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Washington Wizards links for May 2: Someone else wants to bring back the Bullets

By Mike Prada

Let's dive right in.

Mike Jones Sports: Bring Back the Bullets

Mike Jones, formerly of the Washington Times and currently of Comcast SportsNet, writes on his blog today that one of Ted Leonsis' first acts as the team's new owner should be to change the nickname back to Bullets. Jones writes that there was "speculation" that Leonsis was thinking about actually doing this until the incident with Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton happened. He also writes that several fans have told him how they want the nickname to be changed back.
I say do it. It's not like Wizards has a terribly positive ring to it . . . especially given all the bad karma this franchise has experienced since Arenas blew out his knee in April of 2007. Right now around the NBA, Wizards = laughing stock. The days of the Wes Unseld-led Bullets remain the proudest moments of this franchise, so bring the name back.

And one thing's for sure, Ted & Co. will make a good chunk of change on jersey sales.

Just to be clear, this site's name isn't an endorsement for changing the name back as much as it is a homage to the team's history. However, I also think it'd be cool to change the name back, though I understand that would be difficult to do at this point.

(Thanks to se7en for pointing this one out).

More below the jump

"Technically True " Teds Take

Leonsis reminds us that the NBA, NHL and the WNBA still need to approve the terms of the deal he signed yesterday to become the new owner of the team.

Speaking of Leonsis, he also continues to show his devotion to analytics in basketball, praising David Berri and Martin Schmidt's "Stumbling on Wins" and Wayne Winston's "Mathletics." I'm not a big fan of either of those approaches, since they seem too dogmatic to be taken seriously, but hopefully Leonsis realizes that as well.

Truth About It " The Epitome of Randy Foye"

Kyle sums up Randy Foye's season, with numbers and other stuff. Essentially, he writes that Foye is a great, great guy that has overcome so much to get here, but he just doesn't provide much on-court impact. I agree.

Also, Kyle writes about the random connection between Jahidi White, Ted Leonsis and Michael Jordan. This was interesting.

Kyle Weidie Discusses the 2009-2010 Washington Wizards | Hoops Addict

Also, Kyle discusses the Wizards' season and his experience receiving and using credentials for the first time with Hoops Addict's Rashad Mobley.

2010 NBA Mock Draft, Version 1.0 - Ridiculous Upside

In his first of many mock drafts, Scott Schroeder has the Wizards taking Wesley Johnson with the fifth pick, Willie Warren with the 30th pick and Jarvis Varnado with the 34th pick.

Rick Snider: With Leonsis in control, time to take care of a few things | Washington Examiner

Included in this column is this line that got me curious.
If Gilbert Arenas is returning to the Wizards following his gun conviction that derailed the season, make peace with the fans now. Some will welcome Arenas back because he is a super player. But some won't and Verizon can't handle more empty seats. Get Arenas in front of the cameras for his public mea culpa. Make him regularly deal with fans until everyone's happy.
Here's my response: how much work does Arenas really have to do to win support back? I realize BF isn't the perfect subset of Wizards fans, but it seems to me like many of the people here have indeed made peace with Arenas and are willing to welcome him back. There's also all the letters from fans and other community members in Gilbert's defense memo that pledged their support to him. So many people from so many different walks of life wrote to express their support.

Obviously, there are many other fans upset with him that want an explanation. I get that. But it really doesn't seem like Arenas will have to do nearly as much to win back fan support as Snider thinks. This kind of strikes me as a mainstream writer throwing out something that sounds like it makes sense without really immersing himself in the fan culture.

But that's just my feeling, and I figured we should get more definitive data. Therefore, I put in a new poll on the right to try to hit at this question further. If you have a chance, please respond.

Fegan is Gilbert Arenas' former agent.


I wrote this and had a long Twitter discussion with Michael Tillery, a Philly-based writer whom I greatly respect, about it. Feel free to respond. My basic argument is that, if the NBA is so worried about maintaining a large enough electorate to hand over MVP votes to team employees that aren't voting objectively, then they should give prominent Internet writers and bloggers those votes, even if they may not have access.