Enough about the battle for the starting shooting guard or what the Washington Wizards need to do in order to be better defensively this season, or players believing that the Wizards can win a championship.
Today’s first practice at Virginia Commonwealth’s Siegel Center — in which the Verizon Center basketball floor has been installed — on the first day of training camp wwas all about the hypnotist that head coach Flip Saunders brought in last night and the interesting tidbit that all of the players were given iPod Touches that contain the Wizards’ entire playbook, with both videos and diagrams.
Guys were a little reluctant to divulge exactly what happened — “What happens in hypnotism, stays in hypnotism,” said Mike Miller — in the presence of John-Ivan Palmer, who Saunders has used before, but bits and pieces emerged, such as Mike James barking like a dog and Nick Young riding a balloon like it was a horse and being unable to feel a flame under his hand.
Caron Butler called it unbelieveable. “I couldn’t call my wife because we’ve got this pact: you can’t call home and tell what happened,” said Butler. as he spoke with reporters. “Now she knows.”
DeShawn Stevenson said it didn’t work for him. “He kept trying to touch my face. It felt weird so I was like, ‘Get off me. I started laughing, and I made Caron laugh, and he told us to get up. He couldn’t crack me,” which seemed apprpriate, given the tattoo of a crack on his forehead which is meant to show that he can’t be cracked.
Of course, it then prompted a sweet one-liner by the AP’s Joseph White: “So he couldn’t feel your face?” And everyone was left in stitches.
As for the iPods, Antawn Jamison is impressed. “They got the schedule for what we’re going to do in March, as far as what time we’re leaving, the bus, shootaround. Those are the things that, to me, make a difference. There’s no excuse why you don’t know the plays. You can listen to your music and look at the plays. They got video of each and every play. We all know how much technology is run by this world and things of that nature. Why not incorporate it with what we do for a living, basketball.”
