Wizards Continue to Stay Productive During Lockout

Since the Goodman League wrapped up a few weeks ago, things have been pretty quiet here at Wizards Extreme headquarters (location: Centreville, Virginia, left side of my twin bed, upright with two pillows against the wall). The Summer League games had been our primary source of content during the NBA lockout and since the epic star studded finale between the Goodman and Drew Leagues the headlines have been fairly minimal.

Oh wait, there was Javaris Crittenton. I’ll hold off my thoughts on that fiasco but in case you hadn’t heard, the former Wizards swingman was arrested a few weeks ago in southern California after being accused for the murder of a young woman in Atlanta. Witness reports claim the slain mother of four was caught in a cross fire while she was walking with the two men that Crittenton allegedly was hunting down, apparantly seeking vengeance for the robbery of a few diamond studs. I’m a firm believer of “innocent until proven guilty” so again, I’ll bite my tongue with my opinions about this until we hear the final verdict.

Besides the Crittenton drama, there are a few other stories revolving around the Wiz Kids that are worthy of touching up on.

The latest news coming out of the DC basketball world this week is the participation of several Wizards players in the Impact Basketball Competitive Training Series in Las Vegas that began this past Monday. The competitive tournament, or the “Lockout League” as some have called it, was created by world class basketball trainer and founder of Impact Basketball Joe Abunassar.

The tournament is made up of 8 teams set to play against each other in games of 5-on-5 over the course of a week and a half, followed by the playoffs and championship game.

Teams are categorized by letter and John Wall, Nick Young, Jordan Crawford, Shelvin Mack, Rashard Lewis and Larry Owens join a few players from other NBA squads to make up the ‘G’ team. Over 60 NBA players have committed to the games. Some of the other notable players are Demar DeRozan, Chauncey Billups and Stephen Jackson.

However, the tournament seemed to have come at a conflicting time for our beloved Andray Blatche, who as I had written about in a previous article, was getting ready to hold private workouts for his teammates this offseason.

With the majority of the team out in Sin City, Blatche still held the workout session on Monday, as he promised he would. But unfortunately for him, the session ended up like that birthday party the nerd from your elementary school threw where almost nobody showed up. Sorry that was too easy. But in all seriousness, despite only two other players showing up (Hamady Ndiaye and rookie Chris Singleton), you’ve got to appreciate Blatche’s efforts.

Michael Lee of the Washington Post quotes Blatche: "Even though a lot of guys didn't show up, there were a lot of bigs and forwards, and we had a chance to go at it."

It’s all good Dray. We commend you for your consistent efforts to better your image and turn your career around. Seriously. We need that kind of vibe around the team. I know “Lapdance Tuesday” was a hit and I'm sure it was fun, but this rebuilding phase that the Wizards are facing calls for leadership, especially from the veterans, and I’m pleased at the amount of positivity Blatche has been bringing to the table.

Now if only this war between millionaires and billionaires can get settled and the NBA lockout comes to an end so we can finally see all this progress in action.

Yeah, probably not.