A for Effort



In between new dog madness last night I got to see a little of my beloved Washington Wizards play the Lakers. For those of you that don’t follow the NBA the Wizards are just god awful and have three of quite possibly the dumbest people, not basketball players, people, on this planet. Don’t believe me? This happened last night that perfectly sums up their season (click on it it is great)

They might hate you for being 7 feet tall and trying to do a
cross-over pull up 18 foot jumper. But what do I know?

We have also had the pleasure of our “star” power forward “All-Day” Andray Blatche complaining when he gets booed for lack of hustle. Grow up. So what motivated me to write this? Last night was just another beat down like the one they took the night before from Golden State, right? Wrong. Last night the Wizards beat the Lakers in what might be the most infuriating game I have ever watched because it brought me to a realization about the wizards (they don't deserve to be capitalized) and it is something I can gladly say I don’t think I will see at UVA anytime soon.

The Wizards don’t try very hard. Yes it’s the NBA and they have an interim coach and they were eliminated from the playoffs about 10 games into the season (that’s an exaggeration, they are mathematically still alive, let’s go get that ring), but at some point there has to be pride from either the coaches, the players, or ANYONE to at least put the effort in to win. This reminded me of watching the apathetic Sylven Landesberg led 2008-2009 basketball roster mail it in for the final half of the season (4-14 after Jan 1., way to go out on a high note there Dave), but it also made me even more thankful that we have the coaches that we do.

If you think for one minute, hell even one second, that Tony Bennett or Mike London is going to put up with a lackluster effort from anyone for any reason, you have another thing coming. What did Bennett do when met with the dumbassity of Sylven Landesberg? He put his best player right on the bench. I was at a practice where one of the football players took one play lightly and Coach London made him run a stadium, IN HIS PADS. These two men are great motivators and hold their players to a fantastic level of accountability which is exactly what this school needs. Are we ever going to have the most talent on the field or court? Probably not, but will these coaches get the most out of what we do have and for damn sure put out a team we can be proud of as Wahoo fans? I would bet my life on it.