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Things we'd like to see when playoff basketball returns to Washington D.C.

Barring an epic collapse, the Wizards will host a playoff game this spring for the first time since 2008. We have some ideas on what we'd like to see happen as the Wizards make their return.

By Jake Whitacre
Greg Fiume

WizardsXTRA had a great post the other day about creating a red, white and blue-out at the Verizon Center for the playoffs that wet our appetite for postseason basketball in D.C. With the opening round only a month away, it's really time to start thinking about what you're hoping to see when the Wizards host their first playoff game at the Verizon Center in the Ted Leonsis era. Here's a few of our ideas, some more ridiculous than others:

  • Invite Irene Pollin to play some sort of role in pre-game ceremonies, but only if she wears the yellow blazer she wore when the Wizards won the draft lottery to get John Wall.
  • Bring back Soulja Boy, just because.
  • The Wizards' game entertainment team has really stepped up this season, between the Bandwagon Cam and the #BIGSLOWCAT vote. If the Wizards face the Raptors, we hope they play Barney music frequently. Nothing disrupts a shooter's rhythm like the stirring ballads of Brush My Teeth.
  • Can't find the clip online, but if the Wiz were to face the Nets, the dialogue from one scene in Moneyball would be especially fitting for one player on Brooklyn's team:

Billy Beane: You think you're special?
David Justice: Well, you are paying me 8 million dollars a year, so yeah.
Billy Beane: No, no. We aren't paying you. The Yankees are paying half of your salary. The Yankees are paying you 4 million dollars to play against them.

  • Bring back all the greats of the franchise's past: Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Kevin Grevey, etc. to celebrate the team's return to the playoffs, then surprise Phil Chenier by retiring his number.
  • Once they're done with that, have the Wizards retire Allen Iverson's number too. It worked really well when the Sixers did it. Bradley Beal can find a new number.
  • Have G-Man come out during one of the breaks to use the T-Shirt cannon, but instead of shirts, fill the cannon with jerseys. Once all the jerseys have been fired, have G-Man take off his mask and reveal that he's actually Gilbert Arenas. PEAK WIZARDS FANDOM.