2010-06-25T03:56:24Z tag:views.washingtonpost.com,2010:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon/87 Copyright (c) 2010, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2010-06-25T03:56:24Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-06-24:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/06/splendid_draft_for_wizards.html

NEW YORK -- Teams building from scratch have to make moves, bold and creative moves. They have to do so quickly and aggressively, taking calculated risks, looking not too far into the future while realizing it's not time to live in the present either. The Washington Wizards, on all of those fronts, did splendidly Thursday night, drafting and trading pieces that figure to be part of a contending team or later allow for further moves...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-06-18T16:00:12Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-06-18:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/06/kobe_bryants_legacy.html

LOS ANGELES -- "Legacy" is the word I hate most now, as in "How is Kobe Bryant's legacy affected by winning his fifth NBA Championship?" It's nearly as annoying a topic of discussion as NFL OTAs. Kobe Bryant is the best player in professional basketball today, better than LeBron James, better than any and everybody, even if his determined one-on-three efforts in Game 7 Thursday night were misguided and helped the Celtics build a 13-point...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-06-04T14:02:28Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-06-03:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/06/selig_should_reward_perfection.html

Of course Bud Selig should ignore the "baseball purists" who are for the most part self-appointed sanctimonious irritants, and declare Armando Galarraga's Wednesday night masterpiece an official perfect game. It's a no-brainer. There's no downside to it. There's no presumption. The erroneous "safe" call on the 3-1 put-out was the 27th and final out of the game. This wasn't some sixth inning mishap that calls on officials to speculate on what might have happened. The...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-06-25T04:00:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-06-03:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/06/ailing_wooden_in_la_hearts_minds.html

LOS ANGELES -- The mood wasn't entirely festive in Los Angeles before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. John Wooden, perhaps the most revered sports figure in Southern California and certainly in basketball circles in and around L.A., was reported to be in grave condition. Wooden, 99, was being treated at UCLA, where he led the Bruins to 10 NCAA championships during the 1960s and '70s. His two most prominent players, Kareem...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-05-20T19:28:38Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-05-20:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/05/fast-forward_to_the_finals.html

LOS ANGELES -- The story of the first two games of the Western Conference finals can be told with two simple numbers. The Los Angeles Lakers are averaging 126 points on 56 percent shooting. It sounds like a statistical leftover from the old ABA. Even worse for the Phoenix Suns is these are the new and defensively improved Suns. Unlike in the Mike D'Antoni days, Phoenix is actually trying to play defense...not that the...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-05-19T17:52:17Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-05-18:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/05/john_wall_wizards_savior.html

I've been operating under the impression that John Wall is a nice player, but not a special one, not a kid who makes you think your ship has come in because you just won the NBA draft lottery. I thought that winning the right to draft Kentucky's Wall was like winning $500 in the lottery, not the Super Duper Mega Lottery where you never have to work again a day in your life. I was...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-04-28T17:11:21Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-04-28:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/04/no_reason_to_panic_in_los_angeles.html

LOS ANGELES --The anxiety and apprehension that gripped greater L.A. for the better part of two full days was over 10 minutes into Game 5. The defending champions finally recognized the decided advantage they hold over Oklahoma City and played to it ...possession after possession after possession after possession. With a numbing discipline, the Lakers -- even Kobe Bryant -- threw the ball inside to 7-footers Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol and the two most...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-04-23T19:47:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-04-23:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/04/ovies_snow_patrol.html

Is this thing with Alex Ovechkin and the kid in Montreal really that big a deal? Quick story: when I was 13, 14 years old I went to a game at Comiskey Park in Chicago and sat along right field railing right by the old "bullpen dugout" where in this case the Boston Red Sox spare pitchers and catchers sat. I think it was a double header and Carlton Fisk wasn't catching the second game,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-04-23T14:34:52Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-04-23:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/04/wilbits_nba_nfl_draft.html

My gradual withdrawal from the NFL draft is complete, thankfully. After three or four years of watching very little of the draft, last night I finally made the last step of my glorious transition to watching absolutely none of it, not one second. I'm determined to make an annual tradition of ignoring it, especially now that the first round in conducted in prime time, which is quite a feat given that it's televised by two...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-04-18T18:14:08Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-04-17:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/04/opening_up_the_ballot.html

Votes for any and everything in sports should be made public, from Hall of Fame ballots to post-season awards for professional leagues. And as someone who covers professional basketball for ESPN/ABC (The Washington Post prefers staff writers not vote on post-season awards, so I do so while wearing my other hat) I turned in my ballot Wednesday night for the 2009-10 awards. So here, with explanations in some cases, is my ballot for the NBA's...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-03-29T15:39:37Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-03-26:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/03/dont_mess_with_perfection.html

Only a fool would want to mess with the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Only a fool would goof around with the size, the structure, the balance or the drama of the thing. Why would you mess with a competition, even a little bit, that produces something as breath-snatching as Butler-Syracuse and Xavier-Kansas State in one night? It's hard to imagine the tournament being any yummier than it was Thursday night and into Friday morning. We...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-03-26T00:46:54Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-03-26:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/03/football_coaches_acting_badly.html

Newspapers, including this one, should stop calling the NFL's organized offseason sessions "voluntary workouts." That's a lie. They're anything but voluntary. And if you think otherwise, just listen to the coaches whining and begging and threatening players who don't attend these "voluntary workouts." I talked to several players last week on various teams who described in detail what they do over the offseason in the communities they call home. But of course, that's not good...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-03-25T23:14:56Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-03-25:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/03/not_just_another_game.html

Alex Ovechkin said before Wednesday night's Penguins-Capitals game that it was just another game, as in nothing special. Same as a game with the Hurricanes or Panthers or Blue Jackets. Of course, it wasn't. And it had better not be, not as long as the Penguins are a direct threat and not as long as Sidney Crosby wears that black, gold and white sweater with a Penguin on it. Of course, it wasn't just another...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-03-25T18:10:38Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-03-25:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/03/analyzing_tonights_ncaa_matchups.html

While most of your NCAA men's basketball brackets are flat-out busted because you went chalk-city and picked Kansas to reach the Final Four, my bracket is just fine, thank you. I took Ohio State/Syracuse/Kentucky/Baylor (two No. 1s, a No. 2 and a No. 3) and there's no need to change now. Given the parity in the tournament (actually, in all of college basketball) this season no result should be a surprise, even if the three...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon 2010-03-25T15:32:53Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2010-03-24:/world-wide-wilbon/wilbon2010/03/blatche_making_troubled_wizards_worse.html

Updated 1 a.m. One day after saying he was more disappointed in Andray Blatche than he'd been in any player his entire coaching career, Flip Saunders put Blatche in the starting lineup and played him a team-high 39 minutes in Indianapolis. Clearly, the Washington Wizards have learned nothing from the Gilbert Arenas debacle, nothing about professionalism, nothing about establishing who's in charge, nothing about being accountable. We know now that Blatche is a liability....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Michael Wilbon