Showboating our way to 1-12

Bottom line, big, physical players show off in different ways when they throw down dunks all the time. Dwight Howard doesn’t ever mug after a nasty dunk?

“OK,” you might say, “but McGee could have lost the ball / blown the dunk / not scored.” And that’s a valid argument. So we should never, ever see the alley-oop, right?

At the end of the day this is an issue because of a few factors:
a) the Wizards’ losses are piling up at an alarming rate
b) JaVale is a young, raw player whose desire to do amazing things sometimes trumps his common sense, and
c) Flip really hates JaVale for some strange reason (maybe he thinks he needs to be made an example of, the hell if I know).

If there’s one player on this team who’s been playing hard, trying to do things “right”, and actually showing improvement since last year, it’s JaVale. I really don’t believe what he did yesterday was meant for SportsCenter as much as he meant to fire up his team and the crowd.

The same way John tries to fire the team up by scorching the other team coast to coast with his speed, and then ends up too far under the basket and unable to make a play, turning the ball over.

Hell, what he did was no different than Gil firing some of those insane three’s from way beyond the arc and walking away, back to the basket, knowing they were nothing but net.

At this point, the Wizards have a massive, hulking enemy that is in danger of consuming not only their season but the development of many of the young players and the team as a whole. That enemy is called apathy. What JVM did, in my opinion, was show some enthusiasm, some confidence, and to try and bring a little swagger back.

Finally, you may say that it doesn’t matter; it’s not appropriate to have fun or act that way when your team is losing; losing is serious business and you need to approach it with a workmanlike attitude that shows everyone you’re not playing around. You may say, JaVale’s actions could inspire MORE freelancing and selfish play, and he should be acting like a leader.

To that I simply point out the MYRIAD examples of John sulking through games this year, hanging his head, moping, and otherwise displaying the body language of a resigned, defeated player, rather than that of one whose only thought is how he is going to lead his team back. IMO, this is just as bad, if not worse, than a silly dunk, yet we’ll never see Flip pull John for acting out like this.

JaVale is still a bit of a knucklehead. But constantly embarrassing the guy in public fashion the way Flip does makes no sense. Had Flip just said “well, look, he’s a passionate guy and wanted to fire up the team” the media coverage of this would have been tepid and passing.

But because Flip made a big deal out of it, it became controversy, and now we’ve got a home-brewed controversy on top of a really bad team. JaVale probably ought to have known better, but Flip has no excuse at all.

‘Flash’ point causes Wizards coach to flip