Summer Of '18

On the last day of May of this year, I promised I would take the summer off from writing about my beloved Washington Wizards on account of their good-for-nothing, underachieving, casual, completely overconfident, waste of money 2017-2018 campaign. After a 43 win season where they lost to just about every terrible team in the NBA right on the heels of their first division title in like forever I had had it with this team. I got out of D.C. for the draft, didn't watch a single minute of Summer League and tried to resist looking at Twitter during free agency (yeah, that didn't work out so well). Now it's September, the summer is over and I've been off this blog for more than three months. Mission accomplished! I'm back! The cheesesteak thing still doesn't count.

So what the heck happened around here this summer? Anything notable sports-wise over at 601 F Street NW? Umm...yeah, maybe just a little.

June

OK so first of all, the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup. Yep, seriously. Perhaps you might have noticed that a little in mid-June, either through Alex Ovechkin and Co. going on the most extreme multi-day bender in Washington sports history all over the District and Virginia and maybe Maryland (and fully documented on Instagram) along with a parade downtown that drew an estimated half a million fans. That's half a million!!!

I'm super happy for the Caps and their fans here. It's been 44 years since the Caps started playing hockey and this is their first one. Ovi finally gets the non-championship winner monkey off his back (actually the non-advancing past the second round monkey) and Washington has its first big four sports title since the 1990s. Caps fans that have been suffering (and I use that term lightly here because it's not suffering like Wiz fans suffer) including my friend Mike who's been heading to games since he was a teenager finally got some relief.

Oddly enough, I'm happiest for guys like Jay Beagle and Tom Wilson who have stuck with the Caps all these years. I have a soft spot for those two guys because they shoveled mulch with me and a few others in the summer of 2013 building a playground at an elementary school in D.C. Always appreciated them doing rather than showing up for a photo opp, doing very little and splitting like Glen Rice, Jr. and Bradley Beal did that day.

So did I celebrate like it was a team I absolutely loved that had won it all? I did not. I didn't feel I deserved it. I've been at Caps games throughout the years and I still have a Matthew Perrault shirt but I don't feel like I earned the right. That's me in the top left of the photo on the Cup clinching night with a bunch of crazed (trust me, there was some crazed) Caps fans. I swear I'm not asleep.

The bad side about all this? Ted Leonsis can now say he knows how to run a sports team and just wait like six years or so and the Wiz will be NBA Champs. Hockey ain't basketball.

On the basketball side of things, the Golden State Warriors put the rest of the league out of its misery and won their third championship in three years by easily rolling over the Cleveland Cavaliers and squashing the hopes of any fan who longs for competitive balance in the NBA. Finally, we can get on to the offseason.

First up, the NBA Draft, which I exclaimed on Twitter to be a "complete waste of hope and time" after the Wizards selected Troy Brown, Jr. with the 15th overall pick. To say this pick was a surprise to about everyone might be an understatement. I'm not saying Brown was a poor pick; time will be the only judge of that. I'm just saying that the Wizards might have been able to trade back a couple of spots for Brown and maybe a second rounder (or about $500K in cash in Wizards speak). With the second round selection of Issuf Sanon, Ernie Grunfeld officially broke Wizards Twitter.

Sanon is from the Ukraine, the same country that produced one of the most memorable Wizards draft picks ever in Oleksiy Pecherov. Memorable from a character, not basketball, standpoint. I got buckets, son!

Brown played collegiately at the University of Oregon, where I happened to be three nights after the Draft on my way from the Napa Valley to Portland. In a moment of desperation longing for some hope that the Wiz got the steal of the draft, I quizzed our bartender Cam at Trev's Sports Bar and Grill right on the edge of the U of O campus about our young Mr. Brown. His thought: "got taken way to early." Like I said, time will tell.

Then just when it seemed that the Wizards were just going to start play in the fall with the exact same core of the team that finished last year in the eight spot, they went and traded Marcin Gortat to the Los Angeles Clippers for Austin Rivers. Marcin leaves Washington with five solid consistent game-in, game-out years of service as one of the franchise all-time leaders in rebounding. He also gets ushered out with a reputation as a little bit of a locker room malcontent, especially when he's feeling neglected or blamed for the Wizards woes in some way. I'll say no more on this subject for now except that as of late June the Wizards needed a center and they didn't need anyone with locker room chemistry issues. I know you know what's coming.

Rivers, by the way, definitely upgrades the guard spot on our bench.

Also in June...Jodie Meeks picked up his player option for this coming season. Because of course he did. Who else but the Wizards is going to pay Meeks $3.4 million this year?

July

First day of July means free agency. So much intrigue. Will the Wizards get LeBron? Will they trade Otto? Who are they going to use the stretch provision on? They gotta use that thing, right? What about Mike Scott? What kind of deal are the Wiz putting in front of that guy? Who is out there that's a hidden gem that the Wizards can pluck from the trash pile? Jamal Crawford, maybe? Heard he wasn't that happy in Minny...

The answers to all that? In sequence: no, no, yeah...nobody, umm...no, he's gone with Gortat, apparently not a good enough one, nobody? and no. But they did pick up a guy named Bryant who was recently released by the Lakers to make room for LeBron. And no, not THAT Bryant.

I'm actually OK with what the Wizards did in free agency. I know, I'm only OK with it because of the situation they had to deal with, namely Ian Mahinmi, Jason Smith and Meeks being paid so much damn money and taking up so much damn cap space and that's absolutely nobody's fault but this front office's. It's difficult to give someone credit for making the best of a super bad situation that they themselves created. I'm glad the Wizards picked up an athletic big man in Thomas Bryant and I like Jeff Green on a one year deal.

And this whole Dwight Howard thing? Yeah...I don't know. Dwight is one of my least favorite NBA players because he's got too much whining and not enough dog in him. He's a diva and he's not worth it. Think you got problems with a slightly upset Marcin Gortat? Wait 'til D12 (or is it D21 here?) starts to feel unappreciated. The last guy I'd get to solve a locker room issue is Dwight Howard. I mean like the LAST guy. Having said that, why not? It's not like the Wizards are making the NBA Finals with Ian Mahinmi starting at center. Let's see if this can work. Fourth team in four years for Dwight? I'm willing to give it a chance. You can tell I'm a Wizards fan, right?

I still want them to use the stretch provision on someone but I'm not sure I'd let Mahinmi go that way. I'd go with Smith or Meeks. Or both. I see Ian making way more of a contribution than Jodie or Jason.

Summer League after all that? Yeah, didn't watch. The Wiz went 1-5 and finished 29th out of 30 teams. Apparently Troy Brown, Jr. impressed. I hope so. The Wiz need someone good on a rookie deal. Not saying Kelly Oubre, Jr. isn't good. Just that a year from now he won't be on a rookie deal. God, the Wizards really need draft picks to pan out when they only make one like every three years.

Anything else going on D.C. sports-wise in July? Well, yeah. 

At the end the month the Washington Valor won Arena Bowl 31. Yep, that's right, two Ted Leonsis-owned teams won their league championship since the last time I blogged. Before you get too high here (and excuse the extreme cynicism that's about to follow because I feel this is rare for me) the Valor won two games in the regular season and lost 10. They made the playoffs because there are only four teams in the whole league and everybody makes the playoffs. They then managed to win both playoff games which, hey! gets them a championship.

Congrats to the Valor players. Sincerely. This has to be one of the least thankful jobs in sports playing in that league. Think anyone's paying attention to this sport? The championship celebration was held at the Greene Turtle at Capital One Arena which can't hold much more than like 250 people. By the way, I was offered four free tickets to the Arena Bowl by Monumental Sports. I turned down the tickets.

The bad side about all this? Ted Leonsis can now say he knows how to run a sports team and just wait like six years or so and the Wiz will be NBA Champs. Arena football ain't basketball. Plus you went 2-10 in the regular season.

August

So this was a legitimately busy summer for me. I moved, dealt with the aftermath of moving and got out of town for a bit to celebrate a milestone birthday. I feel bad but I had no time to get to a Mystics game. That had to change in August so we decided to pick up some tickets to see the home game on August 3 vs. the Las Vegas Aces. Washington's team was making a run at the playoffs and the Aces weren't far behind. Seemed like a great time to get back to Capital One Arena and watch some hoops again.

The Las Vegas Aces apparently didn't think so. Weather and connection and the WNBA's prohibition on charter flights got the last parts of the Aces' team to Washington at about 4 p.m. or so on game day. The WNBA moved the game back an hour to accommodate them but ultimately they decided to not show up. Like legitimately. The Aces decided just to not show up. Game cancelled. Of course we found this out after we paid for parking downtown. No Mystics regular season game for me.

In the end, the WNBA awarded the game via forfeit to the Mystics. Monumental Sports apologized to us fans and promised a refund (which we received) and free tickets to a future Mystics game (which never got actually offered; sort of like SummerFest that's in the Wizards list of benefits but which never actually happens). Great that the Mystics won without playing. By the middle of August they had the three seed locked up and were poised for a playoff run.

By the way, the fact that the WNBA prohibits charter flights by teams is insane. I get that not every WNBA team owner doesn't also have an NBA team in their portfolio but come on...the league has to find a way to make this happen. This is some awesome kind of stupid.

September

The beginning of September found yours truly out of town again and the Mystics rolling to the WNBA Finals. Yep, that's right. Monumental was three for three (actually four for four since the Baltimore Brigade who the Valor beat in the Arena Bowl are also owned by Monumental) this summer in finals appearances. Unfortunately for me, my being out of town meant that the Mystics played both their home semi-finals games while I was away so I STILL hadn't been to a Mystics game this summer. Hey...why not spend $20 and get to a Finals game?

I get that it's great that Capital One Arena has been renovated this summer, although I'll reserve final judgement on all that when I actually take in an event there. I also get that it's awesome that the Mystics will be playing next year in the brand new and right now super blandly named Entertainment and Sports Arena in Congress Heights. But what that situation did to the Mystics playoff run this year sort of sucked. They played their first three games at George Washington University's Smith Center but by the time they made the Finals, that spot was booked for the two nights needed to face the Seattle Storm. They would have to move again.

Fortunately, for the Mystics, the renovations at Cap One were complete by that time. Unfortunately, they were complete to host Drake and Paul Simon (separately) on the two nights needed. So it was off to George Mason in Fairfax for the Mystics. But only one game. The team got swept by the Seattle Storm 3-0 and ended up runners-up.

The Mystics run was awesome this year and if Elena Delle Donne hadn't gotten injured in Atlanta things might have been a bit more competitive in the Finals. Hopefully they can add a piece or two in the offseason and come back stronger next year and take another shot. But from my spot in the cheap seats of Eagle Bank Arena on the GMU campus in Fairfax, the Seattle Storm were no way going to lose that title. Natasha Howard absolutely killed it for Seattle. Despite the Mystics making a run at the beginning of the fourth, they had no real shot. I feel lucky to have made it to my first finals game in American sports and was proud to represent Washington. I promise I'll try to do better next year.

The bad side about all this? Well, honestly there is no bad side about the Mystics. Maybe Ted Leonsis will get Mike Thibault to run the Wizards as well as the WNBA franchise.

So that's my summer. It's now almost time for Wizards season again and the joy and inevitable agony that comes with that proposition. I'm ready to get back to it. I think this summer off has been good for me. And, yes, I'm saying that like I'm a true Wizards fan. Let's get back to it.

GMU's campus is not built to accommodate 10,000 (or maybe fewer) fans from off-campus.

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!

DC12 Club Loyalty Milestones

Before we get to the meat of this post, let me say I'm just confused by this Wizards team so far. We are inconsistent (nothing new there); don't seem to try very hard at times (nothing new there either); lose to teams we should beat (again...nothing new) and yet have shown flashes. This is clearly at times not your Randy Wittman coached Wizards team. And yet here we are at 4-9 and fighting for 11th place in the conference. Or maybe we will stay tied for 12th. I'm trying to be patient. We just aren't supposed to be rebuilding that's all. Enough said on that. Let's get to the post.

About a dozen or so years ago, the Washington Wizards introduced an anniversary milestones rewards program for season ticket holders as a way to recognize continued support of the team at the season ticket holder level. It started modestly, rewarding members for every five years of commitment up to (if I'm remembering correctly and it doesn't necessarily matter if I'm wrong here) 25 years. Since that time, the program has expanded to start at five years and end at 50 (!!!) years of membership.

So while it's worth acknowledging that this benefit is better than the nothing that existed before it, I think it's probably also worth looking at the relative value of the rewards against each other. To that end I've done some quick math on the cost of each of the ten milestones. To me, it appears there are some rewards for years and years of paying for Wizards basketball that are less valuable than some of the predecessor awards. As I approach 20 years as a season ticket holder, I'd love to see the team adjust some of these rewards so they make more sense.

My list is below. The descriptions are directly from the Wizards DC12 Club Membership Benefits Webpage and I've clipped the rewards listing from that page and pasted it at the top of this post. Let's start with the least valuable and end up at the most valuable.

1. 10 Years

Member's Name Displayed on the Wizards Wall of Fame (Primary Account Holder's Name Only)

You could argue that some of the rewards on this list have value without having a monetary equivalent. You certainly could make that case here with the 10 Year award. After all, there's no way to (legally) get your name on the wall of Verizon Center without actually buying Wizards season tickets for 10 years. I can agree one can make that argument, but I'm not buying it here. I like that my name is on a list of 10+ year season ticket holders at VC but it's not really worth anything to me.

Value: $0.

2. 25 Years

Participate in the Pre-Game Captain's Meeting at a Pre-Selected Home Game (One Person Per Account)

I'm shocked that the reward for 25 years of sitting in Verizon Center watching Wizards games comes out as the second least valuable on this list but I can't see it any other way. Now I haven't been through this reward yet so there could be some ancillary stuff beyond the description of the reward like access to VIP areas or something else. But going on the surface of things and having seen these folks out at center court before most every game, it appears to me this is about a five minute photo opportunity and that's it. Let's say you get a nicely framed photograph of the occasion to hang on your wall. That's what I've assumed in calculating this experience's value.

Now, you could argue again that this is not something you can just opt to do on your own (like some of the later rewards) and so therefore this is a special event afforded only to 25 year season ticket holders. I mean it's not like you can just stride out to center court and hang out with Marcin Gortat, Tomas Satoransky and whomever the opponent sends out there, right? All that is true and I'd be on board if this same experience weren't available at auction on the Monumental Rewards website. Save your points and bid wisely and you can get the exact same thing as someones who's poured 25 years of cost into the team. The Wizards have to change this, don't they? They make it worse by only allowing one person per account to participate. Ouch!

Value: $50.

3. 5 Years

Private Reception with Wizards Management and Special Guests

The first rewards milestone season ticket holders will receive is at five years. I think if I'm remembering things right the team rolled this out right when I reached the five year mark. My reward? A reception in the (then) Acela Club with free food and beer with Ernie Grunfeld. Gilbert Arenas was supposed to be there but allegedly had a flat tire and couldn't attend. So our "special guests" ended up being nobody. I'm not assigning any value to the special guests part of this event, even though some of these things can offer unique insights into the NBA. I still remember an awesome conversation we had with Josh Howard about diet and fitness a number of years ago at a similar event.

The five year reward is worth it. We got some free food and booze for two people plus a basketball signed by Gilbert Arenas (which I still have). I've calculated the theoretical value here assuming you chow down and you get two spots. Also, I've figured Verizon Center beer prices which might actually make the number low depending on how much you can drink. It doesn't take much to get to a $50 alcohol bill at VC.

Value: $100.

4. 30 Years

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

The 30 Year reward is two tickets to a game that you have tickets for anyway. The Owner's Suite (I'm assuming) is the one right around Section 101 with the elevator to allow former owner Abe Pollin to get to his suite without crossing paths with fans. Considering the success of the team, maybe a smart move. I guess the real value of this experience depends on if the owner shows up. Ted usually sits courtside and honestly those seats are probably way more desirable.

I'm assuming a suite ticket on the 100 level costs about $150? Just a guess. Maybe there's some food an a can of beer or two thrown in there which might add $50-75 per person. Sounds good to me.

Value: $450.

5. 20 Years

Trip to an Eastern Conference Away Game (Two Guests Per Account)

The 20 Year reward is the first of three regular season road trips Wizards season ticket holders can cash in on. I'm assuming this particular reward is a trip to Philadelphia because (a) there's no mention of any overnight accommodations so that sort of limits the distance and (b) I know that's where the team has taken folks before. And yes, just like the Pre-Game Captains' Meeting reward, they've had made this item available on the Monumental Rewards site before.

I might actually have this and the 30 Year reward switched. The value is awfully similar. I know the Wizards have in the past bought suites at Wells Fargo Center so let's say tickets are $100 per person. Let's assume they also spring for some food and booze just like we assumed at VC at 30 Years which adds $50-75 per person. Throw in bus fare worth about $30 each way and I get a little more than the 30 Year reward.

Value: $470.

6. 40 Years

Overnight Trip to a Pre-Selected Wizards Away Game, Including Airfare, Hotel, and Game Tickets (Two Guests Per Account)

OK so now we are talking: a real road trip! After 40 years (I mean can you even imagine?) of paying for Wizards games on a season ticket basis, you are off on a real trip with the team. I've done this several times so far as a fan on my own. I'd love for the team to take me away for an overnight trip to watch the Wiz play.

So this one includes airfare (let's ballpark that at $400 figuring it's not a California trip) for two; a hotel room for a night (say $250?) and tickets to the game ($150 each?). Assume there are some incidentals or other sorts of perks in there at maybe $100 per person and you are talking some serious money laid out by the team.

Value: $1,550.

7. 45 Years

On-Court Recognition and Your Choice of Either an Overnight Trip to an Away Game or a Trip to an Eastern Conference Away Game (Two Guests Per Account)

So 45 years in you get either the exact same thing you got at 40 years or the exact same thing you got at 20 years. Let's go glass half full here and say it's another overnight roadie where you get to fly somewhere. I'm going to use the same budget for this reward but since there's an on court acknowledgement which may be similar the much maligned (at least in this post) pre-game captains' meeting, I'll throw in the cost of that also.

Value: $1,600.

8. 15 Years

Complimentary Lexus Level Suite for a Game with Stadium Food for a Group of 18 (One Per Account)

Of all the things I've done as a Wizards fan interacting with this team, being handed an entire Lexus Level suite for a game a couple of years ago was the best. This is a seriously valuable perk. I loved this experience. I wish I could do it again. I especially wish I could od it again for free. And I got to bring 18 of my closest friends. Seriously generous on the part of the franchise.

And this is not a cheap item. I haven't verified the cost this year but I think when I checked last year these started at about $1,200 per game. And that's for the cheapest game on the slowest night. We got a Friday night game against the (then almost good) Brooklyn Nets. And it came with free food, a swag bag for every guest and a couple of six packs of beer (which alone are worth about $35 each and yes that's actually cheaper at $6 or so a beer than elsewhere in Verizon Center). Let's spitball the cost of a suite at about $1,400 and throw in about $200 worth of food and beer and swag. Yes, it's technically tied with the 45 Year reward when you add all that up but since you get it a quarter of a century earlier, I'm ranking it higher.

Value: $1,600.

9. 35 Years

Limo Transportation for You and a Guest to and from a Pre-Selected Wizards Home Game, Plus a Fully Catered Lexus Level Suite for up to 18 Guests

I really want another suite to myself but I have to tell you I can't imagine I'm (a) waiting another 20 years before I do that again or (b) going to be a Wizards season ticket holder when I'm 71. Let's say the limo adds $150 to the cost of this experience and the "Fully Catered" suite costs about $400 more than the "Stadium Food." Good reward. Not sure if I would be more or less fun after 70 than before 50.

Value: $2,150.

10. 50 Years

Trip to Las Vegas to Watch the Wizards Summer League Team in Action (Two Guests Per Account)

I love Summer League. Like genuinely absolutely LOVE it. Gambling, great food, open carry laws (for alcohol that is) and hoops. How can a trip to Vegas get much better than that?

Before this past summer, I'd been to seven consecutive Summer Leagues. My typical stay was just three nights (as much as I love Vegas it seems three nights at a time is about all I can handle) although I took in all five Wizards games in 2010 right after we drafted John Wall. The value of this reward is going to be dependent on the length of the stay of course. Let's give the Wizards some huge credit and assume it's a three night trip. I could be and likely am way off on this one.

I think you can get to Vegas and back for $500 per person. Let's say they put you up somewhere nice (not at Excalibur where I usually stay) that costs $250 per night. Finally let's say they spring for courtside tickets at $100 per seat per person for three days of action. Again, I may be reaching with the perks on this one but you've been a season ticket holder for 50 years. There has to be some big spending going on here. In fact, you know what? Let's just round the whole thing up to the nearest $500.

Value: $2,500. And yes, that may be way off.

Go ahead and nitpick the value of each reward if you want. This is just my semi-informed opinion. And no, I didn't do a whole lot of detailed research. The point of this post is not to get the value of the rewards right to the dollar or penny but to point out that in my opinion the value does not increase with tenure. If I've got the dollar value wrong on any of these (and I'm sure I've actually got it wrong depending on your point of view on ALL of them) so be it; I don't believe I'm far enough off to have one reward swap places with another on the list with the possible exception of 4/5 and 7/8. And I'm OK swapping those. Of all the rewards, I'd be most concerned about the relative lack of value you get after 25 years. It's certainly way less than the 15 and 20 year rewards and you can get it with Monumental Rewards points.

My next reward is 20 years but honestly, I'd rather have the 15 year reward all over again. I think the Wizards should take a look at this list and consider a re-shuffle. It might keep me as a season ticket holder longer. I'm in for 20 because I do want the trip to Philly, even though I've already been there. But I'm not motivated to stay for 25 because of the pre-game captains' meeting. And unless the team's performance improves, the competitiveness ain't going to keep me either.

Summer League 2015

Today is the final day of the 2015 Las Vegas Summer League. The championship game, which is the only game played today, pits the Phoenix Suns against the San Antonio Spurs in a tournament that means little more than pride. Last year my beloved Washington Wizards bowed out in the semi-finals of the event, a fairly impressive outing that saw an overall 5-1 record plus two all tournament selections in Otto Porter and Glen Rice, Jr., who also managed to snag the most valuable player honor for the entire league. Last year's trip to Vegas was all about those two second year players and the Wizards made pretty much the most of their summer trip to the desert.

This year promised to be completely different. And it was. With no returning summer leaguers whatsoever, the Wizards experience this year was all about Kelly Oubre, our first round and number 14 overall pick out of the University of Kansas, and to a much much lesser extent Aaron White, who we grabbed with our second round pick out of the University of Iowa. White has pretty much zero chance to make the team with our roster already filled with the offseason signings and trades of Jared Dudley, Gary Neal, Alan Anderson and Drew Gooden III. As I've done the past two years under the tournament style format, I made it out to Sin City for two of our three non-tournament games before heading back east with little tolerance for more than three nights in Vegas.

By all accounts (considering the Wizards won three of their last four), I made it to the wrong two games. Not only did the Wizards lose their first two games to the Phoenix Suns and the D-League Select team, they lost pretty handily, getting pushed around by the Suns' second year center Alex Len in game one and then getting out-worked, out-desired and out-experienced by a group of perennial NBDL players dying to make it to or back to the NBA in game two. Not like winning really matters too much in Summer League, but winning's better than losing under almost any circumstance and it's just nice to have it happen once now and again.

The Wizards 2015 Draft class: Aaron White (left) and Kelly Oubre (right).

I think Wizards fans sort of got what we expected in the first two Summer League games out of our draft picks this year. In Oubre, we got raw talent and most likely a project who if he pans out at the projected level of ability, is THE steal of the draft. But we'll likely have to wait and see what he can do in not many minutes on the floor this year. He'll likely be parked on the bench behind Otto Porter and likely Jared Dudley for much of at least the first half of the season.

In his first two games in Summer League he looked more often lost than found. It's not entirely surprising considering he's playing on a team that had been together less than a week but from my perspective in the fifth row or so, Kelly got more than he bargained with when he was going up against older, stronger players, some of whom were almost fighting for their basketball lives. It might not have helped at the beginning of the league that he was being cheered on by a number of visitors from nearby Findlay Prep where he finished out high school. He was one of the only guys I saw there with local and personal support. Sometimes those things can cut both ways.

I thought on the offensive end he was far more effective letting the game come to him than when he created on his own. I suppose every player is but the difference early on was striking; he got rejected several times going to the hoop in what looked like far too ambitious circumstances. When you are 19 years old and going to the basket guarded by two or three older players, you might expect to get blocked or miss. He settled down after the first half of game one but never looked fully comfortable to me unless he was putting back off a rebound or receiving a pass close to the hoop. I would have loved to have been there for his final game when he dropped 30 on the Oleksiy Pecherov-led Denver Nuggets. Just to see Pech and KO going at it would have been amazing.

In other parts of the game, I thought Kelly looked much better. He made a couple of nice defensive plays in the Phoenix game, including blocking a shot on a fast break and taking a charge. He got beat on some one on one match ups but is clearly both gifted and talented. There were a couple of rebounds that he got in traffic that showed how big his wingspan is relative to his height. That's a tantalizing skill if he can harness that.

Final score: D-League Select 94, Wizards 74.

Then there's Aaron White, who showed enough in games one and two where you could understand why he got drafted but also showed enough to validate him being a second round pick. Since draft night, the Wizards have unfortunately (for Aaron) signed enough players to have zero roster flexibility barring an unbalanced trade or waiving a player via the stretch provision (I wouldn't be surprised if we let someone like DeJuan Blair go this route). That means he's stuck in a spot where the Wizards have control of his rights but have no home for him. Barring the Wizards letting him go, Aaron's options appear to be overseas for  decent money or staying at home in the NBDL for very little money.

If there's one thing that impressed me about Aaron it was his ability to run the floor. This is a really athletic guy out on the court, not some stiff who can just shoot. He also had some impressive hops, especially on one offensive rebound putback for a dunk. But he clearly has tons of room to grow. Lack of obvious success seemed to discourage him out on the floor and any hope we had for him being a homegrown stretch four this coming year evaporated with his game two shooting performance where he started 0-8, including a number of bricked wide open three point shots. I know it's difficult to draw any conclusions from two two-hour games but there's more development required here.

Jordan Crawford defending Seth Curry (right).

The Wizards played two games within a span of about 24 hours, playing their first game vs. the Suns on Saturday at 3 p.m. and their second, a 20 point loss to the D-League Select, at 1 p.m. the following day which finished a couple of hours later. Just like that, my two Wizards games were done. I'm not sure I've had a quicker Summer League. Maybe I should stay longer next time. Maybe.

But one other thing I wanted to do with my few hours over at the Thomas and Mack Center was to catch up on a couple of former and almost Wizards since the schedule worked out just perfectly that way. I was not able to see any play from "I got buckets, son" Oleksiy Pecherov but I did catch up on a couple of old friends.

The Wizards played in the third game on the Saturday we arrived in Vegas. The first game that day featured the Dallas Mavericks taking on the New Orleans Pelicans. The starting two guard for the Mavs that day? Jordan Crawford, a guy traded three times in his first four years in the league who once denied ever playing for the Wizards, the team who really gave him the best shot to show the league what he had.

When we first traded Kirk Hinrich to the Atlanta Hawks for Jordan, we acquired our fourth first round selection from the 2010 draft and got a guy who was apparently instant offense and had once dunked on LeBron James and LeBron's own camp. How could we not love this guy? But the organization soon had Jordan playing deep in the rotation behind rookie Bradley Beal, who was younger and more talented and definitely was more interested in playing some defense. Last year Jordan played in China and then spent the tail end of the year playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the NBDL, ultimately failing to get picked up for a playoff run by a contender.

The few minutes Jordan played in the one Summer League game I saw were pretty unremarkable but he still gets lost on defense pretty easily, especially when circumstances require him to do something different than just cover his own man. I typically hold grudges against guys who badmouth our franchise after leaving but I don't with Jordan; I just think he's too much of a character. Maybe he can work on his defensive liabilities and be a bit of a spark plug for someone in the next couple of years. If not, I think he's got to be resigned to playing somewhere else other than the NBA.

Glen Rice, Jr., hands on knees, vs. the Phoenix Suns.

Speaking of offensive minded guards who play questionable defense and have perhaps a higher opinion of themselves than they should…

Last November I headed to Toronto to watch the Wizards take on the Toronto Raptors in an early season matchup that didn't go very well at all for my team. There was little positive for the Wizards to take away from that game but ultimately they managed to fix most things about their on court performance which ultimately culminated with a 4-0 sweep of Toronto in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

But one thing we didn't fix about that game was an on court encounter between head coach Randy Wittman and Glen Rice, Jr. which apparently led to another verbal altercation between the two the next day. I noted Glen had some words for Sam Cassell last year during Summer League so this had sort of become a pattern. A couple of weeks after Toronto, Rice was in the D-League. Two months later, he was no longer a Wizard.

I got to see maybe five minutes of Glen Rice on the court during last week's Summer League action. In those five minutes he scored ten points, including two three pointers, one of which beat the buzzer at the end of a quarter. As far as Summer League and scoring go, Rice has that down pat. He led the tournament last year with a  25.0 points per game average and he finished this year with a 19.0 points per game average.

But I have to say as soon as I sat down at the Suns-Rockets game on Sunday afternoon, I saw Rice yelling at the official for some perceived non-call while the play was going on and his man had the ball. While he was focused on the referee, the Suns scored. A minute later on the next Suns trip downcourt, Rice was still upset, lazily kicking his leg out while defending an inbound pass for what should have been a layup (the Suns just blew it) instead of getting his head back in the game and playing some D. Maybe this is super unfair to write this based on five minutes, but he's clearly got some issues to overcome here. No matter how good he is at putting the ball through the hoop, he's not good enough to overcome attitude like this. If he won't outgrow this, I don't see him back in the league anytime soon.

The packed packed packed Thomas and Mack Center.

Finally just a few words about Jordan Clarkson and the popularity of Summer League in general. Jordan Clarkson was the Wizards 2014 second round pick whom we parted with for cash from the Los Angeles Lakers which one could argue we spent on multiple attempts to find a quality bench point guard to back up John Wall. Clarkson's a point guard who made the All-Rookie first team last year. We had him and we let him go.

I've often opined about the Draft being a total crap shoot when you get outside of the top few picks and I get that nobody could have seen an All-Rookie selection out of the 46 pick in the draft but this kid is electric. You could see it in some games the Lakers played last year (especially January 27 when the Wizards visited Los Angeles) and you could see it in Summer League this year. Ernie Grunfled was on our flight out to Vegas this year and I thought about asking him about the draft but ultimately decided against it; every time I talk to Ernie I get very little information because he plays things so close to the vest.

I watched Clarkson last week in the game the Lakers played against the Philadelphia 76ers, a game which featured the Lakers' D'Angelo Russell (number two overall pick) and the Sixers' Jahlil Okafor (number three overall pick). After the Wizards succumbed to the D-League, we figured it would be a good game to watch in a relaxed atmosphere over in the main arena at the Thomas and Mack. Not so much.

I've been coming to Vegas for Summer League since 2008 and I have never ever ever seen the big arena filled the way it was for this game. I get that part of it was the Lakers contingent being so close to Los Angeles but the upper deck was open (never seen that before) and it was genuinely difficult to find a seat in the place. It was insane.

When I first started coming to this event, nobody knew about it. If you got in a cab on the strip and asked to be taken to the Thomas and Mack Center the cab driver usually asked what was going on over there. Getting a cab home was honestly touch and go; the only way you usually got one was if someone was getting dropped off. I have in past years walked to either the Hard Rock Hotel about a half a mile away or all the way to the Strip, which is about a mile and a half. There was never a line for tickets and seats were plentiful inside the arena, with the exception of John Wall's first game in 2010 when the Cox Pavilion was packed solid.

Two years ago, we had difficulty getting tickets and immediately entering the arena so the couple two years, I have bought the first day in advance, incurring hated Ticketmaster service fees. That same year, I finally saw some cabs waiting outside the arena. Vegas was clearly catching on.

This year when we arrived for the Wizards' game one, we saw guys directing traffic and cones set up to define lanes for the expected flood of cabs which were coming. We also stood in line to get into the building all the way down the main steps to the arena. Every year we see Summer League founder Warren LeGarie stalking the sidelines of both the Thomas and Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion and he has to be absolutely ecstatic with the way things are going. This thing is huge business now. I hate complaining about success but this event is no longer the intimate experience it was the first year I went in 2008. It's now Vegas sized and it's different. Might be time for a year off for me. Or I just need to go all in mid-week maybe. Anyway, that's all from Vegas this year. Next up: two months of thumb twiddling before training camp. Ugh!

Waiting in line to get in, Saturday afternoon. Are you kidding me?