The Wizards won last night 115-83 in front of more than 19,000 fans.
19,000 fans when the team is looking like a lottery team again even though we are on a nice little run here at the end of the season. Our fans are very passionate and supportive. They spend a lot of their time and money with us. I will never lose sight of that set of facts.
I am grateful to you all and I have heard from enough of you to know that you come to games because you like the nucleus of the team. You feel we are committed to building a tough team to play against. A team with lots of young and up and coming players. We are in the first phase of our rebuild. It went according to plan. We will have two first round picks coming up in the draft. We will have cap space to add new players. We await news of the new rules, if any, in the NBA. The team will improve but by plan I promise.
We are sitting in a good spot for whatever comes our way.
And many of our young players got tons of playing time. John Wall and Jordan Crawford are playing a lot together. Nick Young will regain his health and form a trio of good young players in the back court.
Andray Blatche is healthy again and is showing his true potential as a skilled big man. If he is committed to rebounding and playing around the rim with his skills and jump shot, he can be a 15-15 or 20-10 player in the league. That should be his goal. Twenty points – 10 rebounds per game. Improvement year over year. Mr. Double Double. He has that kind of talent.
JaVale McGee is a developing big man with a unique set of skills. He too is quite young and played a lot of minutes this season. He has improved all along the way. I am proud of him. He too has massive upside.
Booker and Seraphin both showed they can play and will contribute. We wish Trevor Booker a speedy recovery. Yi sure can shoot and last night he was a beast on the boards. Well played.
Mo Evans is our unsung hero. He is hyper competitive; professional; plays tough defense; and was a real leader of our young men. He and Jordan Crawford helped change a mindset of the team here at the end of the season.
And I am so happy with the contributions of some of our D league additions because we suffered so many injuries. I though Othyus Jeffers was a revelation. He was our leading rebounder last night. He plays with passion and commitment and wants to stay in the NBA. He is about 6’3′.
We do miss our vet leaders. We haven’t seen Rashard Lewis or Josh Howard on the floor in quite some time. In fact last night, we had as many suits and we did men in uniform it seemed on our bench.
This has been a long season; a season of rebuilding; of injuries; of trades; of learning; and of seeing who has upside.
It ends for us at home on Monday night. I hope to see you all here at Verizon Center. I am very grateful for your support. We have reached more than 75% renewals for season tickets. We are a Top 6 team in the league in terms of selling additional season tickets for next year. We will be a growth team in terms of how we perform on the floor and at the box office.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
