Promise. On the DC Sports scene, it’s hard to come by and
even harder to hold on to, constantly slipping out of the grasp we thought we
had secured. We thought we had it when the Redskins made the playoffs in 2012,
when DC football seemed rejuvenated and full of hope. If 2013 is any
indication, we were wrong. We thought we had it when the Nationals were the
best team in the MLB, with the hottest young stars and the right veteran
leadership. Pete Kozma changed that. The Capitals? Don’t even get me started on
how many times we promised ourselves we were talented enough to make it past
the 2nd round.
No, promise is something our teams show in flashes,
but are never able to hold onto. But the Wizards? They hadn’t given us any
sense of promise since we were using Nokia N70s and iPod Shuffles. Post-2007-2008
season, we’ve followed dismal season after dismal season, ridiculous
overspending on free agent after free agent (Rashard Lewis anyone?), bad
lottery position after bad lottery position, despite our good odds, and random
European big man after random European big man becoming another bust. Until.
Until this year, the year we finally got over the hump. We had a WINNING
season. We made the PLAYOFFS. We won a SERIES. And goddammit, we almost knocked
off the number one seed. These Wizards? The consensus is that they’re just
warming up. We’ve got a young, strong backcourt, abundant veteran leadership,
and great team chemistry. Of course, we’ve heard this before. Maybe it’s naivë
to think we can retain the sort of promise our other teams exhibited. But
something about these Wizards is different. They’ve struggled for so long. They
took the time to rebuild instead of hoping one free agent will fix all their
problems. Young, growing players highlight the team. Maybe, it’s finally time
for DC to emerge out of the hopeless nature of the past.
As Al Harrington said,
to no one in particular as the final buzzer sounded after the Game 5 win
against Indiana, “We’ll be back.”
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