Through this horrific nightmare of a season, Wizards power forward Antawn Jamison has shined as brightly as ever. While teammate after teammate fell to injury — some for most or essentially all of the season — Jamison kept playing hard and well. No matter what the record or score, masochistic Wizards fans who kept watching the games could see Jamison diving for loose balls in the 4th quarter. All modern cynicism about sports aside, Jamison has truly been inspirational this season.
“He’s a true professional,” Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said. “I’ve worked with some really good players along the years and I’ve never respected anyone more than I respect him.”
Jamison is averaging 22.4 points per game, best on the team, and his own best since the 2000-01 season. Despite receiving more defensive attention than at any time since coming to Washington [due to injuries to teammates], Jamison has raised his shooting percentage to 47% and his TS% [true shooting percentage] is .549, second on the team to only Darius Songaila. His Player Efficiency Rating [PER] is 20.5, easily the best on the team.
However, as Jamison says: ”Anything that could have went wrong, went wrong this year.” For that reason, he regards the season as a failure. For the team, I agree this season has been a spectacular failure, though with some pretty significant mitigating factors. For Jamison, however, regardless of how keenly he feels the absence of a playoff series or two, this season cannot be considered a failure. He has shined as brightly as ever.
Tags: Antawn Jamison, Washington Wizards
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