FanPost

Boiling Over

I have had enough.

Last night was the last straw for me. I need to voice my thoughts somewhere. Instead of forcing my friends to listen, I will put my thoughts here so that you have the option to close the window at any time.

To me, last night painted a perfect picture of how pathetic this season has become. It is not just the players at fault, although they should shoulder most of the blame. This is an organizational issue, and one that disturbs me to my core.

I maintain that I have faith in Ernie Grunfeld. I feel that his patience in regards to making deals will eventually pay off in the end. Watching the Wizards fall apart in the last minute or so of last night's game was bad enough. The fact that Roger Mason Jr. buried a game winning three at the buzzer against Phoenix made me sick. He is near the top of the league in 3pt percentage. DeShawn Stevenson is now at 27.5% from long range. We chose Stevenson over Mason. What infuriates me is that I feel like I see through this whole "Send me to the bench so I can get my swag back" routine. Bull-fucking-shit. DeShawn Stevenson got paid and has lost his motivation. Plain and simple. Deep down I believe he wanted to go to the bench so that he could coast through the rest of his contract without the pressure of being our starting SG. Most people are treating this like a selfless attempt to make the team better. I don't buy it.

So where the hell is Ernie Grunfeld?? I mean seriously. When I am at work...and I am asked to do my job, and I respond by not doing it - I get my ass chewed out. Who is getting chewed out on the Wizards? Ed Tapscott is an absolute joke. His title before somehow ending up as the head coach was Director of Player Development, correct? Now, in my industry, we would simply call this position "Lead Trainer". His JOB is to TRAIN our players to be more efficient at their craft. The fact that he is employed by a professional sports team SHOULD mean that he is better at his job than any of us would be. He should be aware of the common sense mistakes that he is making on a daily basis. Who is getting trained on this team? Someone please tell me.

We just traded for Javaris Crittenton. He is young. He is talented. He is a point guard. If I was the head coach and the former director of player development, I would see this as a great opportunity to develop a young player. We drafted JaVale McGee. He is a freak athlete. He brings energy. He is young. He is talented. I would see this as another wonderful opportunity to develop a player.

So tell me this B.F. - What statement does it make to JaVale McGee when you choose to send in Etan Thomas into a game for two minutes as opposed to giving him some burn? Is it any mystery that Etan Thomas is not in this team's future? Even if his production increased, if you handed a list of our roster and each player's contract to every Washington Wizards employee and fan and asked them to circle the player who they would most like to see traded from this team, what percentage would circle Etan Thomas? I'd like to think that it would be a fairly high number. So here we have a player with zero future on this team...and another who, IMO, is a major part of this team's future. Two minutes of playing time - who do YOU give it to? Well Eddie Tapscott felt like it would be better to let Etan Thomas get that playing time. If I was JaVale McGee I would take that as a slap to the face. A good developer of players would see that Etan Thomas is essentially a finished product. JaVale McGee, by all accounts, has limitless potential that is begging to be developed. There is a major problem here.

Both McGee and Crittenton received "DNP- Coaches decision" in the box score. If I was the director of player development, I would have seen last night as a perfect opportunity for growth for our young players. Instead, we run DeShawn Stevenson out there for 21 minutes to continue his atrocious play. I seem to remember EG and Tapscott saying that Mike James could play both the guard positions. If he is on fire and nobody else on the team who plays the two is shooting over 20%, what would it hurt to have Crittenton get in there and run the point for a few minutes and let James slip over and play the two?

My biggest problem is that all of this is happening in the arena of an obviously lost season. Unless the ping pong balls do something crazy, we are in for a top five pick this year. Ed Tapscott saying that we are still playing for a playoff spot should be grounds for his dismissal. Can we please be the first professional sports team to fire two coaches in one season? I'm sorry but your clever anecdotes and eloquent speech do not hide the fact that you are a horrible NBA coach. Earth to Eddie...if you are losing most of your games in the fourth quarter, it probably means that your best players are getting tired and are not able to adequately finish games. Perhaps playing Jamison and Butler 40 minutes a night is a poor basketball decision.

Everyone in this organization needs to start doing their fucking jobs. If you break it down, this is a vocation, a job, a career. People are being paid to do things, and they are not doing them. Players, coaches, management, everyone is dropping the ball here. At the very least, play with the realization that you represent something more than yourselves and your teammates. You represent a great city and a passionate fanbase who pay very good money to support you. Seeing you fight for a candy dish on the sidelines more fiercely than you fight for a loose ball on the court is like spitting in the faces of the people who love you the most.

I don't mind rooting for bad teams. I rooted for Rip and Courtney Alexander. I had no problem with Juwan Howard, aside from his contract, because he played his ass off every night. Tom Gugliotta and Don Maclean hustled for some pretty awful teams. You, my current Washington Wizards, are a shame. You obviously don't give a shit about us so why should we give a shit about you?

I'm still going to watch every game. I will, however, admit that for the very first time in my life, I find myself hoping that the Wizards will lose. I want to win this draft lottery and grab Blake Griffin more than anything and I'm not afraid to say it.

Sorry if this pisses anyone off.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.