Another One Wit Whiz

This post has absolutely nothing to do with basketball and has no business being on this blog.

Except...

About four and a half years ago I went to Philadelphia to see the Wizards play the Philadelphia 76ers. The morning after the game and before splitting town, we walked down to Pat's King of Steaks for my first ever real true authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich and it was just incredible. Pat's can, by all accounts and based on my research on the subject, trace its lineage back to the origin of the cheesesteak when they started selling steak and onion sandwiches. There's maybe some debate about when exactly (and even possibly who exactly) added cheese to the sandwich. But steak and Philly? Pat's is it.

Pat's is a dominant force in the cheesesteak culture in Philadelphia. There's only one place that can claim any sort of equivalency to Pat's in that town and that's Geno's, which sits right across from Pat's on the same intersection down at South 9th and East Passyunk. THE debate in Philadelphia about these sandwiches is...Pat's or Geno's? 

Oh, and the cheese debate? Geno's claims they put the cheese in cheesesteak. I guess before Geno's (again, according to Geno's) folks in Philly were just eating steak sandwiches.

When I visited Pat's on that cold March morning of 2014, I wrote that if I ever made it back to Philadelphia, maybe I'd give Geno's a try. Well, this past weekend I made it back. My excuse for being in town? Not really important, but since I mentioned it: an unmissable opportunity to see the Electric Light Orchestra in concert (they skipped D.C.).  Had to be there.

So...I was in Philly and said I'd give Geno's a try if I was ever back in town. Let's go to Geno's!

The line at Geno's. Just like Pat's it's outdoors and pretty darned quick. Cheesesteak coming up quick!

Check out of the hotel at 11 and we are in an Uber at about 11:05 or so headed south with our driver Moises, a guy who by his own account was born and raised in Philly. Moises asked are we from Philly? Umm...no, headed out of town that same day and figured we'd get a cheesesteak on our way home. Next question from Moises...you going to Pat's? No again. Geno's. Moises has been in town 47 years and has never been to Geno's. He has no idea if Pat's is the best steak in town but he knows they are good. As do we from our visit in 2014.

We leave Moises right outside Pat's. Or maybe more accurately, Moises leaves us. A couple of minutes later we are in line outside Geno's waiting for lunch. Pat's is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So is Geno's. Pat's serves up Philly steaks in a couple of minutes. So does Geno's. Pat's has tables outside near the street. So does Geno's. Pat's has Cheez Whiz on their sandwiches and free cherry peppers for the taking. So does Geno's. So far, so good. Both places have what we need. And for emphasis here, Philly cheesesteaks come with Whiz. You can get other cheeses if you want. But you shouldn't. We get ours with Whiz and sit down.

First impression? The meat isn't chopped the way it is at Pat's. I'm not sure when I unwrap my sandwich if that's good or bad but I know I can see steak hanging out the side of the bread (that's good; I mean after all I ordered a steak sandwich, right?) and it looks cooked, although maybe a touch dry. But I got a sandwich loaded with Whiz, onions and peppers. Let's dig in!

Whether you choose to believe what you are about to read is your choice. Yes, it's been over four years since I'd had my last cheesesteak in Philadelphia but I swear my memory of what I ate back in February of 2014 over at Pat's is pretty spot on.

I say to you now...the chopping of the meat is pretty darned important. Chopping the meat as Pat's does allows the onions and the Cheez Whiz (yes, the Whiz is applied after the meat is in the roll) to mingle and coagulate in the most delicious way. Geno's is missing this synergy for most of their sandwich. Were there times when the steak, grease, onions and Whiz came together in perfect harmony at Geno's? You bet. For sure! There were some amazing bites. But it wasn't like Pat's four years ago. I know this to be true. Consistency is important. And our sandwiches this past Saturday morning were missing that. Don't get me wrong here. If I had only Geno's steaks to eat for the rest of my life, I wouldn't turn them down. But...

Pat's is better.

There you have it. My take on the Pat's or Geno's debate. I'm a Pat's guy. Next time I'm in Philly and I'm looking for a steak and cheese sandwich, I'm headed to Pat's.

My view from Geno's. Staring right at Pat's and the folks gobbling down superior cheesesteaks.

I should note in a twist of I-told-you-so type irony, we chose a table near the corner of Ninth and Passyunk and I sat on the south facing side, meaning I was staring straight at Pat's for my entire meal. Next time, I'll know better.

If you are paying attention and care about the contents of this blog I know I said I wasn't going to blog at all in this thing this summer. This isn't exactly about the Wizards and waiting a couple of months to say I had a cheesesteak in Philadelphia in mid-August just seemed strange. So there you go. See you in September when training camp opens.

Loyalty Milestone Changes

Friday is the deadline for Wizards season ticket holders to renew their season tickets for the 2018-2019 NBA season. If you are coming up on a multiple of five years as a season ticket holder, I'm sure you are looking forward to your anniversary milestone, just like I am with my 20th next year. Buuuuut...you might want to check that your milestone rewards are still what you thought they were. They've changed from when I wrote about these and ranked them two years ago. Most are better. But some...well, read on.

Way back in the first half of the aughts, the Wizards invented an anniversary rewards program which rewarded season ticket holders for every five years of buying season tickets. The program got instituted right before my fifth year as a season ticket holder and since then I've enjoyed the program with emotions ranging from complete indifference to genuinely feeling appreciated. I wrote about what I consider the best reward in my 15th season when I got to treat a bunch of my friends to a catered game in a Verizon Center suite for free. That was pretty awesome.

So what's changed? Take a look. I'll list each of the new rewards with the old reward below it for the same milestone and then some of my as always super valuable commentary.

5 Years: Private Reception with Wizards Management and Special Guests

Former Reward: Exactly the Same Thing

So nothing's changed at the five year milestone. You get a reception of sorts I assume somewhere in the Capital One Arena (ours was in what is now the PwC Club) with probably Ernie Grunfeld, maybe Tommy Sheppard and at least one player. I know Kelly Oubre, Jr. was there this season because I know someone who is celebrating her five year milestone this year and I got a picture of Kelly hugging her texted to me during a game. Our special guest was Gilbert Arenas. But Gilbert never showed, alleging a flat tire. So I got some snacks in the arena on an off night for my five year reward. Cool.

10 Years: Trip to Philadelphia for 76ers vs. Wizards Away Game

Former Reward: Member's Name Displayed on the Wizards Wall of Fame

In my ranking of rewards two years ago, I rated the 10 year reward, which at that time was your name on a wall, as having absolutely no value whatsoever. The Wizards must have figured that out too because they ditched it for a trip to Philly to see the Wiz take on the 76ers. This is a huge upgrade. This trip used to be the 20 year milestone reward so moving this thing up 10 years and losing the name-on-the-wall thing is definitely the right thing to do. Only problem is...we'll get to it.

15 Years: Lexus Level Suite for Wizards Game

Former Reward: Exactly the Same Thing

If you are anywhere close to your 15 year anniversary as a Wizards season ticket holder, please don't cancel. This experience was and I'm sure still is fantastic. I devoted a whole blog post to it three years ago that's linked above. Do this and then quit if you can't afford tickets any more.

20 Years: Roundtrip Car Service to Wizards Game and Dinner Pre-Game

Fomer Reward: Trip to an Eastern Conference Away Game

I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to my 20 year milestone. My friend Mike and I were pretty pumped about getting on a Wizards party bus and heading up to the City of Brotherly Love for a game at Wells Fargo. We've even talked about the importance of making it to 20 so we could cash in on this reward.

And then they moved the trip to the 10 year mark, an anniversary for which I received my name on a wall which now comes just for free. It's replaced by roundtrip car service to a home game (I'm assuming the game's not in Philly but that would be even better than a bus trip) and dinner pre-game. Are you kidding me? I get cheated on my five year anniversary by an Arenas no show, now I feel I got cheated on my 10 year anniversary and I'm now looking forward to something less enthusiastically for my 20 year reward? I'm furious about this. Can't tell you how disappointed I am. The Wizards should let people in my class (and similar) get both this reward and get on the bus to Pennsylvania when we hit 20.

Just a note here: the former 20 year reward was a trip to an Eastern Conference away game, but I know the most frequent destination was Philadelphia so I'm considering the former 20 year reward as the 10 year reward. I still can't believe this is happening.
 

25 Years: DC12 Club Wine Club Subscription

Former Reward: Participate in the Pre-Game Captain's Meeting at a Pre-Selected Home Game

Finally, someone saw the light of day and the absolute absurdity in rewarding 25 years as a season ticket holder by having your photo taken at half court in an experience that lasts about maybe a minute. 25 years and thousands upon thousands of dollars for a quick pic with Marcin Gortat and whomever the other team sends to center court? No thanks. The new reward (and who knew there was such a thing) is a DC12 Club Wine Club Subscription. I'm assuming this is valuable and not just a couple of $10 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc from Safeway or Trader Joe's. Maybe I'll find out someday.

As an aside here, my friend Mike offered the opinion that the former reward was better. It's not but he doesn't drink wine. If it were a year's worth of Bud Light, he'd feel the way I feel about this. I hope I'm not too optimistic. Again, maybe I'll find out someday.

Just in case I offended anyone, I get wine at Safeway and Trader Joe's all the time. I'll take it. Just hoping for something different is all.

30 Years: Dinner Reception with Members of Coaching Staff

Former Reward: Two Tickets to the Owner's Suite for a Pre-Selected Wizards Game

Honestly, I'd rather have the old reward, although there might be a problem since there's not really an owners' suite anymore because Ted and Co. sit downstairs courtside while Abe Pollin (who instituted the rewards program) had a box at the top of Section 101 with a private elevator to the garage below. The only thing that could make the new reward comparable to the former anniversary milestone would be if the dinner was private (i.e. just you). If it's in a group, isn't it the same as the five year reward but without players?

If they wanted to make this really special, they'd give two of the Owner's Seats courtside to the folks sticking it out for 30 years. Just saying. I've done about everything I've wanted to do as a Wizards fan short of watching the team succeed more except sit courtside. It's just way too expensive.

The view of the court for our 15 year suite game; of course the Wizards lost to Brooklyn.

35 Years: Roundtrip Limo to Wizards Game and Lexus Level Suite

Former Reward: Exactly the Same Thing

This reward stuck and for good reason. If it's cool to get a suite for you and your friends, it's even cooler to get a limo ride there and back. I'm never making this one, but I want this.

40 Years: Overnight Trip to a Pre-Selected Wizards Away Game

Former Reward: Exactly the Same Thing

Two rewards in a row are the same as they used to be. I guess when you get this high up on the season ticket holder tree, there's only so much you can hand out. I'd do this. Heck, I do it almost every year on my own. This is worth something, especially if you've never taken a road trip. Hopefully, it's not a trip to Philly.

Vegas, baby!!

45 Years: Two-Night Trip to Las Vegas for NBA Summer League

Former Reward: On-Court Recognition and Choice of Overnight Trip to an Away Game or Trip to an Eastern Conference Away Game

Who doesn't love Vegas? I'd head to the desert for a couple of days of Summer League on the Wizards' dime, even if it's way way more crowded than it was when I started going there in 2007.  I'm hoping the team puts you in a nice hotel and not at the Excalibur where we pretty much always stay. This reward (which used to be the 50 year reward) is an enormous upgrade over the former reward, which was essentially the former unappreciative 25 year reward combined with the 40 year reward. Or in other words, you'd get pretty much the exact same thing for 40 and 45 years.

50 Years: Overnight Trip to Choice of Wizards Road Game 

Former Reward: Trip to Las Vegas for Summer League

If you make it to 50 years, they should take you to EVERY road game or as many as you want. Heck you have to be retired at this point, right, so fitting every road game into your schedule shouldn't be difficult. I assume you get to pick. I'd probably go somewhere expensive to get to, like Sacramento or something. Maybe Sacto's a bit sleepy but after 50 years as a Wizards season ticket holder you probably need sleepy. As an aside here, there are no current 50 year season ticket holders. According to the names on the court at Capital One Arena, the earliest season ticket holders date from 1970.

So that's the scoop! Coming up on 10 or 25 years? You ought to be thrilled. If you are near the 20 year mark, I'll meet you at the Budweiser Brewhouse before a game some time and commiserate over a beer or two. Ask Roxy at the back bar to point you in my direction. I can talk for a good 10 to 20 minutes on that subject. I'd love for the Wizards to take me up on my suggestion and offer the 10 year reward on a grandfathered basis in addition to the new 20 year reward. Consider it, Wizards. Please!

One Wit Whiz

So it's Sunday morning and I'm in Philadelphia about 10 or 11 hours after a great Wizards win over the home 76ers; I've watched Allen Iverson's jersey get hung in the rafters of the Wells Fargo Center at halftime of that same game; and I spent the previous day visiting iconic sights in the first capital city of the United States. Sounds like a full and complete weekend, right? Nothing more to take in before my early train back to D.C., right? Wrong! I couldn't leave Philly without a cheesesteak. It just wouldn't be right. So immediately after checking out of my hotel, I made my way over to the south side to get me one of Philadelphia's original and best contributions to the culinary world. And if it's Philly and cheesesteaks, it has to be Pat's King of Steaks.

According to a combination of fact and folklore, the cheesesteak sandwich as it is known today was invented by Pat Olivieri in Philadelphia sometime in early 1930. There seems to be some debate about exactly how the sandwich was first conceived but there seems to be no debate that Olivieri was the creator. Most stories have Pat owning a hot dog stand with his brother Harry when one day Pat decided to make himself a steak and onion sandwich on an Italian roll (no cheese yet; that comes later). A cab driver apparently smelled the sandwich, asked Pat to make him one and the next day the steak and onion sandwich went viral among cab drivers in Philly and the rest is history. I'm sure they used a term other than "went viral" in the '30s but whatever.

From those humble beginnings, Pat opened his legendary restaurant, Pat's King of Steaks, which now stands at 1237 East Passyunk Avenue and has been owned and operated by the Olivieri family for over 80 years. Who first added cheese to the steak and onion sandwich and just when that happened seems to be less clear, although the Olivieris claiming that one of their chefs added provolone cheese to their sandwiches in the 1940s seems to be the most plausible.

Today, Pat's is big business, managing to stay open 24 hours per day, seven days a week chopping steak and pushing out cheesesteaks with or without onions and slathered in provolone, American cheese or Cheez Whiz. Its only real competition sits right across the street at 1219 South 9th Street: Geno's Steaks. Geno's was opened by Joe Vento in 1966 and, like Pat's, has been family owned and operated since its first day of business and is also open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each place claims its cheesesteaks are the best in Philadelphia. The decision to make for the novice cheesesteak eater when visiting Philly is: Pat's or Geno's. Since Pat's is the original, I opted for their cheesesteak this time around. I'm a sucker for the genuine article.

Before I got to lunch, the walk from the hotel to Pat's alone was an experience: down Broad Street past vacant lots, left on Washington past Vietnam-town (is that the correct term?) and finally right onto the 9th Street barrio featuring plenty of colorful stores, including a live poultry market where you can get your bird of choice custom killed and I imagine plucked on the spot for you. I'm making it sound way sketchier than it really was. It was fine, although the smell coming out of the live poultry market was almost enough to put me off my cheesesteak. Almost.

After a mile and a half on foot, I was good and ready for some food and Pat's did not disappoint. I opted for a simple cheesesteak (no peppers or mushrooms for me) wit (south Philadelphia for "with") onions and Cheez Whiz. The time from ordering to receiving a hot sandwich was literally about 15 seconds. I'm not kidding. The meat wit onions was spatula-ed into a fresh warm roll and then the Cheez Whiz stick was pulled out of the Whiz tub and scraped across the top to complete my order. Fries and a water at the next window and a couple (OK, three) of hot cherry peppers on the side from the condiments bar opposite the ordering windows.

The only seating options are outside so I took what I could get despite the less than 40 degree temperature Sunday morning and ate. Pat's knows what they are doing. The meat was tender, the roll was fresh and the Cheez Whiz made it all come together. There's something so stereotypically and classically cheesy about the taste of fake cheese even though it really doesn't taste anything like any sort of real cheese at all. It's delicious. The only thing that made the experience even better was the two guys talking to the pickup driver next to us about how to avoid getting stopped by the cops on the highway in a broad Philadelphia dialect of English, if you can call it that.

Pat's was worth the trip for me. Everything about the whole morning had an authenticity to it that cannot be obtained by getting a cheesesteak from a sandwich shop in D.C., which I have done on many occasions. Maybe on my next trip to Philly, I'll check out Geno's. Although I honestly can't imagine it being any better.

Brotherly Love

Stop number one of my March 2014 NBA and NBDL barnstorming tour is complete. This past weekend I spent my Friday and Saturday nights a couple of hours north of D.C. in the heart of Philadelphia knocking another Wizards' opponent's arena off my seen-'em-in person-on-the-road list. Now I'm down to just three more basketball cities (one NBA / two NBDL) to visit this month before what I hope will be the start of spring. It's about time, I think.

This was not my first trip to Philadelphia. I'd been there at least a half a dozen times before for various reasons. Astonishingly (to me), I'd never actually been to see the Liberty Bell on one of my past trips to the city so I made that my first priority Saturday morning. It was pretty much what I thought it would be: a series of interpretive exhibits about the history of the cracked bell followed by a chance to take a few snapshots of the item itself before exiting the building. I did learn that the bell was not known by the Liberty Bell until it was given that name by the abolitionist movement, who coined that name to point out the injustice of slavery in our nation. Who knew?

I followed the Liberty Bell up with a trek to the Philadelphia Art Museum, prominently sited at the end of Benjamin Franklin Boulevard, to check out the statue of Rocky while listening to Bill Conti's "Gonna Fly Now" on my iTouch before a couple of afternoon pints and a quick nap. Quite a contrast in tourist attractions, I know. One important touchstone of American history and a statue of someone who never existed for real. Go figure.

The main event for me in Philadelphia was the Wizards-76ers game that night and it turned out to be a good one. Despite an uneven performance that could be blamed on a triple overtime win in Toronto two days beforehand or the team missing Nenê and Kevin Seraphin with injury or just the Wizards' tendency to play at the level of their opponent every game, our team won this one going away and it was never really in doubt. The Wizards scored 41 in the first period including a monster 24 from Trevor Ariza on 6 for 6 from long distance and never looked back, even when Philly cut the deficit to six mid-way through the second quarter. Ariza ended up with 40 and John Wall ended up with 16 assists, all of which was enough to win by 19. This brings my Wizards road games record to 2-4, which is a damn sight better than 1-4 even though it's just one more win.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver at the mic during the halftime ceremony.

The win was great and I like Philadelphia enough to spend a weekend there every now and then. But the real highlight of the evening was the Allen Iverson jersey retirement ceremony that took place during the halftime break. Rarely will I acknowledge that anything will trump a Wizards game for me, let alone something that happened at halftime of a Wizards game, but clearly this ceremony was more important for more than 99% of the people in the building than what took place on the court and that made it just as special than the Wizards taking home the victory.

 

Just to be clear I made the trip to Philly strictly for a Wizards Saturday night game, not for the Iverson jersey retirement ceremony. I circled this game when the NBA season schedule came out in August as a potential road game and bought some tickets on StubHub about a month later for a little more than $140 per as soon as I found some that I thought I couldn't pass up. I figured $143 a seat for third row center court was pretty good, even against a team that pretty much everyone had tanking for as many lottery combinations as possible.

 

Then in November the Sixers announced that they would be retiring Iverson's number 3 jersey at halftime of the game I just bought. Bonus! It's a good thing I bought early. It doesn't always pay off for me but it definitely did here. As of the Sunday before the game, the cheapest tickets on StubHub in the building were $100 for upper deck end seats. Seats comparable to the ones I snagged were $442. I would have stayed at home for those prices.

 

Saturday's game was not the first jersey retirement ceremony I have attended. The Wizards retired Earl Monroe's number 10 jersey a few years back at halftime of a game I watched from the upper deck of Verizon Center. But Earl Monroe in D.C. in 2007 is not Allen Iverson in Philadelphia in 2014. I doubt most people in Verizon Center that night had ever seen the Pearl play and they certainly didn't see him play in Washington because he was traded from the Bullets to the Knicks before the team moved out of Baltimore. Allen Iverson was playing in the NBA just four years ago and most everyone in the Wells Fargo Center can probably remember seeing him play either in person or on national TV for the Sixers. I know I could.

 

Iverson represented Philadelphia 76er basketball for ten plus seasons and showed a grit, fight and determination that belied his size and endeared him to home fans. He also helped usher in the hip hop era in the NBA, being one of the first superstars with neck tattoos and cornrows. He took the Sixers to their only NBA Finals since 1983 after the 2000-2001 season, the same year he also won the league's Most Valuable Player trophy. It was clear standing in the arena Saturday night that AI represented something very special to the city of Philadelphia even though he didn't manage to deliver a title to the city.

I rarely place a lot of stock in speeches the likes of which Iverson was supposed to and did deliver. There's always a lot of love and thanks given out and past differences with those to be thanked are usually forgotten or glossed over and indeed AI proved he was not Michael Jordan making his Hall of Fame induction speech and followed the script he was supposed to follow. But I believed in Iverson's proclaimed love of the city, Philadelphia fans and especially Larry Brown, the coach who helped the franchise get back to the Finals on 2001. I was touched by the humility he displayed (not necessarily an attribute he possessed while playing) and I thought the line "Y'all have to show me the fool that says dreams don't come true, 'cause they do." was the perfect ending to what could have been a fairly ordinary speech.

 

There's no doubt the whole building Saturday night belonged to Iverson for those fans who stuck around for the whole game (not a lot in the place by the middle of the third quarter by any means). There were auctions of Iverson memorabila on the concourse, giveaways for all fans in attendance and even a dude rendering a likeness of Iverson into some kid's hair while a crowd watched, which is about the strangest sports entertainment I've ever seen at an NBA game and that's saying something. I somehow left the game with a replica retired jersey banner and an AI 2001 MVP bobblehead. Not sure what I'm going to do with those. I mean I can't put a Sixers bobblehead on the same shelf as my Wiz bobbles, right?

Anyone want an Allen Iverson portrait in their hair? Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!

Throughout the game Saturday night, the scoreboard screen played video messages from current and former NBA players who had played with or against Iverson. All the Sixers legends got deserved ovations and the love shown by the crowd for former 76ers still playing in the league like Lou Williams and Kyle Korver was impressive. Only two players delivering video tributes got booed: Carmelo Anthony (just a little) and LeBron James (a LOT!). I kinda like Sixers fans now.

 

At one point during a Sixers run during the second quarter, a Philly fan in front of me turned around and declared "we're going to win this game, you know." I've been to enough basketball games in my life to know that this game is a game of runs and you don't react to small comebacks during the game too optimistically. I was right. By the time the third quarter was a few minutes old, about all the fight was gone from the home team in addition to the guy sitting in front of me. I guess he didn't much believe what he said either. I did tell him the Wizards had to win the game, that I couldn't go back to D.C. without a win. Fortunately the Wizards made sure that I didn't have to. Up next tonight: Memphis during a snowfall that is snarling traffic everywhere. Should be an interesting house tonight.

On The Road Again

I love traveling. I also love watching professional basketball. Therefore it should be no surprise that I love traveling to watch professional basketball. And honestly, it's just been too long since that happened. It's the end of February already and I haven't taken in a single game outside of Verizon Center this season. That will all change in a big way in March.

Last season I took a couple of basketball vacations: a six night trek through Texas in mid-February to watch a Dallas Mavericks game and three D-League games and then a long weekend in March down to Orlando to watch the Wizards take on the Magic. This year I'm taking three trips, a total of seven nights in four different cities to watch the Wizards play twice and then exploring more of the NBDL when the Wizards are on their March west coast swing.

It all starts tomorrow when I get on a train and head north a couple of hours to Philadelphia for a Saturday night game against the 76ers, a team that after last Thursday's trade deadline is in full tank mode, chasing as many NBA lottery combinations as they can with a depleted roster. The following weekend, I'm hopping on an AirTran flight Friday afternoon bound for Milwaukee for another Saturday Wizards game, this time against the home Bucks, who currently hold the worst record in the NBA.

These trips will be the sixth and seventh time I have seen the Wizards on the road as I continue my quest to see my team play in every NBA team's arena. My criteria for these trips in the past have been simple: try to find a weekend game against a team that is down on its luck a little bit (meaning good tickets on the secondary market will be available on the cheap and we might win) in a city which is accessible via non-stop transportation. I'm using the same kind of judgment in making travel plans this coming month.

This year from the other teams' performance standpoint, I couldn't have picked any better opponents: the Sixers and the Bucks currently hold the NBA's two worst records and have won fewer home games than any other teams. Seems like a couple of easy victories to me, although in my previous five Wizards road games using a similar game selection strategy, my team has come away with a single victory. Such is life as a Wizards fan. Even when the deck is stacked significantly in your favor, you sometimes lose horribly anyway.

Twelve days after I return from Milwaukee, I'm off to New England to see a couple of more games in the NBA's Development League. This is the second year in a row I'll be exploring the D-League scene. This year's trip will take me into an area of the country where I grew up in rather than in central and southern Texas like last year's trip. The D-League is a complete world apart from the NBA. Guys playing in this league are just scrapping to survive and keep their dreams of making it to the big leagues alive. I'll be seeing that action first in Springfield, Massachusetts where the game of basketball was invented and then heading north to Portland, Maine for a couple of nights.

Along the way to discovering basketball in each of these cities, I'll be trying to find the history and soul of each place I visit and I'll of course write it all down here so when I am old and my memory is failing, I can try to remember what it was like and what I did the weekend the Wizards beat the Sixers or Bucks or before or after I took in another D-League game. I am not visiting any of these places for the first time, although I've admittedly never spent a night in Springfield or Portland but I'll try very hard to uncover something new about each place. It all starts tomorrow in Philly. Go Wizards!