Hi all.

We are obviously going through a turbulent time in the Wizards history. Every day seems to bring with it a new story which makes it easy to criticize the franchise or start leveling blame at others who may have a different viewpoint than yourself. However, we first and foremost need to remember that this is a COMMUNITY, and the success of the community is predicated on having open and thoughtful dialogue on all things things related to the Wizards. Sometimes, that may lead to frustration when another poster's ideas or opinions do not mesh with your own. But under no circumstances is it okay to chastise other posters for not sharing this viewpoint and deciding to express an opinion. Once we get to the point where we're criticizing each other for wanting to put in their two cents about anything, we are going against the very nature of what this site is all about. If you have a legitimate counterpoint to make, that's one thing, but when your sole contribution is to tell other people that they need to chill out, that crosses the line.

When posting, use this thought experiment. Think of the site as Mike's house. Rook, myself, BNIE and the other moderators/contribs all rent space in that house. Mike loves to throw a good party. So if you come to the party and get a little too crazy or knock over a lamp, we are probably not going to yell at you the first time it happens. However, if you continue to come to the party and act like a drunken boor, you won't get invited anymore. The same rule applies to if you come to the party, make fun of the other attendees, and complain about the decor and how the punch sucks. You don't want to be that guy/girl. And you wouldn't want that person at your party.

Without further ado, here are some rules to keep in mind.

Continue reading this post »

Just a quick heads-up: the new site logo, created by callmecostanza, and an accompanying new color scheme to reflect the Wizards' own new color scheme will finally go live on the site sometime late tonight. I don't want to put a specific time on it, but my guess is probably around midnight. Just a heads-up to those wondering. I've taken a look at it and it absolutely kicks ass.

Thanks again to all who helped make this happen.

We put two great new site logos for a final vote, and the two were too close to call. But then, callmecostanza updated his logo, and it's freakin awesome. So without further ado, this is your new site logo:

This should go live sometime next week. Thanks to everyone who participated in the project.

Before we go to the final vote for the new logo that will sit in the top left corner of the redecorated site, I just want to thank everyone again for helping out with this project. I'm seriously floored by all the support and all the designs people came up with. I wish we could ultimately pick several backup logos to commemorate all of that. (Maybe we will). But ultimately, there were two new site logos that received more votes than the others, so we're going to put these two up for a final vote.

Here are those two logos.

LOGO 1

By skippy-jip.

LOGO 2

By callmecostanza

A number of you have asked me if the site colors are going to change now that the Wizards themselves have changed colors. As I've tweeted and commented before, the answer is: yes, we're working on it. However, as part of a larger project, we're also looking to change the site logo.

Here's where we're asking for help. If you are a graphic designer and have any interest in helping us with the design of the new logo, send me an e-mail (mikeprada AT sbnation DOT com). Even if you aren't, and you have some skills of some kind, we'd love to see your ideas for the new site logo. Post 'em in the comments or e-mail me with those.

Our sense is that this should be done before the season, but it'll move quicker if we, the community, can collectively help with it. Thanks guys,

-Mike

Tonight is supposed to be the night when the Washington Wizards would kick off their 2011 season with a home game against Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and the New Jersey Nets.  It was a good opener for a young team against a club that also was pretty bad last year. 

Of course, that came, along with many others, won't be happening because of this stupid thing called the NBA lockout.  In light of this, I imagine you all might be wondering what's happening with the blog this year.  Obviously, we're still going to be active, with lockout updates and other analysis pieces as we go along, but the biggest features of this site have always been the game threads and recaps. 

Will those be going away?  I'm here to tell you they won't.  While there are no actual play, we'll still have these features in some capacity.  Here's what's going to happen.

• Each night there is a game, we'll be posting a "fake" game thread.  Below the jump, we'll remember a classic game between the two teams, but otherwise, pretty much anything goes in the thread.  Talk about whatever and whenever.
• The next morning, we'll have a regular feature where we'll note five key "fake" storylines that could have developed in the game last night.  The plan is for a combination of me, Jake, Sean, Rook and BNIE to handle these, but if anyone is interested in helping out, drop me a line (mikeprada AT sbnation DOT com).

Bottom line: the loss of games isn't going to stop up from being as business as usual as possible.  Take that, owners and players!

You may have noticed the color scheme on the site is black this morning.  That's no accident.  Since today and Wednesday were scheduled to be the opening days of the NBA season, we at SB Nation have decided to turn all NBA blogs black.  With the NBA dark on what should have been the kickoff of a great season, so to are we dark.

The Wizards' season was scheduled to begin Wednesday against the New Jersey Nets.  We've got a couple wacky things we have planned over the season to keep content going that isn't just lockout content, which we'll discuss in the coming days.  For now, just didn't want you all to be disarmed by the color scheme.