Editor's Note: Part IV of our Summer Project.  Previous profiles are of Robert Pack, Jim McIlvane and LeDell Eackles.

Today's profile goes back to that glorious 1995/96 team.  It's written by George Templeton. -PM 

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I was always a Bullets fan and a basketball nut, but I never had much to shout about when I was a kid.  By the time I became these things, the Bullets weren’t very good. That was true until the mid 90s when for a brief moment the Bullets had hope.  I could say that I was a Bullets fan with pride, instead of in the sheepish downcast fashion I always did, and it was Tim Legler who helped me get there and maybe win some acceptance amongst some of the people in my freshman dorm at VCU.

But before I get to that story, here is a brief recap of Tim Legler before joining our beloved Boulez .

• High School: J.R. Tucker and St. Mary’s (Richmond, Va.)
• College: La Salle University, where he scored 1,699 points in his career and was an Academic All-American.  He was a teammate of the famed L-Train (Lionel Simmons) and played for Speedy Morris.  In 1987, the Explorers lost to Southern Mississippi in the NIT final.  In 1988, the Explorers made the NCAA tournament but were dumped out by Lon Kruger’s Kansas State Wildcats.
• NBA: Played for Phoenix, Dallas, Utah and Golden State in his first five years in the league.  Only played more than 33 games one time (79 in 1994). In 1994, Legler averaged 8.3 points per game and hit 37.4 percent from behind the arc. The next season in Golden State Legler played only 28 games but hit 26 of 50 (52 percent) from bonus land.

Of course you all remember the 1996 season. As the Bullets narrowly missed the playoffs, our man Legler went wild from behind the arc.  In 77 games Legler was 128 out of 245 from 3-point land (an eye-popping 52.2 percent, tops in the NBA).  His crowning achievement was winning the 3-point contest at all-star weekend with a total of 65 points out of a possible 90 (still a record by the way).  Many was the night I was cheering in my father’s basement waiting for another 3-bomb to swish the nets!

Next year as the Bullets made a memorable (at least for me) run to the playoffs, Legler played only 15 games and made only 27.6 percent (8 of 29) from 3.  But Legler did comeback to defend his title in the 3-point contest and that is where my story picks up.

All-star weekend was a lot of fun for me as a kid. I didn’t give a flying rats rear about the game (although it was always a good time), but I almost never missed the Slam Dunk and 3-point competitions; they were always entertaining.

So I’m pretty much the only white guy in the TV room at one of VCU’s freshman dorms, Rhodes Hall. The place is packed because the all-star festivities are on. So up steps Tim Legler in round one and I start clapping and cheeringly wildly for him. Legler has a good round and then TNT (I think they had it then) goes to commercial (I think). One of the guys in there who doesn’t know me (and I don’t know him) asks me if I am cheering for Tim Legler because he’s white.  Now I was indignant and a little bit teed off and I shot the guy a pretty nasty look and I simply said, "Look at his jersey." And after he looked, I then said "Damn right," sat down and got back to watching the event.  Everyone in the room looked at me like I had three heads.  I guess they never ran into someone who actually like the Bullets (particularly a white guy).

But I had a reason to puff my chest out a little bit.  That’s right, I am a Bullets fan and you know what, my team was no good, but I loved them just the same.  Even if those two (expletives deleted) from Michigan were on my team.  Even though the last time they had made the playoffs was 1988 (at the time).  Even though I wasn’t out of Kindergarten that last time they won a playoff series, or that I was eight days away from being born when they won their only NBA title.  I was a Bullets fan and I was proud of it.

And to apparently to everyone in that TV room that night, I was a real basketball fan and not some poseur. From then on, if a ball game (college or pro) was on and I was there, I had no shortage of people who liked talking about the game with me, and based on that, I made a connection with a lot of people I wouldn’t have otherwise made.

Tim Legler didn’t win that 3-point contest (Steve Kerr did) and his career never reached the heights it did in 1996.  And then old favorite Bernie Bickerstaff got hired (I was a big fan of his because of that great run he had with the Nuggets in the playoffs one year) and the Bullets finally made the playoffs.

Legler now is more famous as an ESPN basketball analyst and Simon Cowell impersonator (if I could only find that particular SportsCenter on you tube where they did an American Idol send up). And of course he’s married to this woman, so you know he’s done well. I am not sure what happened at the end of his time with the Bullets, but he’s never had a good word to say about them during his time at the Worldwide Leader (not even during that 2005 playoff run).

But that doesn’t matter. Tim Legler you gave me a reason to have pride in being a Bullets fan, and for that I thank you. Now if you could give the Bullets a little praise every once in awhile, I would appreciate it.

In perusing over the newly-released 2008/09 schedule, it's clear that another bad start to the season is simply inexcusable.

Bad starts have repeatedly killed us in the past.  Last year, of course, we lost our first five games pretty badly despite having complete roster continuity, and it cost us down the line.  Now, we weren't winning in Boston on their opening night and probably were going to lose to either Orlando or Denver, but imagine if we beat Indiana and New Jersey as we should.  Win those two and the infamous Juan Carlos Navarro game and we would have earned the home-court advantage against Cleveland in the playoffs.

But wait, there's more.  We started 4-9 in 2007 and 12-18 in 2006.  2006 was particularly loony, since Caron Butler was playing off the bench, Chucky Atkins was screwing all sorts of stuff up and Antonio Daniels wasn't doing anything.   I'm willing to excuse that tough start, since we were adjusting without Larry Hughes and learning how to incorporate several new faces.  But, 4-9 in 2007?  The only new piece we needed to integrate was DeShawn Stevenson.  I'm not sure a better start would have made a difference in the playoffs, but three more wins there gives us the Southeast Division.

This year, we're going to have roster continuity and a pretty easy schedule.  Eight of our first 14 are at home (actually, 15 of our first 24, to be exact), and of the six road games, only two are against playoff teams from last year (Detroit 11/1, Orlando 11/8).  We do have tough home games against Utah (11/12), Houston (11/21) and Orlando (11/27), but otherwise, Atlanta's the only other playoff team we face.  We have two with Miami (home and away), two with the Knicks (home and away), two with a weakened Hawks team (home and away), New Jersey (at home to start the season), Golden State (at home) and Milwaukee (on the road).  There's no reason why we can't win 10 of those 14 games.

We'll need it too, because December brings Boston, Detroit, the Lakers, Philadelphia and Dallas to the Phonebooth and includes road trips to New Orleans, Houston, Philadelphia and Cleveland.

A fast start should be something to count on, since there are no new players to incorporate into the system (unless Dee Brown counts).  It's time to stop shrugging off bad Novembers. 

Other quick notes about the schedule:

• We have 11 National TV appearances, tied for 12th in the league with Orlando and Utah.  Seems pretty typical considering our place in the league, but I think it proves that we clearly have a national profile
• We have 18 back-to-backs, which seems a bit on the high side.  Last year, we had 17.  The second games of those sets are as follows: @Orlando, @Atlanta, @New York, Portland, @Chicago, @New Orleans, Toronto, Charlotte, @LA Lakers, LA Clippers, @Charlotte, San Antonio, @Milwaukee, @Dallas, @LA Clippers, @Phoenix, @Indiana and Cleveland.
• Good news: No long road trips this year.  Bad news: Three four-game trips and one five-of-six stretch at the end of December. 
  
• Only one home game against Boston this year, which I find pretty disappointing.  That game is on December 11 and it'll be on ESPN
• We play Cleveland and Toronto twice each in our final six games, which is huge for playoff positioning.  Then, we close at Boston, which could suck if Boston is still chasing a playoff seed, but would be nice if the Celtics wrap up the East early again
• Other than three straight road games against New Orleans, Houston and Boston from December 27 to January 2, I don't see any particularly tough short stretches.  Every road trip has at least one winnable game in it.

Editor's Note: The following was written by ledellforlife as part of our Summer Project.  Previously, Truthaboutit remembered flash in the pan Robert Pack and hotplate discussed prototypical backup center Jim McIlvaine.  -PM

For specific Ledell stories (of which there are many) I refer you to the links with Truthaboutit helpfully supplied. We Rite Goode has an especially funny remembrance of this especially mediocre player. Unfortunately, this will read less as an analysis of Mr. Eackles’ game, and more as a virulent screed against his character and basketball prowess.

There is a certain insouciance that Bullets fans possess towards old Bullets. The Celtics may have their banners; the Lakers had Showtime, but the Bullets blazed a new trail by pairing a really tall guy with a really short guy. Needless to say, what the team lacked in competitiveness, it made up for in sheer comedy value. The pratfalls of the organization have been portrayed with hilarious results by sites such as Wizznutzz, and to a lesser degree the more serious minded citizens of Bullets Forever. As we look back on the Dark Ages of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it is hard to not smile when recalling the basketball stylings of a Pervis Ellison or Tom Hammonds. However, despite these happy memories, a miserable cloud also hangs over this timeline, and that cloud’s name is Ledell Eackles.

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For Ledell Eackles, you see, destroyed my childhood. 

If you weren’t a Redskin fan in the 1980s, growing up a sports fan in the District was a difficult proposition. Every year I had to face the prospect of Sports Illustrated either ranking the Bullets or Orioles among the lower echelon of their respective leagues or deriding each organization’s chances of making an impact in the playoffs. Tearfully, I would write the publication and defend the hitting of Joe Orsulak, and the fine low post play of Bernard King. As irrational as it was, defending the indefensible (with the exception of Bernard) became my obsession. Harvey Grant was the better brother; Charles Jones was a savvy vet, the list was endless.

Ledell was different in that he finally removed the red and blue colored glasses from my eyes. For here was a Bullet who was truly unlovable; a fat guard that shot the ball at a rate that boggled the mind. Kevin Duckworth and John Williams may have been fat, but fat centers were not unheard of in the NBA. Muggsy Bogues was short, but he could be considered an evolutionary dead end as teams continued to move towards bigger "hybrid" guards. Ledell Eackles was rotund; at a position where svelteness was recommended. 

But what truly boggled the mind with Ledell Eackles was the complete lack of conscience in regards to shooting the basketball. Ledell would jack it up from all angles, regardless of situation or defense. He had a career 3PT% of .334. Furthermore, he never got to the line. The picture included above perhaps best encapsulates Ledell in the wild, plowing through multiple defenders on the way to hoisting up another ill advised jumpshot.  Suffering through another 3-15 performance against the Bulls, I would find myself screaming at the television asking why anyone would allow such a no talent hack become the crunch time scorer for a professional basketball team.

The answer came many years later while writing this article. My early Bullets knowledge had become a bit blurry, but I was stunned to find that the starting five for the Bullets on several occasions was the following murderer’s row: Michael Adams, Larry Stewart, Tom Hammonds, Charles Jones and David Wingate. I knew the Bullets had been terrible, but the quality of that starting lineup, nicely underscores the dire straights the organization was in at the beginning of the 1990s. Ledell bleeping Eackles, that stupid fat guard, WAS our best option. "No Your roll," indeed.

So Ledell, I forgive you, have a hotdog on me.

On the heels of Truthaboutit's splended profile of Robert Pack, I present hotplate's report of another member of that 1995/96 team, Jim McIlvaine.

As a reminder, keep signing up for players in the comments section of this post.  Tons of names still remain. -PM

Seeing Jim McIlvaine’s name on the Bullets Forever list triggered a memory for me and inspired me to sign up to do his report.

I moved to Bowie, MD in 1995. At the time, the Bullets held their practices at Bowie State University just 5 minutes up the road. Following training camp that year, they held a scrimmage that was open to the public. So I went to get a preview of how the ‘95-96 Bullets were going to look. The Bullets were split into 2 teams and played a scrimmage game complete with referees. Sometime during that game, Chris Webber had a breakaway layup with only Jim McIlvaine back on defense. Webber took the ball to the basket. McIlvaine blocked it. The ball bounced back to Webber. McIlvaine blocked it again. The ball bounced around some and ended up back in Webber’s hands. By this time, McIlvaine was out of position so Webber had an easy dunk. So as McIlvaine takes the ball from the basket and gets set to inbound the ball, Webber gives him the stare-down.

Now, I didn’t immediately conclude that Webber was a jerk, but I thought that particular action was kind of jerky. Its bad enough to show up your own teammate, but to do it when he got the best of you is just stupid. McIlvaine just gave him a puzzled look and said something like "Dude, what are you doing?" and played on. Excellent sequence for Mac though.

Later, after an eventful season and a tulmutuous summer, I heard Webber being interviewed on sports radio. They asked about the offseason player turnover and mentioned that McIlvaine had signed a 6 year, $27 million deal with Seattle. Webber simply said, "Jim McIlvaine is not a starting center."

It's rare to hear a player not named Gilbert Arenas speak so bluntly. But Webber was 100% right in that assessment. Jim MciIlvaine was not a starting center. Chris Webber could tell. I could tell. Why couldn't the NBA general managers? It was just good timing on McIlvaine's part. He had had a pretty good season by his standards. Plus, he was the best free agent center available. Of course, he was also the only free agent center available. As such, he got overpaid.

Jim McIlvaine wasn’t a starting center, but he was a mighty fine back up center. 

I've been attending Bullets/Wizards games since 1983. Three seasons really stand out as great for me. These were 1988-1989 when after letting Moses Malone go to free agency the Bullets actually improved and nearly made the playoffs with a 40-42 record including 31-10 at home. Also, there was the wonderful 2004-2005 season where Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas, and Larry Hughes led the Wizards to 45 wins and the second round of the playoffs. The third favorite season was 1995-1996 when Juwan Howard led an injury riddled Bullets team to an 18 win improvement over the previous season nearly making the playoffs again.

These teams all had 2 things in common. First, they performed much higher than expectations. Secondly, they all had good second units. McIlvaine was the defensive anchor of the 95-96 second unit and his blocked shots ignited many fast breaks for the team. The second unit of the Bullets that year included Tim Legler (shooting 52% from three point range),  a rejuvenated Ledell Eackles, and Jimmy Mac.The team lost original starting point guard Mark Price, replacement starting point guard Robert Pack and Webber to injuries that year. They were left with Brent Price at point guard. Juwan though was great and the remaining players played inspired ball. McIlvaine was a great backup to Gheorghe and the second team often got the team back in a game after the starters had faltered.

McIlvaine was good at one thing only. Looking at his statistics, its easy to figure out:
2.3 points per game,  2.9 reounds,  0.1 assists,  2.1 blocks. His blocks ignited the team, ignited the crowd, and deflated the opponents. He was really good at it.  Other than that, he had no offensive game to speak of, but in his limited minutes and coupled with teammates who led the league in 3 point shooting that year, he didn’t need to. It was a great year. Juwan was a stud. Brent Price had a career year and even managed to score 30 against MJ and the Bulls. Legler came out of nowhere to average 9.4 off of the bench and lead the league in 3-point shooting. McIlvaine played his role perfectly. I loved attending games that year.

Alas the good feelings wore off that summer. Juwan signed a 100 million dollar deal with Miami, then was reassigned back to the Bullets. He would never be as good again. Brent Price and Jim McIlvaine took advantage of a weak free agency pool and signed huge deals with Houston and Seattle respectively. McIlvaine went to Seatlle and for 2 seasons put up pretty much the same numbers that he had for the Bullets. For some reason, the fans weren’t happy with him there. Guess they wanted more than 3.8 points a game from their big money starting center.

Hey Seattle, ask Chris Webber. He’ll tell you. Jim McIlvaine wasn't a starting center. Oh well.

The Sonics managed to dump McIlvaine’s contract to the Nets, but injuries became an issue. In 3 seasons there, he played a total of 106 games before retiring after the 2001 season. Lesson to be learned: don’t count on a 2.3 ppg scorer to become a 15 point a game player.

Lastly, I found this at the blog Drive and Diss. I think its a must for any serious Bullets fan:

Where is he now?

Most mentions of McIlvaine are posts from bitter Sonics fans lamenting his contract, but it looks like McIlvaine is into the cars. A Google search led to this:

The Poison Dart, owned by Richard "The Bird" Wies and built by Imagine Motorsports was photographed last week by enthusiast magazine Popular Hot Rodding, a Primedia publication.  Noted automotive photographer and former NBA star Jim McIlvane came to Milwaukee with the specific task of capturing the Poison Dart for the readers of Popular Hot Rodding.