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Greivis Vasquez was drafted 28th overvall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA draft tonight. Oh yeah, the Washington Wizards drafted John Wall overall number 1. Of course Wall is the story of the NBA, but when will Vasquez get more national attention than tonight?

Vasquez, the former Maryland Terrapin, was one of the most passionate players under the guidance of Coach Gary Williams. Via Twitter, Williams said "I have no doubt Greivis will continue to work hard and will do everything to accomplish his goals in the NBA." Based on his years at Maryland, I believe that as well. Vasquez was never one to give up. His work ethic and intelligence showed prior to this past season when he entered and left the 2009 NBA Draft. Clearly the best choice as he would have been a 2nd or 3rd round pick at best then, and now he's a 1st rounder. Congratulations to Vasquez.

I haven't been a NBA fan for many years. It probably ended when Magic's Lakers and Larry's Celtics stopped being relevant. Yes, I realize in recent years that has changed with Kobe and the Big 3, but they didn't draw me back. Also didn't help that the hapless Wizards (forever and always Les Boulez) suck so bad. Call me a fairweather fan, bandwagoner, whatever, I don't care.

My morning commute always involves listening to the radio. During a news segment, I heard an NBA update. Celtics tie the series up with the Cavaliers 1-1. Great, I'm happy for them. Then I heard "Game 3 will be Friday in Boston." If I cared enough, I may have stopped the car. Yes, Cavs-Celts is taking a 3 day break between games 2 & 3. I guess they are traveling by horse drawn carriage back to Boston?

I apparently cared just enough to think this through. Wait, the Boston Bruins are still in the Stanley Cup hunt. They must be using TD Garden. OK maybe not Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but one of those nights, right? No, the Bruins will be in Philly on the Flyers' ice.

Maybe I'm overanalyzing it, because it's only a 3 day break, but that seems too long for teams that are only a couple of hours away from each other by plane. What happens if it's a Celtics-Lakers rematch in the Finals? A week between games? This is why I don't care. After the regular season essentially became irrelevant, I settled on watching the playoffs only. Then it became the Conference Finals. A couple of years ago, just the Finals. Now, nothing. I have no need for the NBA. If you want to draw in fans, give them something to watch on a regular basis. Play every other night, except put in a travel day in between when moving from city to city. Otherwise, you'll never get me back. Especially now that there may be an extra 4 games in March Madness.

Alright haters, it's time to talk about the NBA playoffs, I may have just lost a majority of the readers, but those who stayed are in for a treat.

May be it's the night owl in me or the fact that I find beauty in a game played by overgrown men with more tattoos than degrees, but I love the NBA playoffs.
To me, nothing beats a 10:30 pm tip-off and more importantly nothing beats listen to Charles Barkley at 1:30 in the morning.
Round one already gave us minor upsets as the Jazz and Spurs overtook the underachieving Nuggets and Mavericks. Is there anything easier to predict than the Mavs choking away another 50 win season in the opening round? NO.
Now the fun begins, round two started on Saturday with the Cavaliers taking game one in their series with the aging Celtics and the final team advanced on Sunday when the Hawks punked the ailing Bucks. Tragically that ends the run for the best battle cry in recent years "FEAR THE DEER".

LAKERS V JAZZ: The Lakers took game one of their second round series over the Jazz, who valiantly fought until the bitter end, but in the end IT'S THE LAKERS!! Don't get too happy Jazz fans, you do have the best point guard in the league in Darren Williams, but you don't have the size to rebound with the Lakers.

Prediction: Lakers in 6 (The New dynamic duo in Utah will give the Lakers everything they have, but it wont be enough. Watch for Ron Artest to give Williams fits)

SPURS V SUNS: Possibly the sexiest series on paper is the rivalry between the Spurs and Suns. Who's older than the Spurs? Well the Suns have Grant Hill who's been around since the dawn of time and is finally healthy, but the Spurs have Tim Duncan who is also getting to the end of an all-star career.

Prediction: Suns in 7 (It's going down to the wire, and these two have no love loss for one another. This is no doubt the series to watch, watch for fights, watch to see whose bench will carry the load and watch to see Amare "posterize" Tim Duncan one more time)

MAGIC V HAWKS: Here is what could be the most exciting series packed with amazing athletes and youth. Can Dwight Howard stay out of foul trouble? Can Mike Bibby guard Jameer Nelson? Will this be Josh Smith's coming out party? It's amazing, on paper this has the potential to be some of the most exciting basketball ever played, but games aren't played on paper.

Prediction: Magic in 5 (I know I know, I said this could be one of the best series around, so why not seven games? Simple the Hawks are terrible on the road and the Magic, who I may remind you are defending Eastern Conference Champs, got better in the offseason. The additions of Vince Carter, Matt Barnes, Brandon Bass and Jason Williams puts them way over the top. More importantly Jameer Nelson is the key, if he has a series like he did against the Bobcats then it won't even be close)

CAVALIERS V CELTICS: A difficult series to accurately predict. There are just too many what ifs. Who is a bigger "Drama King" Lebron James and his hurt elbow or Paul Pierce, who once left a game in a wheel chair only to return and win the game? How much of a factor will Shaq and Jamison be? The only thing that is almost sure to happen is that at some point Labron will drive the lane and taste nothing but Hardwood. The Celtics aren't afraid on the Cavaliers, but that wont matter at all if no one can guard the MVP.

Prediction: Cavaliers in 6 (Lebron finally has a decent supporting cast and that in the end will be the game changer in the series. Jamison only has to have 1-2 good games to have a huge impact in this series and if you remember not long ago Jamison played well as a Wizard in Boston. Boston will try their best to compete in this series, but they are just too old in a game league led by young guns, like MVP James.

That's it and that's all for the second round of the NBA playoffs. Try to watch a few games, there's only about a month left.

OK, I'm not an NBA fan. Really haven't been since the Showtime Lakers and basically stopped watching after Michael Jordan left the Bulls. But in looking at ESPN 980's website, this article caught my eye. Can someone explain to me how players can be nominated as All Stars when the season is only 10% over?

One of the few things I remember about the NBA is that the season is 82 games long. As of this morning, the Wizards are 2-6. 8 games into the season, they have a losing record and Arenas, Jamison, and Butler are nominated to the All Star Game?

I don't discredit them for their talent. I discredit them for their relative talent to the rest of the league. Especially Gilbert Arenas. The former Agent Zero was less than zero last season because he was injured most of it. So on this short 8 game losing season, he gets nominated? WTF? I enjoy a good All Star Game or Pro Bowl, but leagues need to do one of 2 things. Either nominate on merit, or just assign players for the best game/entertainment value. I'm not sure the NBA has accomplished that here.

Remember way back when, like almost 20 years ago, when the Redskins last won a Superbowl? Then a series of events occurred that was going to bring sports championships (plural is intentional).

1. Wizards being declared a team to be reckoned with.
2. Capitals make it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
3. Baseball returns to Washington.
4. Redskins sign/hire Spurrier, Gibbs, Haynesworth, Campbell

In Pardon the Interruption style, Toss Up, though we'll change it up a bit and give you a few choices. I get the feeling I already know the answer.

In case you missed it, Spike Lee was seen courtside at game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals rooting for the Lakers and cheering for Kobe Bryant. Yes, I've heard that Spike has made some sort of documentary about Kobe, but this still seems like a big slap in the face to Knicks fans. What could be worse for New York sports fans? I just hope that we never see Rudy Giuliani in the front row of Fenway Park cheering for Big Papi to hit more than one home run every two months.

Raise your hand if you knew the Washington Wizards signed their new coach this week. Hello, is anyone out there? OK, can you name the interim coach from the 08-09 season? Did you know Washington has a NBA team?

The Wizards signed Flip Saunders to guide the team for the next four years. Saunders has previously coached the Minnesota Timberwolves and Detroit Pistons, leading both teams on playoff runs. Since the coaching days of Wes Unseld ending in 1994, the past 15 years has produced 11 head coaches of varying degrees of success. Bernie Bickerstaff, Gar Heard, and Leonard Hamilton all failed to lead the team to championships. The "best" of the herd might have been Doug Collins and Eddie Jordan. Jordan was fired after a dismal start of the 08-09 campaign where he didn't have 3 of his best players to start the season.

Saunders will be tasked to bring this team back to prominence. At best, the 3rd favorite team in the DC area behind the Redskins and the crowd pleasing Capitals, has in the past advertised games by featuring the opponents coming in to town. How about a winning coach and a winning team? Victories seem to cure all ills.

In the depths of March Madness, we might forget that there is another brand of basketball still being played. In this here town too. They are called the Washington Wizards. They play in this league called the National Basketball Association. Yeah, I'm surprised too, I thought this NBA thing didn't start until April or May and only involved 16 teams playing the same opponent for best of 5 or 7 series.

So looking down the roster, i recognize some names.

Gilbert Arenas - isn't he that guy who writes the great blog?
Caron Butler - I remember him from UConn. Boo!
Juan Dixon - now here's a player I know. Terrapin great. Helped Maryland win it's first national championsihp.
Brendan Haywood - hated NC Tarheel. Boo!
Antwan Jamison - see Haywood, Brendan
Darius Songala - he played somewhere in the ACC right? Not Maryland though.
Nick Young & Etan Thomas - sound familar, but I don't know who these characters are.

Then the rest I have no clue. Andray Blatche, Javaris Crittenton, Mike James, JaVale McGee, Dominic McGuire, Olesksly Pecherov, and DeShawn Stevenson. Really, can someone tell me who these are?

Is that Jordan guy still playing for the team? How about Chris Webber or Juwan Howard?

One of the best writers in sports, Bill Simmons aka The Sports Guy, has a thoroughly entertaining and insightful podcast. On the 12/10/08 podcast, Bill Simmons talked with David Stern as he celebrates his 25th Anniversary as Commissioner of the NBA. Bill discussed several topics during the near hour long conversation and asked a variety of questions, but one of the more intriguing was asking Stern who some of his favorite owners over his 25 years in the NBA and why he would cite them as a favorite or model owner. Sure enough Abe Pollin of the Washington Wizards made Stern's top three favorite owners. He was an owner before Stern even became commissioner The BS Report.

Who would have thought that Abe, aka "where's the cake", the man that crossed words with Michael Jordan during a labor agreement dispute, the owner that hired and fired Michael Jordan, and the owner that won a title in the late 1970s and is still waiting for his next championship would make such distinctive and honorable list? Abe is a great humanitarian. His kindness and generosity are well known and documented. He also chose to move the team back to the city at a personal cost of his own pocket for the betterment of the community to revitalize the area. Abe is in poor health and may not see another title, but his generosity and goodwill will live on in the community. It’s good to see Abe is revered and held in such high esteem by Stern.

The Top 5 Reasons the Wizards fired Eddie Jordan:

#5 To Receive the Caps Lucky Karma:

The Caps have bungled countless decisions only to be bailed out by the greatest luck in sports in the area. They fired a coach early in the season last year without any real plan and it’s seemed to work out well.

Let’s recap –
• The Caps replace Wilson with an unproven minor league coach who alienated players and confounded fans. The Caps let go of all talent and receive little back in return to go from division winners to bottom dwellers to purge payroll due to the impending salary cap. It sounds eerily familiar to Casserly’s panic stricken purge for the Skins. Both led to the decline of the franchise.

• The Caps hopes lay upon a ping pong ball. The odds are long and thin to win the first pick. Not coming up with a franchise player like Ovechkin could prolong the poor team assembled and long on talent to perennial losers. As the ball bounced, Ovechkin became a Capital. The Caps replaced one minor league coach with another and then fired Hanlon during the season with no real plan and turned to the third consecutive minor league coach. Who really knows if Bruce would have been the first choice at the end of the year, but appears to be the right choice now.

#4 To Keep Up With the Jones’:

• PJ Carlesimo was fired from the Oklahoma City Thunder after going 1-12. Wait! The NBA is in Oklahoma City? Are you sure it’s not an Arena Football League team? It’s stylish to fire a coach early this year. Look at NFL teams this season.

#3 Everyone Else in Town Has Changed Coaches:

• Every other professional sports team has had coaching changes the past couple of years. Of all the professional teams in the area, Jordan had the longest tenure as a head coach. Jordan can now pursue other endeavors such as his dancing career. No, that was Jason Taylor. Ok, maybe it was his music career. No, wait that was Lastings Milledge. Ok, it must be to pursue other winning opportunities.

#2 To send a Message to Players and Coaches:

• The Wizards want to start a trend in sports that bad auto dealership commercials will not be tolerated.

The Washington Wizards did what people have been asking for yearsdays. When will Ernie Grunfeld fire Eddie Jordan. That day has finally come. After a 1-10 start, the team had enough. The big question is, was it really Jordan's fault?

The Wizards have played this season so far without star Gilbert Arenas and has also missed the work of Brendan Haywood. The great coaches motivate their team to wins when injuries go down. Last season the Wizards were also without Arenas for large parts of the end of the season, yet still made the playoffs. I'm wondering how 11 games in on a 82-game season is really enough to decide. But Jordan was coach before Grunfeld took over the team. That along with not getting out of the first round in recent years didn't help.

It's interesting that the Wizards make this move about a year after the Capitals fired their coach and promoted Bruce Boudreau. The Wiz looking for some Captial Magic? I don't know if Ed Tapscott, interim Wizards coach, has the powers in him.

Kevin Duckworth, former Washington Bullet, passed away on Monday in Oregon. Known around these parts as "Double-O" or "The Big O" for his jersey number, 00, played for the Bullets before the team changed the name to Wizards from 1993-1995. His short stint didn't leave much a mark on the Washington Basketball team, but as a former NBA All-Star, he brought some light to a franchise plagued with bad decsions. He was toward the end of his career playing here, so nothing was gained.

Recently, we was working with the Portland Trailblazers, his first NBA team, in promotion and holding basketball clinics.

I may be a week late with this, but I can’t just dismiss the disparity among the regular season records of the teams in this year’s NBA playoffs. The NBA playoffs are a 16 team tournament to decide the championship. Teams play 82 games in the regular season to determine which 16 teams get the chance to compete for the championship. This year, the NBA has determined that the Atlanta Hawks, with a record of 37-45, have earned the right to compete for the championship while the Golden State Warriors, with a record of 48-34, did not win enough games to compete for the championship.

The Lakers traded Kwame Brown along with Aaron McKie, their first round picks in 2008 and 2010, plus the rights to Paul Gasol's brother, Mark. In return, the Lakers receive center Paul Gasol and the Grizzlies second round pick in 2010. Lakers Trade Kwame Brown

This is a phenomenal trade for everyone involved. The Lakers unload Kwame and pick up a play making center to add to Kobe, Bynum, and Odoms. They give up some first round picks that would most likely be late first round picks with anticipation that the trade will make them contenders for the next several years.

The Wizards defeated the Heat at home 96-74 in a laugher Saturday night at the Verizon Center. The Wizards took advantage of the injury plagued Heat playing without Shaq and Jason Williams. Rightfully so the Wizards rolled up the score on Miami to run the record to 15-14. The team oriented offense and concept was run to perfection. It became sloppy towards the end when the game became nothing but jump shots, but the W in the record books was the important thing. To be able to pile up the wins despite the injuries across the roster is a tribute to management and its decisions. This shows just how far the Wizards have come under Ernie and Eddie.

Butler Dunk in 1st half - Photo by TSF

Gilbert Arenas will miss at least another 3 Months after under going MCL surgery on the same surgically repaired knee.