my best to explain my choices. Hopefully it will make sense. We'll start down south.

6: Harry The Hawk, Atlanta Hawks

In contrast to Major League Baseball and the National Football League which abound in bird nicknamed teams (three in MLB; five in the NFL), the NBA boasts a single franchise with a bird mascot and the Hawks are it. The National Hockey League, by the way, has zero ever since the Thrashers left Atlanta and headed north to become the second incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets. What is it with Atlanta and birds? A couple of years ago they had the Hawks, Thrashers and Falcons. Doesn't matter I guess. 

As a mascot, I think Harry does the birds of the world and the city of Atlanta proud. He's clearly a bird (I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment on subtleties of bird of prey mascot costumes but I believe he's a hawk) and he has the Hawks' color scheme down to a tee. Other than being alliterative, his name is nothing special but it's better than some of his colleagues'. For me, Harry's a top six mascot because of all mascots, I'm believing there's some ferocity in his appearance. I think it's the eyebrows.

5: Rocky The Mountain Lion, Denver Nuggets

Whoever runs (or ran) the virtual Mascot Hall of Fame doesn't agree with me on much when it comes to NBA mascots' excellence. I am placing four of the Hall's five NBA inductees at numbers seven, 14, 16 and 21 in this countdown. But when it comes to the Nuggets' mascot Rocky, we are in agreement. This is a top five mascot for sure.

The great thing for me about Rocky is his all pervasive relevance. He's clearly not a nugget (however you would represent the actual nickname of Denver's franchise I don't know) but the concept of a mountain lion named Rocky in a city deep in the Rocky Mountains is awesome. He's also a great looking mascot and I love the shoes.

4: Bango, Milwaukee Bucks

I have to say the Milwaukee Bucks don't have a whole lot going for themselves lately. They lost their two marquee free agents in the offseason, they have won one division title since the 1985-1986 season and they haven't won an NBA championship since 1971. Admittedly they had a pretty good run before in the 1970s and 1980s, winning 12 division championships in a 16 year span but the last 16 or so years have been less than fruitful (no comments about my Wizards here please).

But if there's a bright spot in Milwaukee, it's Bango. Just like Rocky at the five spot, Bango looks great and represents his franchise superbly, this time through actually being what the franchise mascot is (a buck) while managing to avoid the Santa's reindeer look that could have conceivably tripped him up. Besides scoring high on relevance and appearance, Bango's strongest asset is his name which comes from longtime Bucks play by play announcer Eddie Doucette who used the phrase on air whenever a Bucks player connected on a long range basket. I love that the Bucks honor someone who called games for 16 years for the franchise. The name puts Bango ahead of Rocky and into the number four slot.

3: Benny The Bull, Chicago Bulls

For years when I was a New York Knicks fan, I hated the Chicago Bulls and everything associated with their franchise. It would have been unthinkable at that time for me to have ranked anything associated with this team as high as third. I would have tried to mock their logo (which is actually really pretty good) or their stupid alternate pinstripe uniforms (which are worthy of mocking) or found some other way to tear them down. Heck, I would have probably brought up Benny's rap sheet as a way of ranking him lower in a mascot rank.

But times have changed, I root for the Bulls in the playoffs and the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat have settled in to the Bulls' old spot in my life so Benny gets the bronze medal here. Except for the alliteration, the name's not awesome but he's clearly a bull and he's very red, which I think is perfect for that animal. But let's face it here, Benny's appearance is the reason he's so high. Rocky and Bango both have better names. Benny just looks better.

2: Stuff The Magic Dragon, Orlando Magic

If you had asked me a year ago who I thought was the second best mascot in the NBA, no way would I have picked Stuff. But looking at all 30 mascots in a comprehensive fashion this summer really revealed Stuff to be an outstanding choice at the two spot. It is admittedly difficult to make a mascot that represents magic (or heat or thunder for that matter) but I think whoever designed this thing pulled it off.

While the Magic website's story of the franchise name doesn't point the origin of the name at nearby Walt Disney World, I'm pretty confident that place was a pretty strong influence. And Stuff looks like he'd be right at home there. There's no question he looks magical and unlike any dragon I have seen before, sort of an updated Phillie Fanatic for central Florida (I know there are folks in Philadelphia shuddering at this statement).

But as good as Stuff looks, there's no question in my mind that the name puts him here at the overall runner up spot. Notwithstanding Ben Stiller's likely true accusation in Meet The Parents, Puff The Magic Dragon is still a kids' song to me and applying that name to the Magic mascot with the small alteration in his name to relate to basketball works perfectly.

1: G Wiz, Washington Wizards

Just so you understand, this is not a TOTAL homer pick. I really do think G Wiz is one of the best mascots in the NBA. Maybe I'm too close like I am with most things Wizards but I think he represents our franchise nickname perfectly, even though he's obviously more muppet wizard than human wizard. I can admit he looked a lot more like a wizard in the early days of me being a season ticket holder when he still sported his beard and cape but he doesn't lack anything by losing them. Maybe he would lose his wizardly look if he lost his hat but I don't think that will ever happen.

I also think despite being covered in blue fur (thank God they didn't switch the fur to red when they rebranded the franchise in 2011) and being utterly unrecognizable as any sort of animal or creature of myth that G Wiz is a handsome mascot. The new uniforms and change to red gloves and shoes improve his look immensely but then again, changing from the Wizards' 1997-2011 uniforms would help anyone or anything look better. And finally there's the name, which is pretty much perfect. It rolls off the tongue like the antiquated saying it is but works really well. Much more mellifluous than Stuff The Magic Dragon. Congratulations, G Wiz! Number one in my book of mascots every day.

So that's it. This countdown has lasted five Fridays and now we are now only 29 days from the opening of training camp. This at least kept my mind occupied in August. Can't wait until September 28!

Sunshine State Hoops: Magic And Wizards

From 2007 to 2010, I attended four Wizards road games, an average of one per year. With my team falling on hard times over the past couple of seasons, however, my motivation to shell out some cash to see my underperforming Wizards on the road (where they underperformed worse than they did at home) had waned. But with our resurgence earlier this calendar year, I decided it was about time to set out and see my favorite team in a new city. So this past weekend, I spent a few days in sunny Orlando sandwiched around the focal point of the trip, the Wizards - Magic game Friday night.

The first time I took a Wizards road trip, the destination was governed by the television schedule, or more precisely by when the Wizards were NOT on television. Since that first trip to Minnesota and sort of unbelievably, every Wizards road game has been televised, so my choice of road games has been decided by a few other factors. My standard formula for picking a road game is a combination of chance to win (so picking an opponent with a not so good record); availability and price of lower level tickets on the bench side of the court (important for getting on TV); proximity and availability of non-stop flights; and day of the week, with preference for a Friday, Saturday or Sunday game, with Sunday afternoon being ideal. This year an analysis of the schedule pointed to one of two destinations: Brooklyn or Orlando. Since I'd been to New York a lot recently and considering the weather in Orlando in late March vs. Brooklyn in early March, I opted to hop on a flight down to Florida.

Displays on the concourse lauding Dwight Howard's accomplishments. Wonder how fans feel now?

In 2009, just four years ago, the Orlando Magic rode All-Star center Dwight Howard and a bevy of three point shooters to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. But during the subsequent offseason, they traded their starting backcourt that got them to the Finals to the then New Jersey Nets for Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson and went downhill from there, losing in the Conference Finals the next year and following that season with two straight first round playoff exits. This year, the Magic started the season 12-13, an unexpectedly strong start considering they traded Dwight Howard to the Lakers for spare parts in the offseason. But the years of poor management and bad trades caught up with them and they have dropped quickly to the second worst team in the NBA. The Wizards meanwhile were the last team in the NBA to win a game this season but since January have rocketed past the Magic and sit comfortably ahead of them in the Southeast Division.

This was my fourth trip to Orlando. I went once shortly after we moved to the United States with my parents and sister then returned with my sister in 1999 after I finished the Architectural Record Exam to get my architecture license. The primary focus of those two trips was to visit various Disney and other amusement park properties. My third trip was to speak at a conference a couple of years ago and involved a taxi ride straight to the hotel/conference center and a ride back to the airport two days later. None of these trips involved visiting downtown Orlando. In fact I wasn't even sure there WAS a downtown Orlando. The Magic play downtown so this time I explored somewhere new in addition to seeing an NBA game in an 11th different arena (in case anyone other than me is keeping track, which they are probably not).

In past road trips, I have purchased tickets on StubHub, which I absolutely love, but they didn't have the exact tickets I wanted so I tried out nbatickets.com and got some great seats: first row above the tunnel to the Wizards' locker room. The seats were on the side facing the TV cameras and we were guaranteed to have nobody sitting in front of us. After a quick meal downtown (awesome lamb sandwich at The Rusty Spoon), I headed over to the almost brand new Amway Center for the game.

Pre-game photo with two of the Magic Dancers. Yes, they covered the Washington on my jersey on purpose.

The Amway Center is, I believe, the newest arena in the NBA. It bears a striking resemblance to other recently constructed NBA arenas I have visited around the country except for the fact that the court is placed on grade rather than being sunken into the ground, presumably because there is water right below grade in pretty much the entire state of Florida. I like Amway's wide concourse areas (unlike Verizon Center's which are constrained by D.C.'s tight city grid) which allows space for exhibits about the Magic's history and the large bar area at the end zone similar to VC's Acela Club but without being restricted to those with club level access in D.C. The arena is downtown, which I love, in an area of town packed with restaurants and bars. My experience getting to and getting into the Amway Center was all positive, including the pregame picture with the Magic Dancers.

Pre-game warmups. Didn't get much more competitive after this.

After all the positive pre-game vibes though, I was definitely set up for a let down after tip-off. Despite the Magic missing starters Glen Davis, Arron Afflalo and Nikola Vucevic and even after starting point guard Jameer Nelson went down in the first half, the Wizards couldn't manage to contain a team that was clearly inferior to them. We allowed the Magic to open up a 12 point halftime lead behind a clear and quite honestly unacceptable discrepancy in field goal percentage and assists. We made the Magic's Tobias Harris look like an All-Star in the first half. Team basketball, solid rebounding and defense seemed to be concepts we didn't quite understand.

It got better after halftime for a while when the Wizards erased the halftime deficit and took the lead about eight minutes after the break but then apathy or whatever else it was set in and we ended up playing the same type of ball that we did in the first half, ultimately losing by only five in what should have been a very winnable game against a weakened opponent. It was a bad performance all around. Nobody on that team should feel good about that game, including John Wall, who managed to score 31 points but only dished out two assists. This experience, by the way, drops my record in Wizards road games to a paltry 1-4 and at least two of those games we should have won going away. So much for my formula for picking winnable games.

The game wasn't a total loss. I had a great time and this one loss isn't going to be the difference between making the playoffs and spending the postseason at home. One of the things I love the most about traveling to Wizards games is the people I meet and how basketball fits into their lives, whether it's a cabbie in Chicago debating the merits of Michael Jordan's and John Starks' dunks or hanging out talking hoops in general with the Wizards' coaches and scouts in Vegas.

After watching pregame warm ups, I roamed around the concourse and picked up a beer ($7.75 for 24 oz. of Budweiser, way better than Verizon Center's $8.00 for 20 oz.). When I got back to my seat, there were two kids (Joe and Sam) sitting next to me dressed in Magic stuff holding #kevinseraphinlife (Kevin Seraphin's Twitter and Instagram hashtags) signs and yelling to get Kevin's attention at the top of their lungs. We eventually got Kevin's attention and a thumbs up. Talking with those guys about the game we were watching, the NBA and the Magic's and Wizards' chances in the next few years mitigated the effects of the loss a little. These kids knew every player in the NBA (including Twitter addresses) and love the sport and their Orlando Magic. I respect fans who don't abandon their teams in lean times and I appreciate Joe and Sam's perspectives on fairweather fans like all those Oklahoma City Thunder "fans" who have appeared from seemingly nowhere. I hope the two of those guys stick it out over the next few years because I don't see the Magic getting back to the playoffs any time soon.

Looking forward to my next road trip next season.

The kids are alright: my new friends Joe (left) and Sam (right). Check out the gold Arenas jersey on Joe.

Wow! It's A Winning Streak!

Wizards with John Wall > Wizards without John Wall. 8-0 in his last eight games.

After winning only four games in their first 32 tries this season, the Wizards have managed to win in each of their past three tries and have their first winning streak of the season. This winning streak is legitimate. It's not like last year's season ending six game winning streak against teams resting their starters for the playoffs and the hapless Charlotte Bobcats. This streak is against good competition. OK, maybe not Monday night's win against the Orlando Magic but when you own the worst record in the league, every team is good competition from a certain point of view. The result of the last three games is the Wizards' longest in season winning streak since April of 2011. It certainly feels better than losing.

I guess I'd like to say I saw this coming but I didn't exactly. Not in these three games even though things didn't really look as bad as the win-loss record suggested. Despite having a 7-28 record, the Wizards have been competitive in most games. 19 of our 28 losses have been by single digits. Five of our 35 games went to either single or double overtime. Unfortunately, all those overtime games were losses, including a game where we led Brooklyn by eight at home in overtime with less than 90 seconds to go. This past week, John Wall finally returned to the lineup against Atlanta and Nenê had recently moved into the starting lineup. Even with all those positive signs, there was still the fact that we had just failed to finish a number of games we could have won and even though we had a full complement of players for practice for a day or two, injuries to Cartier Martin and leading scorer Jordan Crawford seemed to balance what could have been seen as a glass half full situation.

Nene > Josh Smith last Saturday night.

We had already come close to beating Atlanta a couple of times this season and had notched a win against the Orlando Magic so the notion of being able to topple one of those two teams in the current three game stretch wasn't completely implausible. But beating the defending Western Conference Champion and pretty-much-best-team-in-the-league Oklahoma City Thunder seemed very improbable. Add the news that we had only nine healthy players, two of whom were playing for the first time in several weeks, and it seemed downright hilarious that we even could remain competitive. But our guys came out strong, shared the ball and competed, just like they did against the defending NBA Champion Miami Heat the month before. And at the end of regulation, after a fortunate bounce off an ill-advised A. J. Price shot got us the ball back, Bradley Beal managed to hit the game winner with 0.3 seconds on the clock to send us home winners and make us two for two in games against last season's NBA finalists.

After the euphoria of the big win over the Thunder and a season long four whole days off, the Atlanta Hawks arrived in town for the final game of four against the Wizards (the first three all Hawks wins). Our team was buoyed by the return of franchise player John Wall in that game but how he fared in his first game back was better than I expected. John looked both sharp and rusty: he was clearly faster than most guys on the court despite an almost three month absence from game play but his jumper showed signs of getting back into the groove. We seemed to be ahead almost the entire game. The lead ebbed and flowed from about three points to nine points behind a good team effort and a domination of Hawks' star Josh Smith by Nenê. Nenê is just obviously way smarter than Smith and he killed him on the offensive and defensive ends. The result was our first double digit victory of the year. Oh, and I continued to chip away at my Wizards 15 minutes of fame with about a two second appearance on TV. Adding that appearance to my stints in Las Vegas and Indiana I think gets me up to about a minute and half.

And then Monday night the struggling Orlando Magic came to town. After a surprising start to the season following the blockbuster Dwight Howard trade, the Magic have fallen back to Earth hard. Our team jumped on the Magic early, riding a spectacular first half from Emeka Okafor (I know...who knew?) to a 19 point lead with a few minutes to go. But then the whole thing seemed to collapse. In a stunning turnover filled run, including a failed walking the dog attempt by John Wall (never seen that fail before by the way), Orlando cut the lead to six at the break. I was stunned for the entire halftime, wondering if we had blown our chance at three in a row. Turns out I didn't really have anything to worry about because we turned it on in the second half behind spectacular plays from Wall including an insane dribble misdirection that literally floored the Magic's Ish Smith and an alley oop to Bradley Beal for a vicious slam. Jan Vesely showed his best overall performance and the team rolled, winning going away by 29. We even had our first good garbage time of the year when forgotten man Chris Singleton closed out the game.

Now that was more like it! I'm thinking this is what I signed up for when I bought into owner Ted Leonsis' rebuilding plan. Now we just need to keep it up on the road, where we have managed only a single victory this year. The team left DC yesterday for what could be a brutal west coast swing, although I think there are a couple of winnable games in there.

Up tonight: the Sacramento Kings. Despite the 10 p.m. Eastern start, I think I'm staying up to watch it. Hopefully my hopes aren't too high.