Red, Right and Blue

Why NBA fans ought to smile at the new jerseys of the Washington Wizards

Since arriving in DC for the summer, I’ve been pleased to find the city actually passionate about sports. While the nation’s capitol doesn’t quite have the same reputation of sports faithfulness as Boston, athletic glamour of New York, or the down-to-earth passion of Chicago, the DC sports scene is burgeoning with the addition of the Nationals, cementing the status of the city as a major market with a team in each of the Big Four (and Maryland and Georgetown for college sports compare favorably with any college teams in the other major sports cities, at least in basketball). 

An underrated city for sports

But more significant than either the Nationals, doomed to relative obscurity in an ultra-competitive National League East Division (plus their manager just quit after the team went on a winning streak, due to the club not offering him an extension) or the dormant Redskins, whose owner can’t seem to make up his mind on whether he’s the Mark Cuban of the NFL or a cheaper, younger imitation of Al Davis. The hope rests with owner Ted Leonsis of the Wizards (NBA) and Capitals (NHL).

The legendary Bullets "barbershop" jerseys

A Brooklyn native who first came to DC to attend Georgetown, Leonsis made his coin in the internet boom of the Nineties, as he was heavily involved with AOL and still holds the position of “Vice Chairman- Emeritus” there. But he desired to own a sports franchise, and bought first controlling positions in the Capitals, and as of this year, the Wizards. By all accounts he stays very involved with operations of his team, and as one of the more competitive owners in both leagues, has actually prevented opposing fans from buying tickets in the Verizon Center for Capitals playoff games. Talk about a computer nerd run wild.

In last week’s NBA Draft, Leonsis and the Wizards continued attempting to upgrade the roster and bring in talent to complement the exciting young team he has. With the sixth pick, the Wizards brought “the Dunking Ninja”, Jan Vesely, to play alongside John Wall, and in the process the cocky Czech Republican stole the show by making out in front of thousands with his girlfriend and dubbing Blake Griffin “the American Jan Vesely”. Another pick yielded Chris Singleton, who had been projected to go significantly higher, and their final pick brought former Butler star Shelvin Mack to the Beltway. The draft has been criticized, as although the changes should result in a faster pace of play next year, the Wizards appear to have reached on some of the draft picks. But Leonsis has accomplished something that while perhaps the most visible change on the rink or court, has subtle symbolic and historical implications- that’s right, he changed the uniforms.

The Capitals reverted from their disgusting teal-ish, black, white and gold scheme in 2007 back to a form of their original logo and jerseys of their beginning years in 1974. Combined with the emergence of NHL superstar Alexander Ovechkin, this has raised greater fan support for the Capitals and generated some nice publicity. But aside from Michael Jordan’s foolish decision to un-retire for a second time when he could enjoy the simpler things in life, the Wizards have been an NBA wasteland since when they were the Baltimore, and then Washington, Bullets, when Wes Unseld rocked one outstanding mini-fro and led them to the 1978 NBA title. Sadly that was the last we saw of those beautiful barbershop-stripe unis on the court (except for the occasional throwback night, and of course, the NBA still sells them as part of their Hardwood Classics collection).

Until 2011. Leonsis has expressed his patriotism again by red, white and blue-ing the Wizards’ shoddy, outdated, bastardized-Capitals colors. Unfortunately he decided to keep the once-clever “Merlin” Wizards logo, who now looks more like Santa Claus or Charles Darwin than any associate of King Arthur. But the jerseys hearken back to the glory years and tradition of the franchise, appeal to the patriotism of the DC fan base, and market the heck out of second-year point guard, number one overall draft pick and Franchise Savior Wall (who’s probably more well known to you as the guy behind this ridiculous dance “move”). The uniforms look and represent the attributes basketball jerseys should: classic and cool.

Rebirth of the cool

For detailed analysis of the actual uniforms, you can check out Paul Lukas’ blog which goes in-depth with the changes. As far as the aesthetic qualities of the uniforms are concerned, the bold, bright colors of the new-look Wizards mark this jersey as opening a new chapter in the franchise’s history, free from a team lead by a fun-loving, overpaid, wanna-be gangster who brought guns into the locker room in a blatant violation of NBA policy (notice, NRA lobbyists/supporters, that I didn’t say anything about the constitutionality of the ban). Not only is it a time-honored tactic to spur merchandise sales, the Wizards’ changing of the garments signifies the commitment Leonsis has made to revamp the franchise in the same manner that he’s transformed the capitals. The sweet duds will be far from enough to vault the Wizards into the playoffs, but it’s an obvious, yet subtle, sign of the hope and change that’s coming to Beltway basketball (if not Beltway politics). I only wish I’d be around in the fall (assuming there’s an NBA season) to see the revolution be televised

-The Real Deal

A History of Violence

Why the battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup disgraced the game

Last Wednesday night an intriguing NHL regular season and fantastic playoffs (wait, aren’t the Stanley Cup playoffs always fantastic? Yes, pretty much the only sports event in the spring that’s guaranteed, every time. OK, I’m biased, I’m a big hockey fan...anyways) ended in the best possible scenario. After a tenacious six games between one of the storied Original Six’s American franchises and a Canadian city manically and violently desperate for a championship, the Bruins flew back to Vancouver and manhandled the Canucks in front of their stunned home fans.

Grizzled veteran Tim Thomas, who played journeyman goalie in the minors and Finland for years until his breakthrough in 2008, peaked at the ideal time for the Bruins: after an amazing regular season where he may very well be awarded the Vezina Trophy again, Thomas had an even higher save percentage and goals-against average while playing every game of the playoffs, and his Finals performance is already legendary. The Conn Smythe winner at 37 years young played the most dominating goalie performance I can recall since my favorite hockey team of all time had Dominik Hasek rack up six shutouts in the 2002 playoffs. Hats off to Thomas, and to the effort of the Bruins defensively in denying the high-powered Canucks offense, led by those freaky Swedish twins and Ryan Kesler. It sounds like the best Stanley Cup series of the post-lockout NHL!

Another save for the indefatigable Thomas

Unfortunately for hockey fans in most cities besides Vancouver and Boston, this series proved to be a regression and disappointment from so much of the promise and expectation that lay in store for this NHL season. After the fantastic 2010 Olympic gold medal game brought hockey back to the forefront, the Chicago Blackhawks brought the Cup back to Chicago after a fifty-year drought, reinvigorating the most dormant of the Original Six markets. And in the fall, HBO’s fantastic “24/7” miniseries followed the buildup to the Winter Classic between two of the NHL’s most exciting teams and their two superstars of the moment, Ovechkin and Crosby. When I first viewed “24/7” I thought two things:

1. This will actually increase the mainstream popularity of the NHL among casual sports fans! (This didn’t really pan out, although the NHL did have to compete with the best NBA regular season since Michael Jordan.)

2. Despite my love of the Red Wings and the NHL in general, I don’t have the best cable TV package at college to watch the games (no Versus or Fox Sports Detroit) and I thought I would probably just follow from a distance and tune back in for the playoffs. But... the miniseries captivated me. And I don’t even particularly like either team (especially not this annoying *#@$).

So needless to say, I had high hopes for such a promising series between two good markets and the two best teams from the East and West. And it didn’t disappoint, it thrilled NHL fans with a quicksand-paced, idiotic-finger-biting NHL Hitz tribute, exactly what hockey needed. The sarcasm dripping from that last sentence is now pooling on the floor. Gross.

Although the series produced several closely contested finishes, those were all Vancouver wins, and the Boston wins were slaughters where “emo goalie” Roberto Luongo was shell-shocked in the net. We saw acts of despicable sportsmanship go unpunished by the referees, which left the players to “police themselves” with the most penalty minutes in a Stanley Cup Finals in 20 years, and more importantly since the lockout.

After finishing Ken Dryden’s fantastic book, The Game, this summer on my way out to DC, I have to say that while his accounts of life in the NHL are fantastic, the most interesting part of the book was his anthology of play style and violence in the NHL. When Dryden comments in 1983 that “the violence of our game is not so much the innate violence in us as the absence of intervention in our lives. We let a game follow its intuitive path, pretending to be powerless, then simply live with its results”, he touches on the issues that we thought the league had solved after the lockout. Theoretically, hockey should be more fast-paced, skillful and exciting than ever before on the ice, and the hard salary cap unique to hockey has ensured that many teams in the league can be competitive. And the attempts to produce higher scores by the league (and thus, fans) had, again in theory, driven down the ugly violence that chronically weakens hockey.

But while the playoffs have traditionally been the venue for the older, scrappier brand of hockey, I don’t mind that as long as the talent is still on display. This Stanley Cup Finals, the games were still tense and well fought as they always are in the playoffs, but the verbal and physical sparring, combined with the deeply disappointing riots in Vancouver (standing in for Baghdad or Detroit circa 1984) really hurt my enjoyment of the series. Don’t quote me wrong; I love scrappy hockey as much as the next guy: a good fight can be part of the game (man, I wish the Avs were still good so the rivalry would be back). But that does not mean the style of play between the whistles need suffer. And during this series, the fights and penalties and insults overshadowed the games, which just continues to play into the stereotypes the NHL has tried to change since the lockout.

Typical post-whistle shenanigans

There are times where I miss the pre-lockout NHL, but the style of play has definitely progressed and become more open today. With HDTV allowing fans to actually follow the puck without goofy graphics and the in-arena product better than ever, and the exposure the NHL has generated from the Winter Classics, it’s now more important than ever for the NHL and their referees to maintain order on the ice. While the NHL doesn’t have the same trust issues with their referees as other leagues, they need to realize that the playoffs are the time to showcase their product to the world on a larger stage, and if playoff games degenerate into penalty-fueled routs, it will remain the weird cousin of the major American sports leagues. Instead of a breathtaking series capped by a Game 7 that will be talked about for years to come, sports fans wound up with a mostly-forgettable brawl-filled ordeal, which pleased few people besides those pesky Bostonians. It may have been what they wanted, but outside New England, it’s clear that this wasn’t hockey’s finest hour.

-The Real Deal