The Washington Wizards have signed PG Shaun Livingston to a second 10-day contract. In 4 games with the Wizards Livingston has averaged 3.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.5 apg and 1.25 turnovers. Livingston has not shot well [under 40% from the field], but he can still handle the ball and considering the talent he had before destroying his knee, another look at him couldn't hurt.
The Wizards face off against the Houston Rockets tonight at the Verizon Center. DC Pro Sports Report will have more on the game later this evening and tomorrow. Here are your probable Wizards starters.
Ted Leonsis, co-founder of America Online and owner of the Washington Capitals said on the radio this morning that he expects to soon be the majority owner of the Washington Wizards. Leonsis, who already owns 44% of the Wizards, has been trying to negotiated a purchase of the team and the Verizon Center where the Wiz and Caps play, from the estate of the late Abe Pollin. A preliminary period where Leonsis had exclusive negotiating rights passed but the negotiations continue.
Speaking to the Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan, Leonsis said: "I'm expecting that sometime, hopefully soon, we'll be announced as the majority owners of the team." Leonsis is referring to himself and his financial partners who own the Caps and a large minority of the Wizards.
Let's hope this gets done soon.
In addition, Leonsis told the Junkies that he believes the trades the team made at the NBA trading deadline -- shipping out Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson, proved that he means business about turning the franchise around on the court and in the court of public relations.
It's often been talked about in Washington -- The Curse. Are the Washington Wizards/Bullets a cursed franchise. Former Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser thought so, dubbing the team's perennial problems as The Curse of Les Bullez. Long-time fans of the franchise speak of The Curse as a jest, but at times I think every one of us has truly wondered about it -- even if only for a few moments.
Former Washington Wizards Jerry Stackhouse, who played with the team from 2002-2004, seems to believe the curse might be real. When talking recently about what has happened this season with Gilbert Arenas and Josh Howard, Stackhouse said this:
"It's like, I don't want to say it's a curse, but tough things happen to people when they go to that city, as far as injuries."
When asked to expound, Stackhouse lifted his hand and said, "I don't really want to go there."
Of course, if the curse exists, Stackhouse played a part in it last night. His 13 points off the bench were critical for the Milwaukee Bucks as they trounced the Wiz last night 100-87 in Wisconsin.
Me, I'm a skeptic. I just don't believe in curses. But on the off chance that they do exist, the Wizards are certainly under one right now -- and have been for decades.
Enjoy this video of a Memphis Grizzlies season ticket holder who bought his way on to the court to do one of those trampoline dunks so popular in NBA forums during stoppages in play.
Some sources say Gilbert Arenas is freaking out. Others say he is shrugging off his sentencing. With the turning of the calendar, Gilbert is now facing sentencing at the end of this month.
One thing Gilbert did address was whether he would want to play for the Washington Wizards again.
Gilbert Arenas says he'd have "no problem" playing for the Washington Wizards again.
No problem for Gil. Do the Wizards have a problem?
The Washington Wizards negotiated a buyout of $150,000 with guard Mike James and waived him today. James, 34, left the team by mutual agreement after the February 18 trade deadline, but he had to be waived by today, March 1, in order to qualify to play for a team in the postseason. I'm not sure why any team good enough to make the playoffs [and you don't have to be that good to make the playoffs, even in the West] would want Mike James on their roster, but if one of them does, now they can have him.
James hasn't played in a game since February 3, one of only 4 appearances he made for the Wizards this season. He came into the season with a $6.5 million expiring contract, but the Wizards couldn't trade him by the deadline, despite making numerous attempts to do so. James has never been happy this season, making his first trade request early in the preseason when it became obvious to him that he was not in Head Coach Flip Saunders' plans.
This is all for the good, as far as I'm concerned. His roster spot can be used for someone else -- another NBDL project on a 10-day contract, perhaps. The point is that the Wizards, at this point, really have no need for Mike James and should focus on filling the roster with younger players who really want to play for Washington.
Randy Foye was struggling with his shot, having hit only 2 of his first 11 field goal attempts tonight against the New Jersey Nets. It was the last two shots he took and made in the final 45 seconds of play that sealed the game, though, preventing an embarrassing Wizards [21-36] loss to the lowly NJ Nets [6-53]. The Wizards trailed by 14 points twice and by 8 at halftime, but rallied to win 89-85 with strong defense in the second half. The Wizards are 3-0 against the Nets this season and, uh, not so good against everyone else.
On a night when Washington's bench was dismal, accounting for a grand total of 4 points and 10 rebounds for the entire game, the starters had to log big minutes and produce the points and rebound needed to win. Leading the charge again was Andray Blatche, who scored a career high 36 points and added 15 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in almost 39 minutes of play. Al Thornton added 20 points on 7-13 shooting and grabbed 8 rebounds.
Blatche is averaging over 26 ppg and 11.7 rpg in the 7 games since moving into the starting lineup. While it is not uncommon for good players to put up very impressive numbers on otherwise bad teams, Blatche has shot better than 50% in every single game during that stretch, demonstrating that he can score efficiently and he's capable of fighting through double teams. The only real complaint that can be made about his offense is that Blatche isn't getting to the free throw line much, averaging less than 5 shots per game during this 7-game stretch. Some of that has to do with a lack of respect from the referees, which should change with time.
"I'm so excited about the way things are going for me," Blatche said. "Things are starting to pan out the way I had planned when I came into the league. It's like a dream come true for me. I just want to continue to help the organization win games. I was getting a little winded at the end, but Randy stepped up and made the shots at the end."
Blatche has come a long way. He was suspended for a game in January for complaining about his role in the offense.
Now everything goes through him.
"I don't think anyone has gone from where he was to going to the level where he is now," Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. "As he keeps on going, the expectations will be raised and he will have to live up to those expectations."
There are already some comparisons to Kevin Garnett.
"He's been getting his points in the system and getting to spots and getting the points out of the spots," Saunders added. "He's been nothing but professional."
Returning to the lack of production from the bench, one need only look at the backup roster -- Earl Boykins, Quinton Ross, Nick Young, Mike Harris, Fabricio Oberto and Shaun Livingston -- to see why this is so. Boykins has had a few moments this year and Young is capable of lighting it up from time to time, but basically that's a group of players that would get very little playing time on a good NBA team. On a related note, the Wizards need a healthy James Singleton, who played just over 2 minutes tonight, back in the worst possible way. [I didn't think I'd be writing that.]
Randy Foye finished with 16 points, but missed 9 of 13 shots and accounted for a mere 2 assists. Mike Miller finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds, and a team-high 6 assists. However, he took only 8 shots in almost 38 minutes on the court, continuing a reticence to shoot that is as baffling as it is consistent. Javale McGee had another tough night, with 4 points, 4 rebounds and 4 personal fouls.
The Washington Wizards are apparently trying to stage a Los Angeles Clippers reunion, signing former 4th overall pick Shaun Livingston to a 10-day contract. Joining the 24-year-old Livingston as former Clippers now playing or coaching for the Wizards are Sam Cassell, Al Thornton, Earl Boykins, James Singleton and Quinton Ross.
Livingston, thought to be a superstar point guard in the making only a few years ago, blew out his left knee and has had it completely reconstructed. It's hard to imagine he will be more than a shell of what he once was, but the Wizards have a problem in the back court and little to lose in this disaster of a season.
Livingston played 10 games earlier this season with the OKC Thunder before being waived in December. His numbers were negligible, hence the release.
Considering Livingston's condition and Washington's history of injured players, the young man will be lucky to get out of this season alive.
General Manager Ernie Grunfeld announced the Washington Wizards have waived C Zydrunas Ilgauskas after reaching buyout terms with the 7'3" once-and-possibly-future Cleveland Cavalier. The Wizards acquired Ilgauskas and his big expiring contract in the trade that sent Antawn Jamison to the Lebronettes. Washington and Big Z had no interest in each other, so a buyout was inevitable, followed by the waiving goodbye.
“We agreed to terms with Zydrunas on a contract buyout, giving us further financial flexibility and allowing our young big men to continue to develop over the remainder of the season,” said Grunfeld.
Seems fair enough, especially since Javale McGee has a lot of developing to do, as would be obvious to anyone who watched him get abused and violated by Marc Gasol last night.
Ilgauskas' agent has said his client's "heart" is in Cleveland and with the Cavaliers, though the agent denied any pre-arranged waive-and-sign agreement had been worked out between Cleveland, Big Z and the Wizards. Presumably, Ilguaskas will no return to Cleveland after the obligatory 30-day waiting period. Other teams, however, notably Dallas and Atlanta, have expressed an interest in Big Z.
Michael Lee is reporting that the Washington Wizards have reached buyout terms with center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Washington acquired Big Z and a first round pick in the trade that sent Antawn Jamison to Cleveland earlier this month. Ilgauskas didn't want to play for Washington and the Wizards didn't want Ilgauskas either, so a buyout needed to get done before March 1, allowing Z to play in the 2010 playoffs. Apparently, now it is done and the announcement will come on Thursday.
The buyout is expected to be in the $1.0-1.5 million range. It's a nice saving for the Wizards considering Ilgauskas was scheduled to earn much more than that over the last few months of this season. [His contract this year pays him about $11.5 million.] Once the Wizards traded Dominic McGuire to the Sacramento Kings, getting the team under the luxury tax threshold, they held a stronger bargaining position with Big Z and the final settlement, if the report is accurate, reflects that.
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Ted Leonsis, co-founder of America Online and owner of the Washington Capitals said on the radio this morning that he expects to soon be the majority owner of the Washington Wizards. Leonsis, who already owns 44% of the Wizards, has been trying to negotiated a purchase of the team and the Verizon Center where the Wiz and Caps play, from the estate of the late Abe Pollin. A preliminary period where Leonsis had exclusive negotiating rights passed but the negotiations continue.
Randy Foye was struggling with his shot, having hit only 2 of his first 11 field goal attempts tonight against the New Jersey Nets. It was the last two shots he took and made in the final 45 seconds of play that sealed the game, though, preventing an embarrassing Wizards [21-36] loss to the lowly NJ Nets [6-53]. The Wizards trailed by 14 points twice and by 8 at halftime, but rallied to win 89-85 with strong defense in the second half. The Wizards are 3-0 against the Nets this season and, uh, not so good against everyone else.
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 
