Look Who's At Verizon Center!

I know some of these photos suck. Get over it.

When I first became a Washington Wizards season ticket holder, the scorer's table stretched from the home bench on the east side of the court to the visitors' bench on the west side of the court. At that time, the scorer's table was where the official timekeeper, the official scorer (hence the name), the public address announcer plus the television guys both for the Wizards and the away team sat. I'm sure it had been that way for about like ever.

Then a few years ago, Wizards ownership figured they could make a little more cash if they shortened the scorer's table a bit and added some seats next to each team's bench. Now before you scoff and think about how little money that is really worth to ownership, consider these seats for the 2016-2017 season cost $2,200 per game per seat. That's $90,200 for a full regular season per seat. Heck, that's $3,300 for three meaningless preseason games. WOW!!! And there's like 12 of these things. That's pretty much a cool million per year.

Now, since the table was shorter, someone had to go, right? They couldn't move any of the game officials (how would they deal with those "operations to the scorer's table" pages when the clock malfunctioned?) so they decided to move some folks who didn't need seats as close as they used to have: the television guys. Why am I writing all this? Well, when they moved the TV guys, they moved them to the top of Section 110 and all of them now walk up the aisle between Sections 109 and 110 before every game, which means they walk right by my seats.

That means I get to say hi to Phil Chenier and Steve Buckhantz every game if I want. It also means I get to have every opposing team's announcers walk within about three feet of me. Most of the play by play guys are broadcasting guys, vets of the business who have worked their way up from entry level jobs in television to calling 82 (or more for the right team) games per year on local cable. But they are usually partnered with an analyst who's a former player. And that can be pretty cool. Here are some of the guys who walked within arm's length of me this season.

October 31: Walt "Clyde" Frazier

Two time NBA Champion; seven time All-Star; Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 1987.

Walt Frazier anchored the New York Knicks backcourt on their two NBA Championship teams in 1970 and then again in 1973. In the excess crazy 1970s, Frazier was famous for wearing full length fur coats with matching hats and driving a custom Rolls Royce. He picked up the nickname "Clyde" because the hats he wore looked like the fedora worn by Warren Beatty in the movie Bonnie and Clyde.

While Frazier played all the way until 1980 (with the Cleveland Cavaliers of all teams), I never got the chance to see him play (too young and not interested in basketball in the first year we moved to the U.S.)  but used to listen to his broadcasts while a Knicks fan in my purgatory years in upstate New York. His game calls are about as flashy as his wardrobe. Love the pink suit. And he wasn't wearing it because it was Halloween.

December 4: Derek Harper

Unlike Clyde, Derek Harper never won an NBA title and never made an All-Star game (I'm shocked about that second one). He's also never making the Basketball Hall of Fame. That's what happens I guess when you spend the majority of your career with the pre-Mark Cuban era Dallas Mavericks. But like Walk Frazier, Harper did play for the New York Knicks which is why I love Derek Harper so much.

When I first got out of college, one of my favorite distractions to my otherwise non-exciting life in Cooperstown, New York, was watching the New York Knicks on the Madison Square Garden network. When I got to Cooperstown, the Knicks had just traded for Harp and moved him into the starting backcourt along with John Starks (also LOVE Starks!) to replace the injured and out for the season Doc Rivers. Harper was the missing piece the Knicks needed to get beyond the competition and make it to the NBA Finals, their first appearance since Frazier took them to the title way back in 1973. Yes, Michael Jordan playing baseball might have had something to do with the Knicks' success but I'm giving credit to Harper anyway. The Knicks lost on my birthday that year to the Houston Rockets. That was as close as Harper got to a title.

I loved watching Derek Harper play for the Knicks. He was without question my favorite player on the team. He was so in control of the game for the Knicks and seemed to be a stabilizing force for the team when he was on the court. If I'd been buying NBA jerseys back then, I would definitely have invested in a number 11 jersey.

December 19: Dell Curry
NBA Sixth Man of the Year 1994.

Is Dell Curry more famous today from his time as an NBA player or in his current role as Steph Curry's dad? It's hard to tell sometimes but Curry was definitely a force in his playing days, winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award in 1994 and scoring enough points in Charlotte to be (still) the Hornets' all time leading scorer.

Curry was selected by the Hornets in the expansion draft for that franchise on its way into the league when he was left unprotected by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the second team he had played with in as many years to start his career. He spent the next ten years in Charlotte before closing out the last four years of his career in Milwaukee and Toronto. Unlike Clyde and Harp, I have no special memories of Dell as a player, although I must have seen him play early on in my season ticket tenure when he was a member of the Raptors. I'm just happy to say I don't remember him being a Wizards killer, like so many other players have been.

December 23: Brevin Knight

I look forward to the Memphis Grizzlies' visit every year because Brevin Knight is calling the game for the visitors. Why Brevin Knight? Because right now he's the only former Wizard (Phil Chenier was a Bullet, remember) who's calling games on TV and I saw him play in his one partial season in Washington.

I remember noticing Brevin a couple of years ago making his way up our aisle and said to my friend Mike "hey, it's Brevin Knight!" Brevin stopped and talked to us, seeming surprised that someone at Verizon Center actually knew who he was. I told him I remembered him playing for the Wizards and said something about his number 22 jersey which I think struck home that I did actually remember him. Brevin spent 12 years in the NBA playing for nine NBA teams. Memphis was the third team he played for way back in 2001 to 2003.

The partial year Brevin played for the Wizards (he played for Phoenix and Milwaukee that same year) was probably not the highlight of his career but he's still my favorite visiting broadcaster. This year I said hi and got a handshake and a "Merry Christmas!" out of him. See you next year, Brevin!

January 25: Brian Scalabrine
NBA Champion.

Of the guys in this post, Brian Scalabrine is probably the least accomplished as a professional basketball player. But he did win an NBA championship, which give him something Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Allen Iverson and a whole lot of other guys who have played in the NBA don't have, including Derek Harper, Dell Curry and Brevin Knight.

Scalabrine became somewhat of a cult hero for Boston Celtics fans during the Pierce-Garnett-Allen (and Rondo I guess) years which produced an NBA title in 2008. He was the human equivalent of Red Auerbach's victory cigar during some of those years and at the end of a blowout win, the Boston crowd would often chant "Scal-A-Bri-Ne". Good for Brian, I guess. He parlayed the five years he spent in Boston during the middle of his 11 year career into a steady gig filling Tom Heinsohn's role as analyst during road games for the Cs. 

Dominique Wilkins
Nine time All-Star; Baskeball Hall of Fame Class of 2006.

I don't really remember watching Dominque Wilkins play basketball but suffice it to say he's likely the best player the Atlanta Hawks have ever had play for their franchise and for sure one of the best dunkers in NBA history, winning the Slam Dunk Contest during All-Star Weekend twice and earning the nickname "the human highlight reel."

Dominque never earned much team success in Atlanta. The Hawks never made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in his time there. But he did cement his playoff legacy in a game seven of the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics. In that contest, Dominique scored 47 on the Cs in what is regarded as one of the greatest playoff one-on-one contests in NBA playoff history. His adversary that day? Larry Bird, who for Larry was having a pretty ordinary day until the fourth quarter when he poured in 20 points to lead Boston to victory in the series. It was in many ways Wilkins' signature moment of his career, although it ultimately came in a loss, which is sort of fitting considering the Hawks' success while he was in town.

I truly believe the NBA is the best in person sports experience in the world. One of main reasons I believe that is how close you can get to the action on the playing field. No sport gives the kind of in person, so close you can touch fan experience. For me the past few years, that experience has occurred in the stands as well as some pretty awesome former players have strolled by me. I thought it was worth putting some of this in a blog post.

I've managed to capture six of the 29 Wizards opponents' television analysts here. Notable among those who are missing are Shaun Elliot of the San Antonio Spurs and David Wesley of the New Orleans Pelicans. In the case of both those guys, I just wasn't paying attention close enough at the beginning of the games. I also missed former Wizards All-Star Antawn Jamison, who has assisted on the call a few times this year. Here's hoping AJ will make that spot permanent and spend the rest of my Wizards fan tenure walking by me.

Hey...Wait A Minute!

During Washington Wizards local television broadcasts this season, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic (the amalgamation of the old CSN Washington and CSN Baltimore) has added a new feature for hard core Wizards fans tuning in at home. At some point during the game, a "Wizards Twitter Question" is posted on screen and discussed briefly by either the in studio staff or broadcasters extraordinaire Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier. Then using Twitter and the hashtag #WizardsTalk, fans can offer their thoughts in response to the question du jour and maybe see their words posted during a time out or some other stoppage of play late in the game. CSN is leveraging social media here to increase fan engagement. I think it's a great idea. God knows the Wizards need more fan engagement.

This past Tuesday, the Wizards were in Toronto to face the home town Raptors in the final game for both teams in calendar year 2015. The game itself was one of those plodders that it didn't seem like the Wizards stood a chance of being competitive let alone winning. But as things go sometimes in the NBA, the Wizards actually had a shot to pull it out in the last minute despite no Washington bench player scoring in the first half and Toronto outrebounding the Wiz by 11 and shooting 22 more free throw attempts. Since it was the last game until the new year, the Wizards Twitter Question that night was "What is your fondest Wizards memory from the year 2015?"

Now I have a few fond Wizards memories in this past year, as well as some I'd rather forget, and despite having never participated with Comcast in their Twitter question, I thought this particular question was one I could get at pretty easily. I picked as my fondest 2015 memory the last game of the 2015 playoffs that the Wizards won, game three of the second round vs. the Atlanta Hawks clinched at the buzzer on Paul Pierce's insane game winning bank shot. Why not, right? What an amazing moment punctuated by Pierce's drop-the-mic interview with ESPN's Chris Broussard. In my response to Comcast Wednesday night, I just let Pierce do my talking.

So it gets to be the fourth quarter and the Wizards are still hanging on for dear life and Steve and Phil re-visit the Wizards Twitter Question during a timeout. And guess who's up first but yours truly with my Twitter handle and everything. Woo hoo!!! On a late December evening of 2015 I get to mark about 10 to 15 seconds more of my 15 minutes of fame in the books. Good for me!

But wait a minute, I didn't write that!

The tweet displayed on screen attributed to me read "Did you call bank?" "No, I called game" as shown above. But that's neither a correct recounting of the end of the Pierce-Broussard interview, nor is it what I wrote in my tweet. True, Broussard does ask "Did you call bank" but Pierce's response was "I called game! GAME!" Not "No, I called game." And Pierce's response to that last question is just what I wrote in my tweet. Nothing more, nothing less.

So what gives? Did someone at Comcast actually re-write my tweet or was it just an innocent mistake attributing my name to someone else's message (for the record I can't imagine this last theory is true)? Did the staffers over at CSN feel my tweet didn't have enough context? If that's the case, I'd heartily disagree. Any committed Wizards fan should instantly recognize Pierce's quote and instantly think of last May. And what about my branding? I can't have mis-quoted interviews attributed to me out there in the atmosphere. I need my name cleared!!! There was no "no" in Pierce's quote!

So I'm not actually upset about my branding. The only brand I need is to be known as a die-hard Wizards fan who shows up every game giving his all to cheer on the Wiz through thick and (unfortunately mostly) thin, whether it be a home game at Verizon Center or elsewhere in the country on the road. But I do think the whole thing is interesting. There's no logical explanation for this in my mind. I wonder if it happens to other people? I'll probably be blacklisted over at CSN for this and never get another tweet posted on their broadcast. So be it. Happy New Year, Wizards fans. Orlando tonight. I'll be there and I'll probably be tweeting.

My ACTUAL tweet.

Bobbleheads

Of all the useless Wizards related things I collect (and I do collect a lot of useless Wizards related things), my favorite thing to collect is promotional bobbleheads. This past New Year's Day I added our first round draft pick from this past June, Bradley Beal, to my collection, just before the Wizards fell to the Dallas Mavericks and a franchise worst 4-26 through 30 games. Bradley is bobblehead number 23 (if you include bobblebellys and bobblehands in that number and you count Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier as two bobbleheads) and is now sitting comfortably among the other bobbleheads and nesting dolls on the shelf in my hallway.

Kwame Brown, Gilbert Arenas and Steve Blake nesting dolls. In this case, sort of a cousin of the bobblehead.

In case it doesn't become abundantly clear in the next few paragraphs, let's get one thing out in the open: I LOVE bobbleheads. I'd say I love bobbleheads more than my friend Larry loves robots, which if you asked Larry, is saying something. I base this observation, by the way, on the fact that when I go to Larry's I see no robots, but when I come home, I see a lot of bobbleheads.

I remember the first time I ever saw a bobblehead. It was shortly after we moved to this country and settled in Connecticut at my friend Greg Taxin's house back in my hometown. Greg's family were transplants from Los Angeles and I remember Greg had an L.A. Dodgers bobblehead. I'd never seen anything like it; we just didn't have anything like bobbleheads in England. It was one of those uniquely American items that fascinated me after I first moved to the U.S. Little did I know at that time, but bobbleheads had sort of come into the mainstream of American culture through Major League Baseball in the 1960s and early 1970s but they were totally off the coolness map by the time we arrived here in 1979. But from that first Dodgers bobblehead, I knew I had to have one someday. I've definitely completed that goal.

The 2004-2005 team's starting lineup. How did our best team in the last 12 and a half years have Jared Jeffries starting at the 3? The Gilbert Arenas bobblehead still talks. And in case you are wondering, iPad face detection does pick up the faces of bobbleheads.

The first bobblehead I ever owned was a bobblehead of Pete Slosberg, who was the co-founder and namesake of Pete's Wicked Ale. I saw it either in a catalog or more likely on the bottom of a six pack holder and just had to have one. That bobblehead actually has a plaster head. It took me about four tries to get one shipped from the manufacturer to my apartment in Cooperstown before I got one with an intact noggin. I still have that bobblehead somewhere at home but it doesn't sit in my Wizards bobblehead collection, which has become sort of a mini-obsession. I will not miss bobblehead giveaways at Verizon Center. I believe I have every Wizards bobblehead given away by the team since the 2002-2003 season with the exception of Jerry Stackhouse, which I did own at one point. When Stack shut himself down in the 2003-2004 season I got so disgusted with his lack of commitment to the team that I pitched that one. My standards have relaxed since then; I still have my Andray Blatche bobblehead even after his pathetic display last season.

In case my love of bobbleheads seems extremely unusual, let me point out I'm not alone in being extremely unusual. Dan Grunfeld wrote an excellent article last year about his grown-man love of bobbleheads. Dan is a former Stanford basketball player who has player professionally in Europe and Israel. Just like me, he is drawn to the shoddy promotional bobbleheads given away at basketball games which sometimes look nothing like the players they are supposed to be. If you read the article, note that Dan has many of the same bobbleheads I have in my collection, probably gifts from his dad Ernie Grunfeld, who is the Wizards' general manager. I'm sure Dan didn't earn all his Wizards bobbleheads by showing up early to games, of which half or more were likely miserable losses. Yes, I'm a little resentful here. I suffered for some of these bobbleheads.

This is the worst starting five I could assemble with my bobbleheads: Juan Dixon and Mike Miller in the backcourt; Jarvis Hayes and Andray Blatche at forward; and former number one overall pick Kwame Brown at center. Blatche's bobblehead is the most lifelike I have. At least Dray got something right in his time in DC.

I like my bobblehead collection because it reminds me of some of the players who have gone through our organization and have contributed to past successful seasons in the event I can't really remember back that far. They are also really cool pieces of Americana so even though they do absolutely nothing other than sit on a shelf, they make me happy in their own small way. There are some great players in bobblehead form on my shelf: Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler all made multiple all-star appearances while in Wizards uniforms and Wes Unseld and Earl Monroe have had their numbers retired by the franchise. I also have our current television announcers, Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier, as well as our mascot, G Wiz, who is arguably the best mascot in the NBA.

But despite having franchise legends in bobble form, my favorite bobble in my collection is actually the bobblehand of DeShawn Stevenson. That's right: bobbleHAND. The team created this essential piece of Wizards memorabilia because DeShawn used to wave his hand in front of his face in a "I can't feel my face" motion when he hit big shots. Over the years, DeShawn provided Wizards fans with some of our best moments in our on and off court rivalry with the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James. For his unwavering commitment to hating that rival, I will love D-Steve forever. I was actually offered $100 for this bobble right after the game they were given away, a vicious beatdown of the Cavaliers in the 2009-2010 season. I declined the offer which I considered a joke and would have even if I thought it was a serious offer. No way would I part with this one.

23 and counting. I'm hoping for a set of five Wizards bobbleheads to add to my collection later this season.

DeShawn Stevenson: I can't feel my faaaaaaace!

Traveling

Minneapolis: Camera phones in 2007 just weren't what they are today.

When the television broadcast schedule was announced for the 2006-2007 NBA season, it appeared to me that I would have to miss the February 25, 2007 game at Minnesota because it just didn't look like it would be on TV. It was a Sunday afternoon game and ABC, who owned the national TV contract with the NBA that year, had the broadcast rights. That usually works out fine because the game would be shown on national TV, but this particular Sunday, ABC had the rights to several other games in that same time slot and would only be showing one based on the perceived popularity of the teams playing. Reviewing the schedule that day, it didn't look to me that the Wizards-Timberwolves game would be the one shown by ABC. When the NBA's national TV network owns the rights to a game, they prohibit the same game being shown on local cable television to eliminate competition. So on Sunday, February 25, our local cable network, Comcast SportsNet, had no plans to show the game.

Instead of resigning myself to missing the game, I decided to go to the game in person. I looked for airline tickets and it appeared we could leave Washington in the morning, see the game, and fly back the same day. My friend Mike checked for tickets on Ticketmaster and incredibly found two tickets in the second row at center court. Sold! We were going to Minnesota for the day to see the Wizards.

Sunday morning, February 25, came and it was snowing. Our flight out of National Airport was delayed. That was ok, we had some time for our connection in Chicago. As long as the flight wasn't too late, we'd be alright. And we were. We landed in Minnesota about an hour before tip-off, got off the plane with no luggage (we were just going for the day, after all), took a cab directly to the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis and walked to our second row seats wearing our gold Arenas and Butler road jerseys. Other than the loss, the game was great. We had great seats, had beverage service because we were essentially courtside, and the game was close. The Target Center is dark and quiet and the fact that the crowd is almost completely racially homogenous is strangely unnerving but everything went according to plan. After the game, we hopped in a cab back to the airport for our trip home. We would just make our flight and be back home in DC that night. Except that last part didn't happen.

After we left Washington, it had continued to snow and as it turned out, National Airport had closed. So had Dulles and BWI, so we were stuck in Minneapolis for the night and would have to miss work the next day. It was snowing in Minneapolis too; worse, in fact, than in DC, but they are equipped to deal with more than a few inches of snow. Washington  sometimes has difficulty with rain, let alone snow. I still struggle with this concept after nine years in upstate New York, by the way, but it is what it is. Fortunately, we were able to get a hotel downtown and found a bar with a friendly bartender and talked for a few hours about what it was like living in Minnesota. The next morning, we got up, put on the same clothes we had worn the previous day and went to the airport. We got lucky and managed to get a direct flight home, albeit to a different airport than we had flown out of. My trip home that day involved light rail from downtown Minneapolis to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport; a flight from Minneapolis to Dulles airport in northern Virginia; a bus from Dulles to the West Falls Church metro station; a metro ride to National Airport; and finally a trip home from National in my car. Still, it was worth the trip and we got home safe.

After that game in Minnesota, my dad said he recalled seeing an interview with Gilbert Arenas where Gilbert talked about the growing popularity of the Wizards and pointed to the fact that there were two fans in gold Wizards jerseys in the second row at the Target Center when the Wizards played the Timberwolves that year. I've never found that interview but it would be ironic if it were true.

Front row seat behind the Wizards bench in Atlanta. I LOVED these seats. The Wizards soonafter abandoned the gold names on the jerseys in favor of gold trimmed with white.

Despite the unplanned overnight stay, the missed day of work and the trip home, I was determined to take more Wizards road trips, perhaps even make it an annual event. I just resolved to make sure I didn't pick a game in a cold weather city in the dead of winter. So when the 2007-2008 season schedule was released, I looked for the next opportunity. That year, as it turned out, all the Wizards road games were on our local cable TV channel so the decision as to where to go see was not driven by anything other than personal preference. I decided on an early season game against the Atlanta Hawks and decided the trip should include an overnight stay and a little bit of an exploration of the city, rather than just going to see the game and leaving. I'd never been to Atlanta and had always wanted to see the High Museum of Art so it seemed like a good idea. That blueprint has formed the basis of all my road trips since.

The trip to Atlanta was notable from a basketball standpoint for a couple of reasons. First, the team won despite being 0-5 at the time and it got a winning streak of six straight started that got our season on track. It's the only time in four road trips that the Wizards have won a road game I have attended. Second, we managed to get some seats right behind the Wizards bench from a seller on StubHub. I have never sat courtside and I am sure my opinion will change if I ever do, but watching a game from right behind the team bench is definitely the way to go. Basketball is a game which changes as you get closer to the action. You can't see plays develop quite as well as you can from a seat in the upper deck of an arena, but you see and hear nuances of the game which are just not evident until you get up close. From our seats immediately behind the bench, we could hear pretty much everything that was being said by the players on the bench and by the coaches in the team huddles. It gave an insight into the game that we couldn't have had from anywhere else in the building.

Since it worked so well on the Atlanta trip, we sat in the same spot in 2009 at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indiana, a gorgeous facility which that November night hosted a terrible showing by the Wizards in what was supposed to be (but wasn't) a season when we made some serious noise in the playoffs. On that trip, we managed to talk to Wizards play by play announcer Steve Buckhantz and we were actually featured in the broadcast. I got an incredulous text message from my friend Chris during the game saying that the camera had just focused on me and Mike, they had mentioned us by name and talked about some of the trips we had taken. It was almost as if Chris couldn't figure out how Steve knew all this about us. To his credit, Chris captured it and you can see us on the broadcast here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgscnNbJ4GY. If I actually get 15 minutes of fame in my life, this is surely and sadly 1:03 of those 15 minutes. Yes, I am wearing an Andray Blatche jersey and no, that doesn't necessarily make me a loser. I was just misguided by Andray's enthusiasm at the beginning of that season. 

Caron Butler staring me down in Indianapolis. He's probably trying to figure out why I would spend money on the authentic Andray Blatche jersey I was wearing.

One of the great things about traveling is the people you meet, like our bartender in Minneapolis. For those who know me well, this may actually come as a surprise, but it's true. In our road trips, I have met some interesting people whose lives are nothing like mine but in some ways are connected. It's encouraging to me when those connections come from basketball, which sometimes they do. On our way to the United Center in Chicago in 2010, I got into an animated exchange with our cab driver about the Knicks-Bulls 1990s rivalry. Turns out he hated John Starks and I certainly hated Michael Jordan so we had a lot to discuss during our debate about the best dunk from that rivalry. I didn't convince him of my position, but Starks' dunk over Jordan was way better than Jordan's dunk on Patrick Ewing. Just hands down, it is.

So far, I've been to four NBA cities to see the Wizards play on the road. I'd better pick up the pace if I intend to make it to all 29 like we told Phil Chenier in Indianapolis. I wonder where the schedule will take me this year.