The early-as-possible start to Washington Wizards training camp — at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday — cuts in two ways.
First, the franchise couldn’t be more anxious to show off No. 1 overall draft pick John Wall and a roster full of fresh faces at its own version of a college-style midnight madness at Patriot Center. The event will be televised by NBA TV.
And the sooner the team can talk about this season, the sooner they can leave behind last year’s disastrous campaign.
“In the 20, 21 years that I’ve been a general manager,” Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld said on Thursday, “this is probably one of the most anticipated seasons I’ve had.”
After it was reported that NBA commissioner David Stern directed the Wizards — including team owner Ted Leonsis and Gilbert Arenas — not to talk about the events of last year, including Arenas’ infamous locker room gun fracas, Grunfeld was spared direct questions on the subject and turned one inquiry into whether Arenas had learned his lesson into a basketball question.
“He’s put in all the time he’s needed to put in,” Grunfeld said. “He’s been a professional. He’s worked hard. He’s in outstanding shape. He’s doing whatever he needs to do to get back to the level that we all think he’s capable of playing at.”
Grunfeld said the team was proud of its offseason accomplishments, which included one-sided trades with New Jersey and Chicago as those teams tried and failed to lure top free agents like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
“One team had a lot of success,” said Grunfeld, referring to the Miami Heat. “Everybody else was just so-so.”
Not the Wizards, whose goals were cap flexibility and to rebuild the roster with an eye toward the future. That group will have its first official practice in four days.
“We want to be competitive,” Grunfeld said. “We want to play hard, aggressive basketball, and we want to improve as the season goes along, and you never know what can happen in the NBA.”
Wizards will change colors for 2011-12 season
Leonsis was clear when he took over the team in June that he preferred red and hoped to change the team colors, and perhaps the name, as soon as he could. On Thursday, Grunfeld confirmed a change to red, white and blue from slate blue, black, white and gold when addressing a question about the new Adidas uniforms that are being introduced this season and whether or not there had been any tweaks to the team’s current color scheme.
“The colors are the same,” Grunfeld said. “But as you know, the owner plans on changing the colors to red, white and blue next season.”
Leonsis similarly changed the Washington Capitals’ colors before the 2007-08 season.
The Wizards dropped red, white and blue when they changed the team name from the Bullets in 1997.
