Jordan returns on the anniversary of firing
Speaking with reporters after practice for the first time this season, Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas acknowledged dissension and frustration in the locker room for a struggling Washington team that could again be without two injured starters on Tuesday.
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“Most of us feel confident with each other on the floor,” said Arenas. “There’s a few that don’t … For the most part, we all get along. There are what, about 15 players on a team? Fourteen get along.”
The number of healthy Wizards certainly won’t reach that number when they host Philadelphia, as Mike Miller (strained right calf) will be out, and Caron Butler (right ankle) is questionable and has not practiced since Saturday’s loss in San Antonio.
In Miller’s place, Washington head coach Flip Saunders said Nick Young, who was inactive against the Spurs, will start against the 76ers (5-8).
The Wizards’ 106-84 loss to the Spurs, the second and worst of consecutive blowout defeats last weekend — and their eighth loss in nine games — led to finger pointing and excuses involving egos and hidden agendas that both players and coaches tried to quell on Monday.
“When we struggle as a team, which we are, we all are bad, from the coaching staff on down to the players, and you can’t be satisfied,” said Saunders. “But don’t look for somebody else to make a change and things. You gotta change first within yourself. This league is all about egos. You have to have an ego to play in this league. But what you have to do is you have to understand that your ego is never more important than the team.”
Tuesday’s game pits Washington against its former coach Eddie Jordan, now head coach for the Sixers, on the one-year anniversary of his firing, when the Wizards (3-9) had just one more loss than they currently have.
Asked whose responsibility it was to turn the team around, Arenas said, “Me and Antawn [Jamison],” a seeming omission of Butler, the third of three Wizards team captains. Arenas has singled out Butler for his struggles at times this season, but there were reports on Twitter late Monday that the two players cleared the air over the phone.
