At just the time that the Wizards (7-23) are beginning to come out of the horrible funk that had engulfed them at the start of the season, the NBA handed them a double dose of harsh reality on Tuesday, with JaVale McGee revealing he’d been snubbed by the All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk Contest and John Wall getting picked 11th in the draft of players for the revamped rookie-sophomore game.
Of course, neither event counts nor matters when it comes to the NBA season itself, but both moves reflect where the franchise sits on the totem of importance in a league that right now is all about Jeremy Lin and Jeremy Lin alone.
“JaVale McGee told WashingtonWizards.com that the league did not contact him about participating in the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest,” the Wizards said on Twitter (@WashWizards) on Thursday evening. “Had the league extended him an invitation, McGee would have accepted.”
Earlier in the day, the participants in this year’s dunk contest, which takes place Feb. 25 at Amway Center in Orlando, were revealed: the Houston Rockets’ Chase Budinger, the Indiana Pacers’ Paul George, the New York Knicks’ Iman Shumpert, and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Derrick Williams. The criticism was immediate for the quartet, which has little cache, especially when compared to last year’s group, including McGee, who is second in the NBA with 72 dunks, Blake Griffin (who is first with 79), Serge Ibaka and DeMar DeRozan.
Of course, McGee got himself into trouble earlier in the year when he did an off-the-backboard dunk during a Wizards game, and his presence at the dunk contest could’ve stirred up that event again. Still, McGee himself hinted on Twitter that he was considering a return to the contest, and according to the team’s tweets, was ready for a second attempt after placing second in a marketing-driven show last year that concluded with Griffin dunking over a Kia Optima – which promptly turned into an advertisement for the league’s auto sponsor.
Speaking of marketing exercises, Wall and his 18.0 points/8.9 assists/4.2 rebounds averages per game in February and rookie-sophomore game MVP from last year – in which he had 22 assists – were all but ignored as Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley drafted players for the Rising Stars Challenge, which has replaced the rookie-sophomore contest with a pickup game.
Wall was picked 11th, the third point guard taken after Lin, who was added to the roster of eligible players in today’s most non-shocking news, and rookie Kyrie Irving.
Again, this is trivial. But it shows where Wall – who tweeted, “Motivation!” shortly after teh draft was completed – sits in the popularity contest of the day, even though he’s second in scoring among all second-year players (behind Griffin) and first in assists (ahead of Lin).
Right now, it’s simply tough to get respect as a Wizard.
