In case you haven’t noticed, the NBA lockout ended, and it ended way too early. The lockout failed to achieve the fundamental changes needed to make the NBA healthy and relevant in places other than Boston, New York and Los Angeles — places like Washington.
Yes, it ended way too early for the Washington Wizards, a team built to benefit from the new world order following the lockout.
Unfortunately, the owners — with a chance to make real change — backed down when they were faced with the prospect of Christmas without basketball.
As a result, this remains a league in which contracts — not players — are traded and fans need a business degree to understand and get excited about deals.
It remains a league in which a mediocre talent like Kwame Brown can make $7 million a year.
It remains a league that has a franchise in Washington that is burdened with misfits like Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee; overrated talent like Nick Young and Jordan Crawford; and the architect who put together this “core” group, president Ernie Grunfeld.
In case you missed it, that “core” group took the court Friday night at Verizon Center for their debut in the new world order and picked up right where it left off from last year’s 23-win season.
Washington lost its preseason opener 103-78 to the Philadelphia 76ers, whom it plays again Tuesday night in Philadelphia. It was such a good game that they will play it twice, something the Philadelphia fans are hardly happy about.
On Philadelphia sport talk shows, the callers have been complaining about the home-and-home preseason games because playing the Wizards won’t prepare the 76ers for the regular season.
Wizards coach Flip Saunders is already using words like “terrible” and “disappointing” to describe his team in between expletives.
After the 76ers opened the second half with an 8-0 run, Saunders benched his starters.
“I was tired of looking at that [expletive], to be honest,” he told reporters after the game.
That’s the culture that needed changing within the organization. But nothing is different.
It’s difficult to buy into the future of a franchise so seemingly plagued by its past dysfunction.
A symbol of change was supposed to be the hard hat that is awarded at practice to the player who worked the hardest. Reportedly, John Wall got it on day one.
Who got it the next day? Rookie Chris Singleton.
When a rookie is setting the tone for your work ethic, you remain the same old Washington Wizards.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
