Kristi Toliver Bobblehead

I know we are more than two weeks away from the new year but I have to say 2020 is shaping up to be a banner year for Wizards bobblehead collectors. In addition to the end of season in game Thomas Bryant bobblehead, the Wiz have rolled out a three game / bobble pack that I'm looking forward to starting in February. And yes, I've already shelled out some extra money to make sure I've got those three collector's items coming home with me in the new year.

That was supposed to be it. I was going to be content with four Wizards-related bobbleheads this season. Then something else happened.

Every so often at lunch or before I start work (and I swear it's just those times) during the weekdays, I check in on Twitter to see what's going on. A Monday morning 7:15ish check of that social media site last week got me interested in a raffle for Ted Leonsis' courtside seats for the December 28 home game vs. the New York Knicks. $20 for 20 entries. I figured it was worth a shot. Plus the money went to charity.

But on closer inspection, I found out I could spend $80 more, get 80 more tickets (and 80 more chances to win) and snag a Kristi Toliver autographed bobblehead in the process. Don't have to ask me twice on that one. I'm in!

I didn't win. But my KT bobblehead showed up in the mail today. Better to spend $100 and get this than spend $20 and get nothing.

Kristi Toliver this ain't.

When the Mystics made this bobblehead available this past summer as part of a three game ticket package, I was tempted to shell out some money and get myself one. If I have a favorite Mystics player, it has to be Toliver; she's absolutely the fiercest, most stubborn competitor and she's really good and she knows it. But we were out of town or otherwise occupied during the pickup game date so I passed. This second opportunity couldn't be passed up. With just 20-some of the 100 available remaining at the time of my Monday morning Twitter check, I made a quick decision. Glad I did.

There is something about in-game giveaway free bobbleheads that fascinates me. Maybe it's the had-to-be-there-to-get-one nature of the acquisition (although in this case I guess I wasn't really there). Maybe it's the limited edition aspect (not numbered or anything, just limited). Maybe it's the crappy quality of these things. Maybe it's all of it. This bobblehead has all of that.

Before we get to the details, let's address the small elephant in the room that nobody except me knows about, shall we? Yes, it's true my current bobblehead collection is a WIZARDS bobblehead collection. Over the years, I have picked up a few other non-Wizards bobbleheads and those are all packed securely away out of view. My Kristi Toliver bobblehead is not. She's on the shelf with the rest of my active Wizards bobbleheads. That's because she is a Wizard. She's spent last season and this season as a barely paid (thanks, archaic WNBA rules!) assistant coach. She deserves to be on the shelf!

So about those bobblehead details...

One of the first quality tests of the freebie bobblehead is the head. Does it really look like the person whose name is on the base? I'm a little torn on this one. There's no way this thing actually looks like Kristi Toliver, despite the analysis of some of the individual details. There are two images of Kristi on the box, one frontal and one in profile and it's difficult to nitpick many of the details. The profile is almost correct, the face around the mouth is pretty good and the nose is almost spot on frontally. But the eyes and ears are clearly wrong and the overall effect is more Michelle Obama.  Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that but it doesn't look like the person it's supposed to represent. It's not as bad as some of the Wizards bobbleheads I own (particularly the elf-like John Wall from 2011-2012) but it's not great.

Then there's the overall pose. Every so often the bobblehead designer makes a conscious effort to make a bobblehead after a specific picture. This is clearly the case here and they blew it. Sure it looks find in profile but the geometry of the typical bobblehead (oversized head and disproportionately stubby and short arms) renders the desired effect useless. The result is a shooting motion with one hand on the ball and the guide hand nowhere close. This is NOT a shooting motion. Fail on this point.

Finally I think it's worth checking out some of the details. One of the things I loved about older school in-game giveaway bobbleheads (and here I'm thinking like 5 years ago) is that their jersey numbers were cast in bas relief onto the person's body. Lately, the bobble artists have been ditching this strategy (which requires hand-painting the numbers) in favor of decals, which are I guess quicker to apply and more precise in detail. Here, not only are the numbers cast and hand painted but so is the "Toliver". I love that even though the front of the jersey logo and advertisements (gotta get the advertisements in...) are applied stickers.

There's not a whole lot else to note about the finer points of this bobblehead, although I will say I appreciate the effort to do something different with the shoes. Maybe I'm too soft here but the overall execution is lacking. It looks like the court is adhered to the soles of the shoes.

Glad to have this one in the collection. Next summer I need to make more of an effort to get over to southeast D.C. more than once to pick up what I assume will be a treasure trove of champions bobbles. Don't laugh. After all the team owner is still the same, right?

The Finals

It's 2019 and the Washington Mystics are in the WNBA Finals. Just like last year. Two years in a row. This year behind a WNBA best offensive team in the history of the league with a superstar who just became the first WNBA player to shoot 50% from the field, 40% from beyond the arc and 90% from the free throw line. They are clearly the best basketball team of any sort here in the Washington, D.C. area.

Game one of the Finals tipped off yesterday, a game that the Mystics came out and won on their home floor just like they should. One down, two more to go until the franchise's first WNBA championship. Yes, it looked like a comfortable victory at the end of the first, second and third quarters for the home squad until a series of offensively futile possessions in the fourth allowed the opposing Connecticut Sun to catch up to within six.

So often in basketball games the team that makes a furious push to erase a pretty big deficit eventually runs out of steam and it happened to the Sun the moment Ariel Atkins hit a big three pointer from the corner and it just broke them. From there the Mystics cruised to victory. One - zero.

What a difference a year makes. 

Last year the Mystics were the clear underdog in the Finals, coming in to the playoffs as the three seed and going through Atlanta in five games to get to the Seattle Storm, the best in the league with Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird leading the way for that team while Elena Delle Donne played nursing a bone bruise she suffered in the Atlanta series. It showed. The Mystics got swept 3-0.

They also spent the postseason as nomads, being bounced from Capital One Arena in favor of a construction crew working to give the place a makeover. They played their series against Atlanta on the campus of George Washington University in the West End but then were forced all the way out to Fairfax on the campus of George Mason University. Home court advantage? Not really. We went to that one Finals game there last year and almost didn't make it on time. The traffic was horrendous. That campus is not built to accommodate any sort of traffic surge. 

This year the Mystics own the number one seed in the playoffs, sporting the league's best record overall and the only winning road record in the league. They might have gotten a little lucky. Minnesota's Maya Moore sat out the season and Breanna Stewart was out the entire season with an injury. Then again,  the Mystics are really good. 

They are also no longer nomads. Instead of bouncing between co-opted arenas this year they are playing in their home building, the brand new and oh so unimaginatively named Entertainment and Sports Arena in southeast D.C. The building is the home court of both the Mystics and Wizards' G-League franchise Capital City Go-Go as well as the Wizards main practice facility. It moved the Mystics out of the 20,000 or so seat Capital One Arena and into more intimate surroundings with a seating capacity of just a bit more then 4,000. 

Yesterday's Finals game was my first Mystics game of the season. I could offer a myriad of excuses for not going earlier than that but I won't. I just didn't make it happen and I'm fortunate that I saw the team win in a Finals game this year vs. losing in their only shot last year. It was also my first trip over to ESA.

Did I already say what a difference a year makes?

ESA is a little closer to get to than EagleBank Arena at GMU but the travel time was remarkably different. There was basically no traffic to get out to SE once you got around the Nationals afternoon traffic and the parking lot was super easy to find. 

The arena being rightsized for the crowd is also a huge plus. Watching the Mystics play at Capital One in a half or more empty arena (they only ever sold lower bowl tickets) was depressing. That building is not built to be rocking at 1/5 or less of its capacity. No matter how many people were there the place always looked empty. We even got moved from our end seats to second row on the side facing the television cameras once so the place would look more full on TV. The gym (because that's really what it is) was almost fully occupied on Sunday. I could see a few seats in the upper rows that were empty but the game was played in front of a full house.

This place is bare bones but it works. There's nothing fancy about the building on the outside or the inside. Sure the corridors are a little packed and the triangular space in the corner of the building that's been turned into a merch center is super small but it works. The only disappointment for me was the railing on the stairs actually blocking my view of the court. It got worse when people got to the top of the stairs and stopped to figure out where their seats are (why is this so hard) and blocked basically the whole lane area. It was worse if it was a mascot in the way.

But the biggest difference is on the court. This team is talented and this team is deep. I guess it helps when a former league MVP forces a trade to your team but while Elena Delle Donne is clearly the best player on the team / in the league it's way more than that. 

Three years ago Emma Meessemann was the best player on the Mystics. She opted to sit out last season (the life of a WNBA player often involves playing a full season in Europe in addition to international competition in the WNBA offseason) to rest. Now at the age of 26 she's in her prime and coming off the bench. She can easily go for 20 plus in a game. Off the bench. There's some luck in building this team but there's also some solid drafting and team building.

Two more games. That's all this team needs to bring the first professional basketball franchise to Washington since 1978. If you told me I would have to hold season tickets for 20 seasons to see a basketball championship in this season I'd have taken it. Of course, I have season tickets for the wrong team. I hope this team does it. They and the city deserve it. I won't likely be at any more Finals games this year but I'm glad I got one in. Let's go Mystics!

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.

The Patch

Let's face it. So far this season, the Wizards stink. It's either poor coaching, poor roster assembly, lack of effort, lack of caring or all of the above which has gotten the team off to a 3-9 start through last night's victory agains the Miami Heat in southern Florida. Tied with the Atlanta Hawks was not where I thought we'd be 12 games in. 

By the way, it's definitely at least poor roster assembly.

From the opening tip against Miami in the season opener at Capital One Arena on October 18 to the final buzzer last night at American Airlines Arena, the mood of Wizards fans and Wizards Twitter has been like a pendulum the last month. Calls of "Fire Ernie!" (they should, and I mean now) and "Fire Scotty!" (they should soon unless...) and critiques like "John Wall looks out of shape" (he does) and "the Wizards don't like each other and that's why they look like they don't care" have turned to guarded optimism after just one road win against a maybe playoff hopeful. I actually saw one tweet this morning proclaiming the Wizards as a title contender. Not sure how beating the 2018 version of the Miami Heat gets you to championship hopeful but that's where some Wizards fans are right now. I feel their pain. Truly.

And don't worry, that situation will likely correct itself this week.

About a week and a half ago, the Wizards released some news about their jerseys for the young season and it was about as good and bad as the team has been so far this year. Just hours apart the team revealed this year's fourth jersey (dubbed by Nike as the City Edition just like last year) and then announced they would be joining 27 of the other 29 teams (Indiana and Oklahoma City are the lone holdouts) in the NBA in slapping advertisements on their threads for this season and presumably forever.

A close up look at this year's Wizards City Edition jersey.

Let's cover the good really quickly then move on to the point of this post. This year's City Edition uniforms are exactly the same as last year's but instead of being mostly white, they are mostly black. I think Wizards Twitter about exploded when these things were revealed. In the midst of pretty much the maximum level of angst experienced by Wizards fans (the team was 1-6 at the time) this year's fourth uni got almost universal praise. I'm not as psyched about black uniforms as just about everyone else in the D.C. area I guess. I think they are OK. If nothing else, the Washington Monument shows up way better on the sides of the jerseys than it did on the whites last year. It's also going to be really difficult for me to not buy the truly excellent City Edition black with red D.C. flag t-shirt that Nike brought out to accompany these things though.

Now that's out of the way, let's talk about jersey sponsorships. I knew this day would one day come when the Wizards would cave and let some company pay some money to slap their advertisement on the Wizards jerseys but it doesn't mean I have to like it. This stinks. It's purely a money grab because the league can. The press release announced this news as "more than a patch" and they are absolutely correct. It's a violation, it's unnecessary, it's ugly and it just plain sucks. I thought when the Wizards finally did this that I would roll over, having been desensitized to this stuff by 27 prior franchises. I didn't. It's truly terrible. I hate it. The only thing worse about the jersey patch is I know there's no going back.

And yes, this is all about the principle of the thing. It's not at all about GEICO, the company who the Wizards are allowing to befoul their jerseys. I actually love GEICO. When I was first trying to get car insurance for myself they were the only insurance company willing to let me buy insurance despite a flawless driving record and I've been with them ever since. But their name does not belong on my basketball team's jersey any more than GE belongs on the Boston Celtics jerseys or Zatarain's belongs on the New Orleans Pelicans jerseys or Bumble belongs on the Los Angeles Clippers jerseys. 

OK, the Bumble thing is pretty appropriate.

The Wizards aren't the only team afflicted with the GEICO ad on their jersey. The brand new Capital City Go-Go also get an extra large sponsorship from my favorite insurance company on their kit every game this season. I'm not so upset about this branding. There's no way the G-League makes money for the NBA owners and ads have been rampant in the NBA's development system for years. I actually find the GEICO wording less objectionable than the "Capital City" wording on the team's blue jerseys. Could they have found a worse font for these things? I'm not sure they could.

But the team that really got screwed by this partnership (remember...it's more than a patch) are the Washington Mystics. Sure, advertisements looks awful on NBA jerseys but if we had to have them, they couldn't really have made them any smaller and the GEICO fits in pretty well into the space on the left shoulder. Ditto for the Go-Go branding but at least they put the GEICO at the bottom of the jersey which allowed the name of the city (sort of...I still don't like the Capital City name) and the team nickname to be where it belongs on the shirt. But the Mystics jerseys look like they are playing on the GEICO company basketball team.

Look, I get the WNBA takes a back seat to the NBA and apparently also the G-League. But unless you have some kind of great seats or some kind of great eyes, it's going to be difficult to tell that you are rooting for the Mystics or the city of Washington when you are at a game. Sure the name (in logo form) is still on the jersey, but it's about as big as the GEICO logo on the NBA version although the font size is way smaller. 

I know the Mystics are not the only WNBA team to have this happen to them. In fact most of the teams are using this same strategy of having the sponsorship across the top of the uniform and the team logo on the shoulder. Notable exceptions include the Chicago Sky who have sold advertising space both across the top of the jersey AND on the shoulder (and so have no team identification at all) and the Las Vegas Aces who are using the NBA model with the team name where it belongs and a small advertisement on the shoulder.

The reason the Mystics can't use the Go-Go style of design is that the bottom of all the WNBA jerseys features the Verizon logo. But I don't see why the Mystics can't force the GEICO logo into the same spot that the NBA places it just like the Aces have done. How much is GEICO really paying for the WNBA sponsorship anyway?

Call me old-fashioned. Call me resistant to change. Call me just plain old and stuck in the past. But I don't like these things one bit. I've been watching teams playing European soccer with very large advertisements across their chests for as long as I can remember and I guess I accept that. But there's no good reason for the NBA to do this except to generate slightly more (and I do mean slightly more) revenue. I hate this. Thank God they are still selling jerseys without the ads. Although considering the Wizards performance the last couple of years, I'm sticking with my old Adidas John Wall jersey for as long as I can I'm thinking.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Fire Ernie!