Washington Wizards | Larry Brown Sports

Wizards beer ad briefly features 19-year-old Bradley Beal (Picture)

November 4, 2012 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

Those of you in the D.C. area who enjoy having a few beers before watching your favorite team play were treated to a great special from the Washington Wizards on Saturday night. As you can see from the advertisement above, the Wizards were running a promotion where $25 got you a ticket and access to $2 Budweisers for several hours before Washington’s game against the Boston Celtics.

Sarah Kogod of D.C. Sports Bog pointed out that there was one small issue with the original advertisement. The player who was used to promote the “Bar Tour” was 19-year-old Bradley Beal. If he’s not old enough to drink himself, he probably shouldn’t be used to help the team sell $2 beers. The Wizards quickly realized this and had him removed from the ad, which they said was created by partner company TiqIQ.

Fortunately for the Wizards, $2 beers at a sporting event sell themselves. I highly doubt the 19-year-old persuaded anyone.

Filed Under: Basketball, Sports Business Tagged With: Bradley Beal, Washington Wizards

John Wall: Wizards have ‘great chance’ to make the playoffs

July 12, 2012 By Larry Brown Leave a Comment

The Washington Wizards went 20-46 and had the second-worst record in the NBA last season, but that’s not stopping former No. 1 overall draft pick John Wall from expressing confidence in his team.

Wall has spent the past week in Las Vegas playing for the USA Select Team, and he spoke to The Washington Post about the Wizards’ future.

“We finished the season very strong and then you make those trades in the offseason and drafting the right people, we’re going the right way,” Wall told the Post after practice on Tuesday. “We have a great chance now to make the playoffs, but it’s up to us.”

Keep in mind this is the same Wizards team that was so bad fans were doing homework and sleeping at games last season. The Wizards acquired Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza in a trade and drafted Bradley Beal, so they should be improved. But do they have a “great chance” at making the playoffs? I wouldn’t go that far. Not unless the selfishness on the team that Wall complained about last season is now gone, and not unless their players are as committed to improving as Wall seems to be.

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: John Wall, Washington Wizards

Oddsmaker would favor Wizards over Kentucky by 30 points

March 29, 2012 By Larry Brown Leave a Comment

How Kentucky would fare against an NBA team has been a popular topic of debate this week. The Wildcats are in the Final Four and favored to win the national championship in the coming days. They have at least four players expected to make it in the NBA, including forward Anthony Davis, who is expected to be the top overall pick.

Charles Barkley, seeming to exaggerate how good Kentucky is, said they could beat some of the worst teams in the NBA. Former Maryland coach Gary Williams, who won a national championship in 2002, said Kentucky could beat the Wizards if they were playing at Rupp Arena. John Calipari tried to quash all that talk, saying his team could not beat any NBA team. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy agreed.

Just to get a little closure on the matter since, you know, everyone loves to debate this sort of thing, Nevada bookmaker Chris Andrews says the Wizards would be favored by 30 points against Kentucky if they played by NBA rules on a neutral court. The Wizards are 11-38 and have the second-worst record in the NBA. Kentucky is 32-2 and the No. 1 team in college basketball.

I’m not really sure why this is a debate given that only a few Kentucky players at present would see playing time on an NBA roster. However, just like any other basketball game where a team is favored by 30 points, anything could happen. And that’s about the chance Kentucky would have at a win.

Photo Credit: Brad Mills-US PRESSWIRE, Jamie Rhodes-US PRESSWIRE

Filed Under: Basketball, College Basketball Tagged With: Kentucky Basketball, Washington Wizards

Gary Williams says Kentucky could beat the Wizards at Rupp Arena

March 28, 2012 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

If Kentucky doesn’t win the 2012 NCAA men’s basketball championship, they’re going to leave a lot of people disappointed and confused. The Wildcats are loaded with NBA talent. That doesn’t always translate into a championship, but Kentucky looked to be in a class of its in through its first four tournament games. Considering there are many people who believe they could take down an NBA team or two, John Calipari’s boys should have no problem winning their next two games.

“I think one game — Kentucky couldn’t play in the NBA or anything like that — but one game at Rupp Arena, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kentucky win one game,” former Maryland coach Gary Williams said during an interview with ESPN 980 on Tuesday. “Because you’re gonna have five players off that team playing in the NBA, and probably playing significant roles in the NBA. And that’s why I say that, for one game.”

That makes three NBA teams that Kentucky could beat now. Over the weekend, Charles Barkley said he believes the Wildcats could beat the Raptors and maybe the Bobcats. Williams at least justified his comment by saying he could see it happening one time at Rupp Arena, but even then I don’t know.

There are some terrible NBA teams in the league right now, but they’re still NBA teams. The players on the worst NBA rosters were the best players at their colleges. Yes, plenty of them are flops and draft busts, but it would be tough to imagine a bunch of 18, 19, and 20-year-olds taking down an NBA team. Then again, maybe I haven’t seen enough of the NBA teams in question.

H/T D.C. Sports Bog via Game On!
Photo credit: Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Filed Under: Basketball, College Basketball Tagged With: Gary Williams, Kentucky Basketball, Washington Wizards

How Bad are the Wizards? Fans Were Doing Homework and Sleeping at the Game

January 19, 2012 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

On Wednesday night, the Washington Wizards defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in a close game. Believe it. That improves Washington’s record to a whopping 2-12 on the season, but it was nice for Wizards fans to see their team show some sort of pulse in holding on to defeat Kevin Durant and company. That is, if the fans were watching. According to Oklahoman writer Darnell Mayberry, not everyone in the stands was giving the home team their undivided attention.

Before the opening quarter had grown eight minutes old, a female fan seated in Section 119 pulled out a stack of papers and a purple highlighter. While her boyfriend appeared focused on the action that actually brought the couple out, the woman deemed it a better use of her time to review a market report for her consulting company.

By the midway point of the third quarter, an adult male fan halfway down Section 102 was slumped in his seat…sleeping.

It’s still very early in the season, but Wednesday night’s win could serve a purpose for both the Thunder and the Wizards. Oklahoma City got a true taste of humility for the first time this season, which should provide a friendly reminder that bad things happen when you take nights off in the NBA. On the other side, Flip Saunders’ team knows they have the talent to hang with the NBA’s elite for 48 minutes. Perhaps it was the benching of Javale McGee that ignited the Wizards. I guess we’ll see on Friday night when they take on the Nuggets.

Chest bump to I Am a GM for the story

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Washington Wizards

John Wall Calls Out Teammates for Selfishness, Says Season Could Get Ugly

January 5, 2012 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

We may not know exactly what the 2011-2012 season has in store for the Washington Wizards, but we certainly know they aren’t going to be patient. Washington has lost its first six games of the season. They have done very little right to this point, and haven’t really come close to beating anyone. Even John Wall is averaging just under 14 points per game, which is second on the team to Nick Young. Wall’s modest 6.5 assists per game leads the team. According to the second-year guard from Kentucky, selfishness is an issue for the Wizards.

“It’s like everybody blanks out,” Wall said after the Wizards record-breaking sixth straight loss to start the season, according to the Washington Post. “Everybody going for their own. And we don’t have anybody on our team that can just go get his own bucket whenever. You see everybody being selfish on the offensive end and on the defensive end, we’re not trusting each other … If we don’t find a way to play together and win games, it could get ugly this whole season.”

Before the season began forward Andray Blatche insisted he was willing to die for his teammates. One game into the season, he was already complaining about the way the team was using him offensively. That is almost certainly part of what Wall was alluding to in calling the team selfish.

Washington entered this season hoping to improve upon an abysmal 2010-2011 campaign, but this is not the start they were looking for. They were one of the worst teams in the NBA last year and it looks like they might be the worst this year. Wall is right about one thing: if the Wizards don’t turn it around in a hurry and taste a couple victories, things will get extremely ugly.

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: John Wall, Washington Wizards

Andray Blatche Says He is ‘Willing to Die’ for His Wizards Teammates

December 23, 2011 By Steve DelVecchio Leave a Comment

The NBA season is still two days away from tipping off, but we already know the player who is most committed to his team this season. Expectations are high in New York, but it’s not Amar’e Stoudemire or Carmelo Anthony. LeBron James desperately needs to win his first NBA championship, but it’s not him, either. Derrick Rose signed a fresh contract and is always willing to put the Bulls on his back, but even he has nothing on Wizards forward Andray Blatche.

“I told my teammates I’m going to give you 100 percent out of me every game,” Blatche said earlier this week according to the Washington Post. “I’m willing to die for this.”

Kevin Garnett can talk all the trash he wants to Andre, but he won’t match that type of intensity — at least on paper. Blatche was one of the Wizards’ better players last season, as he averaged more than 16 points and eight rebounds per game. Aside from that and the play of John Wall, the Wizards were one of the league’s worst teams. They finished with a brutal 23-59 record and will be looking to vastly improve this season.

Blatche was being a little dramatic, but I’d rather hear a player say something like that than have a selfish attitude and be concerned with nothing but money. Maybe after making a comment like that they could at least spell his name right on his jersey this year.

Filed Under: Basketball Tagged With: Andray Blatche, Washington Wizards