Wizards make the playoffs

[Cush]

so this mean we can expect flying pigs soon?

[Redskins_P]

Great day in DC. Wizards clinch the playoffs, and it's the home opener for the Nationals. Good stuff.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I can't believe the Wizards are in. Good for them!

[cpayne5]

If the Wiz play throughout the playoffs like they did last night, watch out!

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I wonder what ol' Mikey J is thinking.

[BDBohnzie]

he's thinking...how come no one will sell me a goddamn basketball team...who cares though?

it's hard to believe that this is the first time the team has made it to the playoffs as the Wizards. good for them...

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I'd love to see them make it to the Finals in a true miracle.

[Daseal]

Ill tell you what Jordan is thinking "At least I was able to run a few good young talented players out of town before I finally got the boot."

[SmootSmack]

I don't want to take away from what the Wizards have accomplished because as a 10-year season ticket holder and DC native I'm more than thrilled about it. However, I think MJ gets way too much heat and I just want to chime in on a couple of things about that. And I'm not even a Jordan fan really. I liked Pippen more during the Bulls Dynasty days.

Let me first briefly cover my criticisms of Jordan, so I can then move on to my overwhelmingly pro Jordan response:

1. He was too hard on Kwame. No, you can't make a high school kid the scapegoat for the failures of an NBA franchise

2. He should have kept criticisms of his teammates more often inside the locker room. You can only play that card in the media a few times, not every week.

Now that we got that out of the way, let me address some of the total and absolute nonsense criticism of Jordan:

1. He was a bad executive: When Jordan took charge, all the naysayers said that there's no way he could improve the team because he was "stuck" with Strickland and Mitch Richmond, and because Juwan Howard was "untradeable." "Untradeable," let me repeat: "untradeable." Jordan got rid of them all. And he also dumped the likes of Tracy Murray and Lorenzo Williams, who, in absolute in your face disrespect to the team, kept collecting paychecks while bad mouthing the franchise and while always conveniently coming up with "injuries" right when the season began. Get out.

2. He was a selfish player: So then the naysayers moved further inland to a perch where it was safer to criticize from, cynically stating that "the only way Jordan can help the Wizards if he puts on shorts and a jersey."Hardeharhar. Well guess what? Guess fucking what?! He did come back. While we gnashed our teeth about Jordan tarnishing his "legacy," he worked his way back, fighting through tendinitis and cracked ribs. And he played until he couldn't walk. Then, in his last seaon, he planted himself on the bench. And he offered, permitted, hoped, begged, that someone else would step up and lead. But no one did. So then, yes, he took charge. And you know what, the old man, the 40-year old, let me repeat 40-year old man, was the only Wizard, the ONLY one to play all 82 games.

3. He was not dedicated: Ladies and gentlemen, in 2000 and 2001, I would sit there watching the pathetic, lethargic, geriatric Wizards and then I would turn around and look up into the owner's box. And I swear this happened more than once. The only person, the ONLY person in the box was Michael Jordan.

Nice doesn't win championships. Nice is not how you climb the mountain in the NBA. It is painful. You don't quit and start over when you hit that unpleasant wall of resistance; that's how, when, and where you grow to the next level. But Abe Pollin only wants "nice." He wants to give away computers, corny ass computers. You all remember that, his going away gift to Jordan? And let's not kid ourselves. Pollin wanted to give the reins right back to Unseld. But Unseld, thankfully, said he'd had enough and basically forced Pollin to go after Ernie Grunfeld...who, ironically, was only available because it looked like the Bucks were about to be sold to Michael Jordan. Did you see that game in the Garden, when Jordan, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, who was 40 at the time and who -- heelllooo !!!! -- already has 6 rings, dove for a loose ball with such fury that his face LITERALLY bounced off the floor and snapped back up risking the loss of his front teeth, did you see that?! No, that's not nice.

But you know what's less nice. Less nice is not winning a playoff game since 1996 and not winning a playoff series since the 1980s. Less nice is watching Webber, Howard, Rasheed, and Ben Wallace come and go. Less nice is being the nation's capital with a state of the art stadium, but with a loser team. Less nice is accepting that mediocrity. So when a champion, THE champion, knocks on your door and tells you -- surprise, surprise --that in order to lose weight you got to get your butt off the couch and your mouth out of the ice cream, and that you got to do the work, the hard, sacrificial, painful work, then yeah it ain't gonna be nice. But if you want to get what you aint got, you gotta do what you never done. Full stop.

Jordan all along did exactly what he said he would do and for exactly the same reasons he said he would do them for. And he actually cared enough to bother himself to try and make a difference. But ironically enough, it was the Wizards, the empty trophy shelf Wizards, who weren't up to the task.

But that's in the past...GO ZARDS!!!