Random Ramblings - March 31

• If you haven't heard, Gil said last night that he'd take a pay cut in order to allow the Wizards to re-sign Jamison. Gilbertology has the quotes. Adande over at ESPN goes on to quote an anonymous source (Ernie G. anybody???) stating that the Wizards are responsible for taking care of ALL their franchise players and goes on to say the organization is authorized to go within $1 of the luxury tax threshold. ONE DOLLAR?!?!?! You cannot run an NBA team like a 99 cent store Abe. I understand you do not want to go over the limit, but you think maybe you can look at the situation before you go making rules like that. The least you could do is give the typical, "We'll see where we're at at the end of the season."
• In a bit of DC related new, Pres. Bush gets booed throwing out the first pitch at the new Nationals stadium.
• Apparently, the Wizards do not have any "ankle-busters". Shame. Still fun to watch.
• Save Stevenson's beard! Personally, Deshawn, I say bust out some Rec Specs.

• CelticsBlog has some nice things to say about the Wizards and gives 5 reasonably good reasons (reasonably good reasons....yeah...that sounds right) why you should watch the Eastern conference playoff race.
• My new favorite non-basketball related blog: Stuff White People Like. Here's a good one on San Francisco. If you're bored at work (you are, or you wouldn't be reading this) or you've completed your task of finding a vaccine for malaria (or AIDS, or whatever), I highly suggest wasting...AHEM...spending some quality time on that blog.
• Doc Rivers sits next to Pat Riley at the G'town/Davidson game and humanity spirals towards the apocalypse. Not really. (Hockey assist to TrueHoop).
• I watched, for the first time since I've been here, a home Laker broadcast. I noticed a couple of things. First, their dancers are hot. That's expected. Second, the Phil Jackson interview before the game, which the announcers dubbed "Philosophy 101" (lame name, couldn't they come up with something better...like "Zen-Ball-Talk" or "Jackson on Jackson"?) was actually not the worst pre-game interview I've seen. Phil actually answered questions with direct responses and didn't seem TOO upset about being interviewed before the game. By the way, that name, "Phil Jackson." Look at it for a second. If you met a Phil Jackson in grade school, wouldn't you picture him being the lame ass fat kid eating a cupcake in the corner of the cafeteria? I would.

• Last but not least, Jamison is STILL #2 in the league in adjusted +/- according to BasketballValue.com. Sure, he's doing more awesome because Gil is out (thank you 9th grade English). But really, isn't it EASIER to be better when Gil is in (more open looks, etc)? So really, Jamison has dominated as the primary threat. Throw Butler and an un-injured Hibachi to the mix and I'd say you have a championship caliber team. Yeah. I said it.