Finally, there is closure for the Washington Wizards. Not that it really helps, but last night against the Nets, they were back on the court for the first time since learning for certain that Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton would be banished at least for the remainder of the season.
“An emotional roller coaster,” was guard DeShawn Stevenson’s description. “It’s been real tough. We’ve been going through a lot but at the same time, we’ve got to be professional and go out and play basketball games and try to win them.
“I just think, ‘Let’s not talk about it any more.’ ”
Arenas and Crittenton were suspended for the remainder of the season by NBA Commissioner David Stern on Wednesday for bringing guns into the locker room. Arenas had been suspended indefinitely on Jan. 6, shortly after the incident first became public. And now the Wizards desperately are trying to move forward.
“I think we moved on a long time ago,” said Antawn Jamison, the Wizards’ leading scorer in Arenas’ absence. “There’s clarity as far as knowing they’re not going to be here the rest of the season. After the first suspension, we kind of figured it was going to be something severe. If we did have them, it wouldn’t be for a long period of time, so as a team we realized the possibility.”
So the Wizards, who face the Knicks in D.C. tonight, caught a perceived break from the schedule-maker. They got the 4-40 Nets in their first game of trying to fit the pieces back together.
“But look at our record,” Jamison said, indicating no team is a gimme for Washington (14-30).
It certainly is not as though all is just fine and dandy for the Wizards. Losing Gilbert Arenas is not something you can simply fix in a heartbeat.
“Just because there’s closure, I don’t think things change in 24 hours, but I think over the long run you try to get some normalcy,” said coach Flip Saunders. “Someone asked about distractions. That’s a distraction, but we seem to dominate with trade rumors and everything else so those are distractions from a player’s standpoint that you have to deal with.”
But trade rumors are nothing.
“After what we’ve been through, trade talk is like rocks in a pond,” Jamison said.
Saunders stressed the importance of the Wizards returning to normalcy ASAP. They are pros. They are paid to play. So play. And the fans deserve their best effort, even if they’re not seeing the best lineup.
“We have to understand no matter where you’re at and where the record is,” Saunders said, “you’re still professionals and we are entertainers when we step on the floor. There are some 8- or 9-year-olds on the rail and this might be the only NBA game they watch, so you have an obligation as a performer to go out and play at a high level to have an impact on those individuals.”
Saunders laughed a bit, not at the opponent but the setting. The Meadowlands never has been known as a place that supplies its own electricity to any event.
“This has always been a tough environment to play in, even when they had 18,000 people,” Saunders said. “That’s the way it’s kind of set up. So sometimes you have to generate your own juice and do that by being aggressive.”
⇒Devin Harris remained out for the Nets with a sore right wrist, missing his third game. Courtney Lee was back in the starting lineup after sitting one game with a wisdom tooth extraction.