More on the local sporting scene

Baseball isn’t the only sport that’s looking up in this long-time wasteland for professional sports. On Wednesday, I watched our basketball team, the Washington Wizards, clinch its first trip to the playoffs in eight years with a win over the Chicago Bulls. The Wizards aren’t all that good; they will be lucky to win one playoff round. But they are much improved. By the time the regular season ends, they probably will have improved their win total by almost 20 games over last year.
And they are exciting to watch. Guard Gilbert Arenas is probably the closest thing the NBA has to a new Allen Iverson. He may not be as tough as Iverson (who is), but he’s bigger. And he plays with a smile on his face. Larry Hughes, our other starting guard, has less flair, may be as good as Arenas if you take his defensive prowess into account. And forward Antawn Jamison, with his quick release and assortment of runners and floaters, is looking more and more like Bobby Dandridge, one of the most underrated players ever, who helped lead us to the championship in 1978. Bobby, though, was a much better defender.
If we could only get consistent scoring in the low post.