Wizards News

"Not surprisingly, Gilbert Arenas' blog was the first topic of conversation at Washington Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld's "state of the team" news conference yesterday. "We're on the same page, then. Because we want to sign Antawn [Jamison]. We want to sign Gilbert," Grunfeld said. "I kind of liked it. He's supportive of his teammate. And he enjoys playing with Antawn. And that's been our plan all along. I'm glad to see everyone in the organization is on the same page.""

"Giving his assessment of the season and outlining his plan for the offseason yesterday, Washington Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld gave coach Eddie Jordan his stamp of approval, said he plans to re-sign both Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison and noted that the keys to the team's success are continuity and health."

"Back in the real world, Ernie Grunfeld understands that sometimes the best moves are the ones not made. Grunfeld, in his annual state-of-the-team address, raised anew the benefits of continuity and preserving the team's core. He and Arenas are in agreement on the importance of re-signing Jamison, if not Roger Mason Jr. And Grunfeld knows that Arenas has said he will tweak his contract numbers if it aids in the re-signing of Jamison."

"In his annual postseason news conference, Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld said his summer priorities are to retain Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, praised the coaching efforts of Eddie Jordan and his staff, and listed health, continuity and the development of the team's young players as keys to next season."

"The urge to bury Eddie Jordan and the Wizards is understandable after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Cavaliers a third consecutive spring. Yet this visceral reaction overlooks two fundamental truths: The Wizards have not been healthy since late January 2007. And it is incredibly difficult to defeat a team whose leading player is allowed to hop, skip and jump to the basket, bowl over defenders, rake the arms of an opponent who has the ball and be granted the kind of latitude not seen since Michael Jordan was in his glory seasons with the Bulls. And that underlines the principal difference between LeBron James and Jordan."

"The Washington Wizards' tumultuous, injury-riddled season came to an end Friday with another first-round exit from the playoffs. That, of course, doesn't mean the turmoil is over for the summer. Power forward and team captain Antawn Jamison is an unrestricted free agent. And franchise player Gilbert Arenas has maintained he will opt out of his current deal in search for a long-term max contract, a move that will make him an unrestricted free agent as well. Re-signing both players tops the Wizards' to-do list this summer."

"Jamison became an unrestricted free agent after a season-ending loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 on Friday night and Arenas has until July 1 to opt out of the final year of his contract, a move that would make him the biggest name on the free agent market. Team president Ernie Grunfeld has repeatedly stated that it will be his "priority" to retain Arenas and Jamison. Yesterday, after cleaning out his locker and meeting with Coach Eddie Jordan, Butler all but predicted that one of the league's highest-scoring trios will be kept intact. "

"I used to be a back-up-the-truck guy who believed blowing up a roster was the best way to improve an NBA franchise. Not only did the Mavericks and Suns prove me wrong, taken out in one round after making blockbuster midseason trades this past season, but the Wizards have made me reconsider that thinking altogether. Two days after LeBron James dispatched them to Mexico and all points Caribbean, I'm convinced they're not far from going deep into the playoffs with the roster much as it is."

"Even after getting bounced from the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight year, members of the Washington Wizards organization deemed their season a success. Considering the trials and tribulations the Wizards encountered this season, the team felt like it did well to finish 43-39 — its best record in three years — and earn the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. "It was a big roller coaster ride," forward Caron Butler said of the season."

"For the first time since late September, the Washington Wizards had no basketball obligations yesterday. There was no practice or shoot-around to attend, no game to play, no flight to take, no weights to lift and no scouting reports to review. A tumultuous season began with center Etan Thomas announcing on the first day of training camp that he needed to undergo open-heart surgery and ended with forward Darius Songaila learning six hours before tip-off that he was suspended for what turned out to be the final game of the season. "

"Nobody closes the Verizon Center like the Cavaliers. For the third consecutive year, the Cavs finished off the Wizards on their own floor, scoring a 105-88 victory Friday to secure a 4-2 NBA Eastern Conference series victory. This finale, though, was different. The Cavs pieced together one of their finest games of the season, executing at a high level both defensively and offensively to turn what was expected to be another nail-biter into a blowout."

"With all the ups and downs of this first-round playoff series, it hasn't been easy to be a Cavaliers fan the past couple weeks. But it was even harder to be a Cavs fan in D.C. on Friday night, especially if you were wearing a LeBron James No. 23 jersey. Wizards fans, in their now-standard white-out T-shirts, booed James every time he touched the ball. Thanks to the suspension of Darius Songaila for his set-to with James in Game 5, signs like "LeBron = Cheater, Bad Actor" and "LeBron = Overprotected, Overrated Crybaby" ringed the court. "

"The Washington Wizards lost to the Cavaliers for the third straight year in the first round of the playoffs. This is the second time the Cavs have defeated the Wizards in six games. Last year, the Cavs swept the injury-riddled Wizards. Either way, Wizards center Brendan Haywood had no excuses for the Cavs' dominance. "

"This year, the Wizards pledged there would be no such humiliation. Through five games, Washington committed hard fouls and talked tough - inciting their fans to do the latter - turning this into one of the spiciest playoff series in the nation's capital in years. And then last night - with the Cavaliers poised to eliminate the Wizards in the first round at Verizon Center for the third straight year - Washington staggered and lost and was embarrassed, 105-88. Again."

"There is a new rite of spring here in the nation's capital. But unlike, say, the bursting of the cherry blossoms, this one smells a lot worse to the locals. Once again, LeBron James has personally ruined the playoff hopes of the Washington Wizards. It happened for the third straight year last night, when James and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Wizards 105-88 at Verizon Center to win the first-round playoff series 4-2."

"It was Washington, D.C. vs. LeBron James, and it was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? Nothing like a good hate to get the juices flowing, and by game time last night at Verizon Center, Wizards fans had the blood of hate and injustice rushing through their veins. By the end of the 105-88 beating at the hands of the Cavaliers, eliminating Washington from the playoffs, that blood still flowed. Hate and injustice were still the only reasons to care after the Wizards' disappointing performance in such a key home game."

"Congratulations to the NBA. It received the outcome it wanted in Tony Cheng's neighborhood last night. With LeBron James receiving hugs and kisses from the NBA earlier in the day, if not a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates stamped with the Jerry West logo, the Cavaliers played with poise and confidence in defeating the Wizards 105-88 in Game 6. This is one part of the marquee matchup the person behind the NBA curtain desperately wants: the Cavaliers vs. the Celtics in the second round."

"After the Washington Wizards were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year, Gilbert Arenas bemoaned how star-crossed the team is. "Look at the Kobes and LeBrons, they never have injuries in the playoffs. The Tim Duncans, they always find a way. I guess we just don't have that kind of luck." Cleveland might call it fortitude. Not even a white-clad, screaming, LeBron James-hating, sold-out Verizon Center could influence last night's result, a 105-88 blowout in Game 6 that gave the Cavaliers a 4-2 series victory. "

"LeBron James's coach, Mike Brown, used the word "terrific" at least 12 times to describe the Cleveland Cavaliers' franchise player, who closed out the Washington Wizards at Verizon Center for the third consecutive year with an almost flawless performance during a 105-88 win on Friday night. James had a triple-double with 27 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds, silencing the sellout crowd's chants of "overrated" and sending those wearing T-shirts that read "Crybaby 23" to the exits disappointed. "

"Remember two years ago, when the Wizards gave up game-winning layups to LeBron James in the teams' first-round series, when they were thought to be so squeezably soft? Now move ahead to Cleveland before Game 5, when a fan's handmade placard read, "Cavs 3, Thugs 1." Go ahead. Laugh at the irony. Washington's NBA team, yesterday's gutless wonder, is now perceived as today's lawless ruffian -- Genghis Khan in high tops and mesh. And it doesn't matter whether they bow to James's throne or try to tip it over, the result is still the same. "

"Great pitching is the most important ingredient in postseason baseball. Great coaching tilts the table in football. Great goaltending is the overriding factor in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Great players own pro basketball. The Washington Wizards have some nice pieces; the Cleveland Cavaliers have a truly gifted and great player. "

"So much for the third time being the charm. The Washington Wizards faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs for the third time in as many years. And for a third straight seasons, the Wizards lost. This time, the Wizards lost in six games after last night's 105-88 defeat at Verizon Center."

" The Washington Wizards downplayed the move and Caron Butler called it "spontaneously," but the decision to purposely foul Ben Wallace late in Game 5 could become routine for the rest of this series. The Cavaliers and Wizards play tonight at the Verizon Center in Game 6 of this best-of-seven first-round playoff series. The Cavs lead, 3-2, and a simple play, also called "Hack-a-Ben" could come into play once again. Coach Mike Brown expects it. "

" Now that the Washington Wizards are a two-hit won der looking for three, they are as dangerous for what they lack as for what they have going for them. No Gilbert Arenas means more of Caron Butler, a better player who now has no good reason to defer to Agent Zero's injured reputation as a basketball assassin - especially not with Double Z, Wally Szczerbiak, trying to stay in front of him. "

"Cleveland Cavaliers fans tabbed yet another Washington Wizards villain after Darius Songaila was called for a foul for tangling with LeBron James and then a technical foul for what was perceived as an intentional strike of James' jaw... “We got tangled up, and my arm got caught inside of his, and when he tried to free himself it was an accident,” Songaila said. “He lifted my arm, and it hit him right in the face. It was caused by him. It wasn't anything intentional.”"

"The bad blood between the Wizards and the Cavaliers is genuine and not merely because LeBron James is full of himself and an air-sickness bag is required each time Mike Brown starts extolling the virtues of this "special human being." By the time Brown has completed one of his sermons, James morphs into a combination of Mother Teresa, Mohandas Gandhi and George Washington."

"There was no mad dash on the part of the coaching staff to come up with a plan to compensate for the loss of the three-time All-Star, and there was no additional stage fright on the part of his teammates. After all, despite playing 69 of the regular season's 82 games without Arenas — who on Nov. 21 had a second knee surgery in the last year and made his return in a limited role April 2 — Washington posted its best record in three seasons and earned the fifth seed in the East."

"The Washington Wizards have won two games in their playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in those games Gilbert Arenas either played very little (Game 3) or not at all (Game 5). So, are the Wizards a better team without Arenas? There's no clear answer. Except for a 10-minute span in Game 1 where he made four three-pointers and poured in 14 points, he didn't have much of an impact on this series because of limited playing time. The keys to Wizards wins this postseason have had little to do with Arenas. "

"The Washington Wizards' Caron Butler battled knee, hip and wrist injuries in the latter part of the season, including the playoffs. No one could tell by the way he played Wednesday in the 88-87 win over the Cavaliers in Game 5. With their marquee player, Gilbert Arenas, unceremoniously announcing to the media that he had finished his season, Butler gave a scintillating performance, lighting the Cavs up for a career playoff-high 32 points on 11-of-22 shooting, nine rebounds and five assists."

" Q: Are you trying to persuade [Cavaliers center] Zydrunas Ilgauskas to play on the Lithuanian Olympic team with you? A: No. That's his decision. Q: Do you hope he decides to play? A: It would be nice to have him. We've never played together on the national team. He's never played on the national team, period. So it would be nice to have him for the Olympics, since this is my last time. It would be nice to have everybody and see how well we can do."

" All of the trash-talking, rap songs and hard fouls did not prevent the Washington Wizards from walking around Tower City in downtown Cleveland on Tuesday night. Even public enemy No. 1, Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson, paced the shopping mall among Cleveland fans. Stevenson called Cavaliers star LeBron James "overrated" and committed a flagrant 1 foul on James during the Cavs' 100-97 win in Game 4 on Sunday in Washington. As expected, Cavaliers fans let Stevenson know their displeasure. "

" Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas took a permanent place on the bench Wednesday after finally yielding to his injured left knee and calling it a season. But even if he was on the bench, he vowed he was not going to be like Cavaliers guard Damon Jones. That is, he was not going to be issuing the kind of non-stop chatter the ever-loquacious Jones does before the game . . . during the game . . . and after the game."

" The Cavaliers had victory and the second round within their grasp with less than two minutes left Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards in their first-round playoff series. The Wizards' hopes of continuing the series were fading because history has been on the Cavs' side. But a Caron Butler bucket followed by a missed layup from LeBron James meant an 88-87 loss to the Wizards at The Q and continued the best-of-seven series. "

"When Gilbert Arenas' season ended before Game 5 last night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the situation created an opportunity for guards Roger Mason and Antonio Daniels to play more minutes. As a result, the two had standout games in helping the Washington Wizards stave off elimination with an 88-87 win before a sellout crowd of 20,562 fans at Quicken Loans Arena. "Here we come, D.C.," Daniels said into the camera. "We're coming home, and we need all y'all on Friday." Mason and Daniels, who helped fill the void when Arenas missed most of the regular season after surgery on his left knee, did it again for the Wizards in an elimination game."

"The Washington Wizards' season will continue after an 88-87 victory over the host Cleveland Cavaliers last night. Gilbert Arenas', on the other hand, will not. The three-time All-Star guard shelved himself for the remainder of the year roughly two hours before Game 5, saying the pinched nerve in the back of his surgically repaired left knee continues to cause him pain and discomfort and that he hurt his team's chances because of it."

"The Wizards earned a small measure of gut-wrenching payback by defeating the Cavaliers 88-87 in Game 5 last night. Caron Butler converted an eight-foot bank shot with 3.9 seconds left after beating LeBron James off the dribble. "Initially, LeBron backed up, and I was going to take a jump shot," Butler said. "But I didn't want to settle for that. I didn't want to look back on the season and remember that I settled for a jump shot." The tough shot by Butler set James up to do what he has done so many times to the Wizards — to deliver salvation to his team on a last-second play."

"It was a familiar sight for a Washington Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers playoff series. Time winding down, game on the line, LeBron James with the ball, driving the lane for a potential game-winning shot. But for once, the ball didn't bounce the league's scoring champ's way, clanking off the rim and falling to the ground. And with that miss, the Washington Wizards avoided elimination and escaped Quicken Loans Arena with an 88-87 victory in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference first-round series last night."

"On Wednesday morning, not long after the team's shoot-around practice, Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards' medical personnel decided to have Arenas sit for whatever remains of the team's season. From the moment he came back on April 2 after missing 66 games with a left knee injury, Arenas knew he faced a race against time, and on Wednesday night, before the Wizards and Cavaliers played Game 5, time ran out."

"Not everybody on the Wizards is a talker. Caron Butler is a doer. Antawn Jamison, even on a bad shooting night, is a doer. Facing elimination on the road, with Gilbert Arenas sitting on the bench, Butler and Jamison took control of the team before the game in the locker room. They told their teammates, essentially, to shut up and play. Wonder of wonders, the Wizards did just that on Wednesday night."

"From the visitors' locker room came a chant, impromptu, rumbling beneath the Quicken Loans Arena stands, growing louder with each refrain. "TOUGH JUICE! TOUGH JUICE! TOUGH JUICE!" Caron Butler's teammates kept bounding up and down without him, chanting the nickname bestowed upon the Wizards' all-star three years ago by his coach, Eddie Jordan, who had grown tired of coaching soft players who couldn't finish games. "

"All-star forward Caron Butler capped a spectacular effort by driving around James and banking in a tough running shot over James and Ben Wallace to give the Wizards a one-point lead with 3.9 seconds remaining. The Cavaliers called a timeout and, to the surprise of no one, set up a play for James, who drove around DeShawn Stevenson and missed a driving layup as time expired, shocking a sellout crowd at Quicken Loans Arena into silence and sending the Wizards back to Washington with an 88-87 victory. "

"With the opportunity to advance in the playoffs for a third consecutive season in Game 5 tonight, the Cavaliers find themselves walking the fine line between being confident and cocky."

"This first-round playoff series between the Cavaliers and Washington Wizards has included one $25,000 fine, one guy kicked out of a game, four flagrant fouls, six technical fouls, one courtside appearance by a hip-hop artist and another new hip-hop song critical of one of the players. Oh, let's not forget a shot to the mouth that was not called as a foul and a few other knockdowns."

"Already tempestuous, the Wizards-Cavaliers series climbed higher in disrespect when Washington center Brendan Haywood mocked LeBron James by saying in a whiny voice, "Awww, they are trying to hurt me.""

" According to witnesses, the disc jockey announced a new song by rapper Jay-Z. When the song played, the lyrics were critical of the Wizards and player DeShawn Stevenson, who has a feud with Cavs superstar LeBron James. Jay-Z and James are good friends. More witnesses said Cavs guard Damon Jones also joined in the fun when he made some disparaging remarks about the Wizards over the microphone. "

"While a handful of his Washington Wizards teammates laughed, joked and wagered on how high into the Verizon Center stands Gilbert Arenas could punt a basketball after yesterday's practice, forward Caron Butler sat stone-faced in a courtside seat."

"Aside from his 24-point performance in Game 1, any semblance of the Gilbert Arenas of old has been absent in the Washington Wizards' first-round Eastern Conference series with the Cleveland Cavaliers."

"So Brendan Haywood has joined the trash-talking fun by calling LeBron James a crybaby, which is an accurate enough description of someone who believes the Wizards are torturing him with all kinds of medieval devices."

"With his team down 3-1, Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan is probably looking for a kitchen sink to throw at the Cavaliers tonight in Game 5."

"The Cavaliers are one victory from ending the Wizards' season for the third year in a row with Game 5 set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena. James, who is averaging 29.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists this series, is confident that it is not a matter of if but when Cleveland will eliminate the Wizards."