NBA washington Wizards

Abe Pollin, who has owned the Washington Wizards since 1964 when they were the Baltimore Bullets, has died. He was 85 years old.

Pollin had suffered from an undisclosed chronic illness for the past several years, one which confined him to a wheelchair but didn't keep him away from the Wiz. Pollin had previously owned the NHL's Washington Capitals, but sold the team to a group led by Ted Leonsis in 1999.

Pollin was the NBA's longest tenured team owner. Upon selling the Caps, Pollin told reporters his sons had "no interest" in running a sports team, and it's not known whether Pollin's wife Irene will maintain control of the franchise.

If I may, for a second, get personal, I would like to announce that I regret one particular post I published over the summer. That would be the piece in which I argued that the Wizards would rise from the injury ashes and be the league's most improved team. We're still early in the season, but believe me, y'all, the Wizards ain't improved anything.

If anything, actually, the Wizards are in worse shape than before! Why? Because last year it was just players sniping at the coaching staff, for the most part -- not much internal player drama. That's not the case right now.

Wizards forward Antawn Jamison hasn't been able to help his team on the court after suffering an exhibition schedule shoulder separation. But he's trying to inspire his mates in the locker room. Friday night, that meant the post-game gastronomy in Indianapolis had to suffer.

Washington fell to a rather miserable Indiana team by 16 points. According to the Washington Post's Michael Lee, Jamison gave the business to his teammates in the locker room after the final buzzer. Lee reports that a tray of snacks had been "tossed into a corner, shattered to pieces, with fruit and candy scattered everywhere." Quelle horreur!

Mike Miller may not look all that manly to most these days, given his unfortunate choice of hair styles. But after the way he competed in Wednesday night's close loss to the Miami Heat, there's certainly no questioning his toughness.

Miller came out of the game early in the third with an injured left shoulder, and headed to the locker room for some treatment. It was considered a mild sprain at the time, and since it was his non-shooting shoulder, he re-entered the game late in the period.

Miller played through until early in the fourth, when he hit the deck on a drive to the basket, and landed on the already injured shoulder. The man was in visible agony, but as you'll see in the following video, he managed to stay in the game long enough to make the highlights.

WASHINGTON -- Peel off the cobwebs. Get out the dust pan. One of the NBA's best shootouts is back.

There was a time in the middle of this decade when Dwyane Wade and Gilbert Arenas conjured up some Wild West battles even though both play in the East.

In 2005-06, in the four games the two met, Washington's Arenas averaged 32.3 points to 31.3 for Miami's Wade. Arenas had a 47-point game against the Heat and Wade had games of 41 and 40 points against the Wizards.

But then injuries hit both hard. Wade missed 62 games in 2006-07 and 2007-08 due to shoulder and knee problems. For Arenas, it was even worse as he missed 149 combined games in 2007-08 and 2008-09 because of knee trouble.

So when the two squared off Wednesday night at the Verizon Center, it was their first meeting since April 8, 2006.

Couldn't help but notice some interesting box score lines from a busy Friday night of NBA games. Among them ...

The Wizards confirmed today what many already suspected: Antawn Jamison will open the season on the sidelines. Jamison injured his right shoulder in a preason game on Oct. 14 while attempting to block a shot. After being re-evaluated, the original diagnosis of a subluxation was confirmed, which is the technical way of saying his shoulder briefly popped out of its socket. In addition to the time he's already missed, he's expected to miss another three-to-five weeks.

Everyone knows preseason games don't count -- but considering the Wizards won a mere 19 games last season, it's hard not to be encouraged by their 4-3 record heading into Friday's finale.

In fact, Washington's record seems to confirm what many have suggested all summer: The Wizards should be one of the most improved teams in the league.

But before the Wizards turn the page, they re-visited their past, facing former coach Eddie Jordan, now with the 76ers, in a hard-fought win in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Washington forward Caron Butler spoke to FanHouse on Wednesday about facing his friend and former coach, as well as his relief in seeing the locked-out referees return, his expectations for the season, the senseless tragedy at his alma mater and more.

---

---

FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

Last fall, I sang the hymn of fandom. Caron Butler's Wizards responded with their worst season in a while, a true wire-to-wire disaster of incontinence, misfortuned struggle and self-imposed blurriness. Butler still had a Butler-like season: 21 points, six rebounds, four assists, 1.5 steals -- but there's no self-promoting allowed when there are only 19 wins in the ledger.

So the song remains the same: Butler is one of the most bizarrely solid players this league has, worthy of our attention and appreciation. Luckily, as the Wizards around him improve -- through addition of the previously injured (Gilbert Arenas, Brendan Haywood) and previously exiled in Minnesota (Mike Miller, Randy Foye) -- we'll get to see Butler's glow more frequently.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Wizards are hoping that a healthy roster, a few new additions and a new head coach will help the team get back to relevance and into the fairly stacked upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. But reconstructing a group that won just 19 games a year ago might be a project that will take longer than a single campaign to complete.

The good news is the Wizards have plenty of positives going for them as they head into the season.