When the Wizards (Bullets) Were Really Good …

Wizards China Trip Announcement

Wes Unseld, right; Caron Butler, third from right.

Photo: NBA.com

The Washington Wizards are going to China -- again!

The team announced that some former and current players, including NBA Hall of Famer Wes Unseld, Romanian giant Gheorghe Muresan and contemporary stars Caron Butler and Randy Foye, will be making the 10-day journey Sept. 5 for a series of clinics and other goodwill activities in Beijing and Shanghai, promoting USA balling to a hoop-crazy populace.

The peg for the trip: the franchise is following up on a historic tour 30 years ago – as the Washington Bullets (nee Baltimore Bullets) – the first NBA team to visit the communist nation following the renewing of diplomatic relationships with the United States.

Besides time and distance, a China trip is not the big deal maybe it once was (2008 Summer Olympics). But the news of the tour is a nice reminder that another NBA season is around the corner – and that maybe the Wizards might be good this year. They won just 19 games last season, suffering season-long injuries to starters Agent Zero Gilbert Arenas and center Brendan Haywood. A panel of sportswriters voting on the The NBA On ESPN.com gives them the nod (over Oklahoma and the Clippers) as likely the league’s most improved team.

If Arenas is healthy after two years of knee issues, he’ll average 30-plus points again, taking his usual place again alongside LeBron, Kobe and D-Wade as the league’s most prolific scorers. But good enough in the East to get past Cleveland -- now with Shaq? Once-removed NBA champion Boston? Dwight Howard and the Magic? Maybe, just maybe. Seven-footer Haywood gives the defensive hedge against Howard, Shaq and Garnett in the middle. Foye and sharpshooter Mike Miller arrived in that draft-day deal with Minnesota with added depth. Then there is still Jamison (a pro’s pro mentioned way down in this paragraph), Butler, Stevenson and the rest of a pretty nice crew of young players in Andray Blatche, 7-0 JaVale McGee, Javaris Crittenton and Nick Young. Maybe the Wizards are going to be good after all – a group that reflects the new prototype NBA team of interchangeable parts at the 2, 3 and 4 positions with some long height in the lane.

New Coach Flip Saunders is a top NBA coach who has tutored many top players. You can bet Saunders is looking to cement his personal NBA legacy with a title, just like Doc Rivers did with Boston and what George Karl yearns for with Denver.

Thirty years ago there was also a nice group in Washington, NBA champions in 1978 and the runner-up in 1979. Unseld simply could go get the ball off the board better than anybody. And the "Big E" Elvin Hayes, another Hall of Famer, defined the power forward position in his era. Add Bobby Dandridge and the point, Tommy Henderson, along with Grevey, Kupchak and Greg Ballard, not to mention smooth Larry Wright and pesky Charles Johnson.

The new season starts Oct. 27. Maybe the Wizards (Bullets) get really good on 30-year cycles.

Observations on Ravens’ Tony Fein’s Arrest

Let’s start this with a disclaimer. I wasn’t there, and I am relying on reports I read.

Tony Fein, a Baltimore Ravens rookie linebacker from Mississippi, was arrested Aug. 23 -- a Sunday evening at a restaurant at Baltimore’s Harborplace dining and entertainment district, hanging out with buddies, also supposedly Ravens. Fein allegedly shoved a city cop after being asked to show his hands after a security guard's report of a man possibly with a concealed gun (it turned out to be a cell phone).

Fein, listed at 6-foot-2 and 245 pounds, isn’t your typical rookie, but he's a good story. Fein, 27, served in the Iraq War before making his way to college and pro football. The guy is a winner of the Pat Tillman Patriot Award. Before his arrest, not many in Baltimore or elsewhere likely had heard of Tony Fein – he’s way down on the Ravens' linebacker depth chart behind the likes of Lewis, Suggs, Johnson, Gooden, Burgess, McClain, Barnes and Kruger.

Tony Fein might not remain in Baltimore once Ravens roster cuts come over the next several days, but some are likening his arrest to the famous and already historic case – only last month in July -- of esteemed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Gates was cuffed and locked up during an altercation with a white Cambridge, MA officer in his home -- sparking allegations of racial profiling that even elicited public remarks from Barack Obama.

Tony Fein’s arresting officer also is white. Fein’s agent, Milton "Dee" Hobbs Jr., declared in press reports the next day that Fein, too, was targeted by a racial-profiling cop because he is black.

Does Fein rise to the clamor of Henry Louis Gates’ arrest? Probably not. Fein’s no African American Studies scholar, and the case doesn’t rise to the stature of a presidential comment. Everybody is surmising that tensions were a little on edge at Harborplace last weekend because of a recent shooting and some roving gangs running amok and robbing people at the downtown venue during summer. Baltimore police pledged to tighten up enforcement in the wake of incidents.

As everybody knows, Fein simply should have followed the orders of the cop. That much is not disputed. We all know that police officers are public servants raising families like everybody else and that the work can be dangerous. But that this young black man was approached like that – in a Johnny Rockets restaurant of all places – is troubling to some.

Johnny Rockets isn’t a place where young black men go to brandish weapons. They go to Johnny Rockets to devour chili dogs, down root beer and flirt with young waitresses. Hanging out in a Johnny Rockets is pretty innocent.

Baltimore police are adamant that racial profiling did not occur in Fein’s case, and even agent Hobbs acknowledged in a press report he could "understand" how things transpired.

The police report noted that Fein was wearing a hooded sweatshirt in the dead of summer and that prompted suspicions. OK, young black guys do wear hooded sweatshirts. Out on the street, say at Bentalou and Baker in West Baltimore or along Bladensburg Road in Northeast DC, it can be a little daunting to confront the dreaded hooded sweatshirt while on a 10 p.m. walk.

But at a Johnny Rockets on a Sunday evening? Pro football players competing in training camp wear sweats. Doesn’t matter if it’s 85 or 90 degrees out. That's what they wear.

Bill Belichick, the Super Bowl winning coach of the New England Patriots, is famous for trolling the sidelines in his hooded sweatshirt – often with the hood up. Some could ask whether a Belichick would be approached and asked to show his hands if wearing his hoddie at a Johnny Rockets.

Welcome to DMA 7-22 Sports

This is my introductory post. Time to get it started.

I write under the byline of M.V. Greene (Marvin Von Dyke Greene) out of Owings Mills, MD, and Washington, DC. For those unaware, Owings Mills is a community outside of Baltimore. So, my coverage will encompass this thriving metro region of Baltimore and Washington on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

I know you are curious about my blog’s title, DMA 7-22 Sports. DMA means Designated Market Area, per use of media rating services. My blog signifies that Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd (yes, I remember when Baltimore also was in the Top 10). I wanted something a little different and maybe memorable, thus my title.

Blogs need to be focused, so my focus will be on writing about sports in this region – from the amateurs to the colleges to the pros. If you live somewhere else, read it, too, as I aim that my words will have wide appeal.

I am not sure I will be doing a lot of "sports reporting" on DMA 7-22 Sports. No need to report that the Ravens beat Rex Ryan’s Jets 24-23 in last night’s NFL exhibition or that Mets reliever Billy Wagner today is scoffing at a possible move to the Boston Red Sox. You can get that news from my favorite Web site, Yahoo! Sports, as I do many times during the day. So no broad-based sportswriting here – unless, of course, it relates to DMA 7-22.

I suspect that my posts will offer perspective, analysis, commentary, ideas and, perhaps, even thought leadership about sports topics originating from Washington-Baltimore. I hope you will comment. My views will be genuine, heartfelt and topical, and I may toss in some observations about popular culture, trends and society. As a professional journalist, I’ll be seeking out scoops and news you can find only here -- that I hope will resonate in the sports sphere. And just so you know, my training and professionalism won’t let me to make wild assumptions, drop names gratuitously, play loose with facts or come to unsupported conclusions.

Basketball is my game, but I love the daily grind of baseball, college football Saturdays and the hype of Ravens-Steelers. I go to AAU and high school games – boys and girls. I even like watching future stars in rec ball. I grieved that night Sean Taylor was taken away. Spending the day at a track meet is a good day, and I dream of more national titles for the Terps (men and women). Then there’s golf, the amazing Michael Phelps and looking forward to Sam Cassell’s new role as an assistant coach with the Wizards (I saw first Sammy play on the streets of Baltimore at 10-under). In a nutshell, it is all DMA 7-22.

About me? I cut my teeth in the sports department of the old Baltimore Evening Sun, coming out of Towson State. But that was too long ago, as were the dreams of becoming an NBA columnist. There were always more moves to make and promotions to take. I’ve also worked in many capacities in journalism and media in Louisville, New York, Boston, DC and Beaufort/Hilton Head.

I work the freelance circuit full-time these days as an independent writer and editor and communications professional (email me your proposal), covering topics like high tech, government, supplier diversity, business and finance, occupational safety and health and retail. I am an expert on Congress and the federal government, having spent seven good years this decade operating from Connecticut and K in the nation’s capital. I earned my master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and have taught college.

But let’s get started. DMA 7-22 Sports. Look for me to post mostly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.