After the Wizards lost to Detroit on Saturday night, a lone bright spot was head coach Flip Saunders announcing that Antawn Jamison would be back for Wednesday’s game against Cleveland. Back from his shoulder injury. Back from the illness that knocked him out last week.
Cue the anticipation of talking to Jamison after Monday’s practice, about his return, about hitting the reset button on the Wizards season, about the fruit plate tirade in Indianapolis, about being the glue that can hold together Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and the rest of the team.
But Jamison didn’t show. He wasn’t available after practice ended, wasn’t available after a couple of team meetings. Five hours after arriving at Verizon Center — four and a half hours spent waiting for access — a few of us media scribes were informed that he was gone.
Strange and unexpected. I’ve reached out to him via a couple avenues, and have gotten no response.
(Meanwhile, Randy Foye (right ankle) didn’t practice, and Fabricio Oberto (hamstring) also was pulled halfway through the session.)
Saunders didn’t give any hints that anything was amiss: “[Jamison] went out and went through the whole practice and didn’t show any ill effects or anything so that was a positive. When you get him back, I think the guys all see where things can fall into place and sometimes the rhyme and reason of what we’re trying to do. When you take a player of his — not only how he plays, but he has a high basketball IQ. So what happens when you have a player with a high basketball IQ, he increases the other guy’s IQ. All of a sudden, one little play feeds on to another one. One good pass leads to another one. He just creates a lot more spacing and opening on the floor.”
Mike Miller seconded the opinion: “He looked good, real good, like ‘Twan.”
Wednesday promises to be quite a night, not in the least because it’s an ESPN game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jamison will make his season debut against the same team that he was facing when he hurt his shoulder. If he’s healthy, the Wizards might finally have a chance to live up to their preseason expectations.
“We better,” said Miller. “We don’t have any more excuses. We’re not waiting for anyone else. Its on us now. It’s fun to see because now we’ll be able to see if we can put it out there on the floor.”
Saunders cautioned against the notion that Jamison is the answer to the woes that have led to six straight losses, however: “I think we’ll be able to execute better just because of how he plays. Let’s put it this way, guys are going to be able to play kind of what their original roles were, the way we decided we were going to play going into the season.”
Jamison’s presence off the court could be even more important, as Arenas suffers from an identity crisis and Butler struggles to find a consistent presence.
“That’s as much as anything,” said Saunders. “… The elder statesman always brings those little things.”
But generally, that doesn’t include avoiding the press. Will be anxious to find out what exactly happened.
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