400 Level Signage Ranked, Part II

This is my last post about the new picture signs installed over this past summer at Capital One Arena. I promise. In November, I posted my ranking of the 22 signs installed in the 100 Level of the building assuming that was all the money Capital One cared to spend on these things. About a week later I made my first trip of the season to the 400 Level and found 34 more signs. I posted part one of my countdown on that level last week. Now I'm handling the top 17 on the upper deck. Then I'll be quiet about signage in the building for a while. Probably.

Let's see what I found on the top level of Cap One that's better than what I showed last week.

17. Playoff Bound (408/409)

Sometimes the playoffs are something to celebrate so I'm putting this sign at the 17 spot in this countdown. I do find the concept of this one a little curious though. I mean it's not like the Mystics had some long playoff drought. This sign is dated 2006. The Mystics made the playoffs in 2004, 2002 and 2000. Why this year? They made it as the four seed with an 18-16 record. Don't think I'm going to figure this one out.

16. Young Guns (410/411)

So let me get this straight: this sign celebrates the fact that the Washington Capitals found multiple young players in the draft that are actually good. In many, many ways this speaks volumes about the ownership of the Capitals and by default also the Wizards and Mystics. And Valor I guess; I keep forgetting that's a sport. This ranks 16th on this list because this standard is like a minimum bar for some franchises. Of course, these young guns did go on to win a Stanley Cup I guess.

15. Bondra's Goal (402/403)

I guess this is good for Peter Bondra. Score three goals in a game and get a contract extension. And we wonder why Andray Blatche got an extension for a couple of good months of play.

14. Holtby Saves 44 (406/407)
So it seems to me that this sign isn't really celebrating Braden Holtby saving 44 shots in a single playoff game; it's more about the fact that his effort in this one game propelled the Caps to a series win against the Boston Bruins. And maybe recognizing Holtby individually for being between the pipes for the 2018 Stanley Cup championship run. Why do I think that? Because yes, the Caps got by Boston but they bowed out in the very next round in the 2012 playoffs. And 44 saves isn't like an NHL record or something (it's 92, if you were wondering). Still this signs sits 14th because it spotlights Holtby and he deserves his own spotlight.

13. Wes Unseld Named NBA MVP (400/401)
Only one Wizards / Bullets / Zephyrs / Packers player has ever been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player and that's Wes Unseld (obviously). No, it didn't happen in Washington; he played for the Baltimore Bullets. But as a basketball fan, I think it deserves a sign celebrating the accomplishment. Oh...and Wes was also Rookie of the Year this same season. Only player to ever win both of those in a single season.

Oddly enough Alex Ovechkin has won the Hart Trophy (the NHL's MVP award) three times and he gets no sign for that. Even though he did it in the building. Can't figure out the logic behind some of these things. 

12. Dozen Goals (417/418)
It's not often a hockey team scores 12 goals in a single game. The Caps have done it once since the current building opened and that was in January of 2003. I'm having second thoughts about putting this one ahead of Wes Unseld's MVP season but it did happen in the building after all.  I need to post this before I change my mind.

11. Dale Hunter Number 32 Retired (412/413)

10. Phil Chenier Number Retired (431/432)

There are a total of six retired number signs that were added over the summer. Earl Monroe, whose number was retired after the move to MCI Center / Verizon Center is down on the 100 level. You can find the other five upstairs. I ranked Gus Johnson, Elvin Hayes and Was Unseld 21st, 20th and 19th respectively in last week's post because their numbers were retired before the Wizards moved to downtown Washington. Chenier's and Hunter's numbers were not; they were retired right at 601 F Street NW. Chenier's ranked higher because basketball is better than hockey.

Phil Chenier's 45 is the fifth number retired by the Bullets / Wizards and all five of those players are represented on signs in the building. The Capitals have retired four numbers and oddly enough, only Hunter is celebrated in sign form around the concourse on the 100 or 400 level. I don't know what Rod Langway (#5), Yvon Labre (#7) or Mike Gartner (#11) did to deserve to be snubbed but they were.

9. All-Star (John Wall) (433/400)

8. The #1 Pick (428/429)

John Wall has played a huge part in the identity of the Washington Wizards franchise over the last nine seasons (how has it been that long??) and deservedly so. I ranked him as the best Wizard all time (Wizard, not Bullet)  a couple of years ago based on his play over the years and his five All-Star appearances, which is two more than any other Wizard.  These two signs mark two pretty important milestones in John's career: his selection number one overall in the 2010 NBA Draft and his selection to the All-Star team for the first time.

7. Eastern Conference Best (405/406)

Yep, believe it or not, the Washington Mystics were the WNBA Eastern Conference's best in the 2010 season, long before they made the Finals this past season. They also started three players (Monique Curry, Lindsey Harding and Crystal Langhorne) in the WNBA All-Star game. Of course, there's a picture celebrating the regular season because in the postseason they bombed, losing 0-2 to the four seed Atlanta Dream.

6. 300 For Kölzig (423/424)

Olaf Kölzig in the Capitals' all time leader in games won and he won a lot of them at the MCI Center / Verizon Center. There's a lot of value in celebrating accomplishments accumulated one game at a time over the span of years. Kölzig did something here worthy of note. And sure, Olie won 300 but he only went one over that number. His career total stands at 301. Braden Holtby has 245 as of this past Sunday. What happens then? 

5. U2 (404/405)

I put most of the concert signs in the 400 level in the mid-20s (22 through 28 to be exact) of this sign rank. Well, except for Keith Urban who is deservedly dead last. But U2? No way could I put this band with the rest of the acts 17-23 spots higher. U2 is a breed apart in this bunch. As an aside, can you imagine even seeing U2 at a venue this small (which is bigger than most bands will ever hope to play)? Crazy that they weren't already doing stadium shows when MCI Center opened in 1997.

4. Community Assist (403/404)

What beats U2 and team success by the Mystics? John Wall giving back to the community, that's what. Every year since the 2011-2012 NBA Season, the NBA has handed out an annual award to a player to honor their community engagement and charitable work and/or philanthropy. At the end of the 2015-2016 season, John Wall received the award for his work making Washington, D.C. and Raleigh, NC. This is important stuff. In many ways much much more important than winning on the court. Well done, here. Proud of John for this one.

3. The Dalai Lama (427/428)

I get what you are thinking: is the Dalai Lama really more important that all this Wizards and Capitals stuff? More important than the Mystics and Valor? Than Keith Urban and U2? Yes, he is. Much more important. One could argue as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and international peace symbol and conscience of all that is good that he should be number one. But he's not on this countdown. Not today. The Dalai Lama played 601 F Street. How cool is that?

2. 17-Game Win Streak at Home (416/417)

This seems like a distant memory at this point but two years ago (yes, just TWO YEARS ago) the Wizards ran off 17 straight wins at home on their way to their first and only division title in my 19 years of being a Wizards season ticket holder. Since then? Not so much success. We'll always have the 2017 playoffs, I guess. Can't see the Wiz having the same success this year.

1. Finals Win (430/431)
Just as was the case with the 100 level signs, there is no accomplishment in the building better than the Stanley Cup Finals win so any sign celebrating anything to do with that series and that championship comes first, number one, all the time. This sign outside sections 430 and 431 commemorates the first win in Washington that put the Caps up 2-1 en route to winning four straight and closing out the Golden Knights in Vegas five days later. 

That's it. Until they put some of these on the Club level, which they likely won't. But if they do, they should right the wrong that they have done by omitting all mention of the Wizards post name change and pre-Leonsis ownership. Those players on the mid-aughts team are not a stain to be erased from the team's and building's history. Happy about this current Wizards team making the second round of the playoffs and putting two players in the All-Star Game? We should be equally happy about the team 10 to 15 years prior doing the same thing, only with three All-Stars.

New Cap One Signage, Ranked

Over the summer, Capital One Arena underwent a significant transformation. New seats were installed, the entire lower level concourse was renovated and there are a significant amount of new dining options in the building. I posted a quick rundown on this blog of what I saw at the September Wizards open house a couple of months ago.

The coolest of all the renovations, in my opinion, is the installation of new signage at the entrances to the lower level seating sections. Now it's true that the purple and yellow signs were one of the more objectionable design decisions made when MCI Center was built, but it's not just the removal of these monstrosities (i.e. addition by subtraction) that makes this upgrade the coolest part of the renovation. The new signs celebrate the history of the building and the history of the Wizards, Capitals and Mystics that call the building home. All told, there are 22 of these things. Let's rank them shall we? Why not? We rank everything else in life it seems.

Inevitably in any sort of comprehensive ranking like this, there will be some excellent entries and some real stinkers. That's totally true of this list. Some of these signs are awesome while others are not unique in any way to 601 F Street NW, which really sort of sucks. In some cases, the event depicted on the sign didn't even happen in the building at all and I've taken that into account sometimes as I'm counting them down from 22 to 1. I'm including the section where each sign is located in parentheses in case you want to check out your own favorites.

22. Capital Investment (101/102)
I get that Capital One paid for all these new signs but this is ridiculous. This is not an accomplishment in any way. It's just paying money. If I could have ranked this sign lower, I would have.

21. WWE (112/113)

Come on. Really? WWE? You only have 22 of these signs and decide to devote a whole sign to WWE? I guess they pay money to rent the building when they come to town. Money talks at 21 as well as 22.

20. Tim McGraw & Faith Hill (108/109)
There have been many, many, many concerts held at 601 F Street NW over the last 20 or so years. Was Tim McGraw and Faith Hill really one of the best? I have a hard time believing this. I've seen Bob Dylan twice in this building. And while one of those shows was not Bob's best, I'd go with Dylan over McGraw and Hill.

19. Inaugural AFL Game (115/116)
Nobody really cares about the AFL, do they? This four team league (half of which Monumental Sports owns) is barely on life support. At least they didn't make a sign out of the electronic sports league. I'm thankful for that at least.

18. (NCAA) Tournament Host (105/106)
I was truly tempted to put the building hosting NCAA basketball games below Tim McGraw and Faith Hill but ultimately basketball won out over country music here, even though basketball is exactly what the building was designed to host. Neither is really worth making remarkable enough to put on a permanent sign in the building in my opinion but they didn't ask me.

17. Wizards Draft Bradley Beal (113/114)
16. MVP Comes To DC (119/120)
Only time will tell if these two events are really as important as they seem right now. Sure, both players are elite in their own leagues but their time in Washington has been either (a) really short or (b) just not that significant from a team perspective. Yes, Elena Delle Donne has taken the Mystics to the WNBA Finals after forcing a trade to Washington two years ago but what if that's it? Does she really deserve a sign in the building? I'd go out on a limb here and suggest that the Mystics in the Finals is more deserving of a sign, but perhaps that happened too late in the construction process.

Bradley Beal has made an All-Star Game. Once. What if Beal gets traded? What happens to his sign? It has to get replaced, right? And why Beal not Wall? Isn't Wall getting drafted more significant right now than Beal getting drafted? I'd say it is. I'd also say that Monumental Sports was looking for a way to get Beal into the mix somehow and this was their only chance. 

Neither of these things happened in the building, by the way. That in addition to the uncertain significance of these two events puts these two 16th and 17th. In a few years, they could be a lot higher. And I have no idea what's up with the color on these two pictures. It's completely operator error.

15. Beyoncé (118/119)
I struggled with putting Beyoncé higher than Delle Donne and Beal but at least she performed in the building. Not much else to say on this one.

14. Gonchar Hat Trick (110/111)

There have been 140 hat tricks in Washington Capitals history through the beginning of the 2018-2019 season. Sergei Gonchar has one of those, on January 4, 2000. I'm not sure why this particular hat trick was picked for this sign. It wasn't the first hat trick at MCI Center (Peter Bondra had the first four of those). The caption on the sign says it was just the second in franchise history by a defender. Is that really worth it? I'm not sure. Seems like a stretch to me.

13. Snow-vechkin (117/118)
12. Playoff Goals (114/115)
Caps fans are hating me right about now, I'm sure. Actually who's kidding whom? The likelihood of any of the 12 or so people who read this blog being enough of a die-hard Capitals fan to actually hate me is slim at best.  I put these two at 12 and 13 because honestly, there's enough love for Alex Ovechkin later on in this countdown and these are just two of his 20 career hat tricks. Both of these happened to come against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which I am sure is no accident. The 2009 game is ranked higher because it's a playoff game.

11. 2001 NBA All-Star Game (103/104)

I may have short-changed the All-Star game on this list but looking at everything below it (meaning higher ranked), I can't honestly justify moving it higher. I never really valued the All-Star Game until I attended for myself in New York in 2015 and even then I didn't really value it as a contest, just as an all-weekend event. Shown in the photo above? Allen Iverson, David Robinson and Dikembe Mutombo. No Wizards participated in this game even though the starting forwards for the Eastern Conference were Anthony Mason and Antonio Davis. The Wizards were not good in 2001.

10. Prince (104/105)

Non-basketball, non-hockey stuff hasn't done very well on this list but let's face it, the WWE, Beyoncé and Tim McGraw/Faith Hill are NOT Prince. According to my (not very exhaustive) research, it appears Prince only played the building once, on August 14, 2004. If that's really the case, I would have made sure the date was on Prince's sign. Prince playing is every bit as important (actually, way more) as Sergei Gonchar scoring a hat trick.

9. 1978 NBA Champions (120/121)

I struggled with this one more than any other. The Bullets won the NBA Championship in 1978, 19 years before MCI Center opened. It's a distant memory and not associated with this building in any way. It's also the single-most memorable thing the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards franchise has ever done and that's not likely to change any time soon. If this list were just about significant events in Wizards etc. and Capitals history, this would have to be number one or number two. But it's not. It's about celebrating events in MCI Center / Verizon Center / Capital One Arena. At least that's how I see it. Sorry to all the Bullets fans out there who are still pining for the old name.

8. WNBA Comes To Washington (106/107)
I'm sure there are folks out there who think this is way too high on this list, especially since it's higher than the Bullets winning the NBA Championship in 1978. I don't care. The WNBA is the longest running significant women's team sports league in the United States. The Mystics have been around in D.C. for 20 years and just capped off their most recent campaign with an appearance in the WNBA Finals. The success of the WNBA is important. It deserves this spot on this list. 

7. Earl "The Pearl" Monroe Number Retired (111/112)

I never saw Earl Monroe play but I've run into him in New York a couple of times during 2015 All-Star Weekend and I get his place in basketball (and Baltimore Bullets) history. Maybe a little biased pick prioritizing a Bullets / Wizards historical event over some sporting events actually held in the building but hey, it's my list. I was there on December 1, 2017 when the Pearl's number was retired. I still have the mini-banner giveaway they handed out that night.

6. 1000th For Hunter (107/108)

Dale Hunter is one of four Washington Capitals (right now) with his number retired. Hunter spent 19 seasons in the NHL and 12 years in Washington. As of the beginning of the 2018-2019 NHL season, only 87 players had recorded 1,000 points in the NHL. Hunter is the only one of those who also has 3,000 penalty minutes (Hunter is second all time with 3,565). He's likely never to be passed in penalty minutes by a 1,000 point scorer. Hunter's 1,000th point came at MCI Center on January 9, 1998 when he actually recorded his 998th, 999th and 1,000th point in the same game.

5. Game Winner (100/101)
The Wizards have made it to game seven of the second round of the NBA playoffs just once and John Wall's game winner in game six at home in May of 2017 did it. Wall doesn't hit many game winners. This one was the biggest I've ever seen him hit. He was absolutely on top of his game at this point and it's deservedly memorialized in one of these signs. After hitting the shot, Wall jumped up on the scorers' table and declared himself pretty much king of Washington. I missed that. I was too busy hugging my friend Mike and jumping up and down.

4. Southeast Division Champions (109/110)

I feel bad having this event so far up this countdown. As I've already pointed out in my September blog post, the Wizards didn't actually clinch the Southeast Division at home. But since it's the only thing this team has won in the 18 plus seasons I've had season tickets, I'm throwing myself a bone here.

3. Ovechkin's Debut (102/103)

It is quite frankly difficult to put anything that has happened at MCI Center / Verizon Center / Capital One Arena ahead of all that Alex Ovechkin has accomplished in his time in Washington. Certainly for the purposes of this post, I find it difficult to put anything Wizards-related ahead of the Great Eight (although I did). And yes, Ovi did make his debut at MCI Center (not on the road) on October 5, 2005 and yes, he scored in his first game. Twice, actually.

2. "I Called Game" (116/117)

It seems odd to me that I'm placing one shot in one playoff game by a guy who ended up being a rent-a-star for a single year above all other Wizards moments but I am. I know Ted is deliberately exiling Gilbert Arenas by not including anything Agent Zero did in Washington but for all the great game winners Gil hit, this one was better and more important. Too bad the one in game six didn't count.

1. Champions (100/121)
I mean is there really any competition for this? The only championship won by a non-AFL resident of the building and it was clinched in the building. No contest. This is number one.

There you have it. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. At least until Elena Delle Donne makes the Mystics into champions or Bradley Beal wins the NBA Most Valuable Player award. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong. This is clearly a list heavily sponsored by Ted Leonsis. The complete absence of Wizards prior to John Wall's arrival is testament to that. I still think Gilbert Arenas at his best was better than any other Wizard at his best.

And yes, I'm still having doubts about that nine spot.

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.

Monumental-ly Good Idea

During this past season, I've written, tweeted and said a lot of negative things about the Monumental Rewards program invented by the owners of the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics (and I guess now a yet to be named Arena Football team) prior to the 2013-2014 Wiz and Caps seasons. My written and spoken words this last year stand in stark contrast to my initial reaction to the program, when I declared it "one of the best, if not the best, benefits we have ever had as Wizards season ticket holders."

I hate complaining about benefits we didn't have five years ago but honestly, it's turned from a program that allowed the common fan access to some uncommon experiences, into a program to unload leftover free merchandise and allow people with hundreds of thousands of points (read: those who spend the most) to get even more stuff for free. It looks like it's good for everyone, but it's really all a ruse. What used to make me feel special as a long time season ticket holder now makes me feel like I'm getting cheated. Probably not fair to ownership here, but they do after all advertise it as a benefit. It's not really a benefit if you can rarely use it.

But the point of this post is to give credit where credit is due to the Monumental Rewards program. And that credit is in the bobblehead department, another area where I have been especially critical of Wizards ownership in the past couple of years. If you would have asked me how I would have improved the Monumental Rewards program this past year, I would have offered two suggestions: (1) bring back access to the VIP lounge experience that we had during the first two years of the program and (2) if you are not going to do that, start making exclusive bobbleheads available to season ticket holders. Guess what? For the first time, Monumental Rewards is now offering the second item on my wish list. Sort of.

Log in to the Monumental Rewards site today and you'll find an unavailable anywhere else Andre Burakovsky bobblehead. This is fantastic. I love it. Finally, there's a positive change in this program. Of course, it doesn't do Wizards bobblehead collectors any good because Burakovsky plays hockey for the Capitals. But it's maybe a sign that more bobbleheads might be coming. I could be fooling myself but I remain glass half full on this issue, even though I know my dream of a Randy Wittman bobblehead is now dead. The Burakovsky bobblehead costs 30,000 points. At that price, I have enough for three Monumental Rewards-only bobbles. Please get started on some Wiz bobbles ASAP. Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat and Kelly Oubre are all under contract next year and currently without team issued bobbleheads. Come on, guys. You know you need to do this.