Election Day Interferes With Sports

Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger (FNB, trades on the NASDAQ) gets a bit behind in his reading every now and again.

So your FNB got to Sports Illustrated’s NBA preview issue about 24 hours ago, some weeks after its publication and, of course, also after the beginning of a season that stretches to infinity and beyond. Some folks say “see you in June.” FNB’s reply generally is: I certainly hope so. Otherwise I will miss you.

SI’s breakdown covered many aspects and nuances of each NBA team, but the truest line was spoken of the Washington Wizards. It appeared in the Enemy Lines section, where a rival scout sizes up the opposition.

Rival Scout said this about the Wizards. First sentence. No lie.

“How is their team chemistry going to be?”

Chemistry? FNB would like a lithium and water, please. Hold the fire extinguisher.

The Wizards, 2-7 going into Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, appear not to know each other very well. Name tags might help. Year after year the Wizards are entrusted to general manager Ernie Grunfeld, whose grip on this job should be in ad for Gorilla Glue.

If you Google Washington Wizards, one of the possible areas to explore that comes up is: When did the Washington Wizards become a team? Geez, even FNB couldn’t miss this layup. We will let the snickering die down before we go on.
Better.

Nine games mean the Wizards have only 72 more to get this. But you wonder. Chemistry in the NBA is an advanced subject.

Be good or be gone, says FNB. The days of lurking among those fifth and sixth seeds are over. The middle of the pack mentality needs to end. Want to win a championship? Get serious. Want to be, well, OK and a contender? Win 50 games.

If you are a Wizards fan born after 1979, you’ve never seen that. The last time the Wizards (then the Bullets) won 50 games was 1978-79, the year after their only NBA title. They were 54-28. They’ve never cracked 50 since.

Aren’t you getting a little too old for this?

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman