The look on Irene Pollin’s face said it all. The Washington Wizards, an NBA franchise beset by bad luck and bad vibes, just won the lottery.
It wasn’t exactly the one-in-a-million odds facing Powerball players — the Wizards had a 10.3 percent chance of landing the number one pick in June’s NBA draft. But even those odds seemed all but unbeatable in light of the team’s historic misfortunes.
Of course, the first thing that springs, or rather lumbers clumsily, to mind when pondering the Wizards and the NBA draft is Kwame Brown. The Wizards grabbed the 7-footer with the number one pick in 2001, hoping he’d be the next Shaq. But he played more like a shack, and today, besides holding title as the first high school player ever selected first overall, Kwame’s most Wikipedia-worthy accomplishment is getting away via limousine after throwing a cake at a random fan on the street in 2007. Needless to say, Kwame will be remembered as one of the biggest busts in NBA draft history.
But the Wizards downward spiral into NBA irrelevance began earlier than that. Die-hard fans often point to 1996 as the year things went awry. It’s the year beloved owner and celebrated philanthropist Abe Pollin tore “Bullets” from his team’s jerseys and stitched on “Wizards” and one of the most awkward logos in professional sports. The Bullets had been around for over 30 years, and had even won a championship in 1978, but according to Pollin, the name wasn’t appropriate for a team located in one of the most crime-riddled cities in the nation. The rest of us, meanwhile, thought The Redskins were the city’s most offensively named sports franchise, but Abe certainly had a point.
The name change took on new significance this past December when it was discovered Wizards star Gilbert Arenas had threatened teammate Javaris Crittenton with a firearm (four firearms, actually, one of which was a gold-plated Desert Eagle) in the team’s locker room. Lucky for Abe, he didn’t read a thing about it in the Post, having died at the ripe old age of 85 a month before the controversy hit headlines.
His widow, however, has witnessed it all. From the Baltimore Bullets’ purchase in 1964 to Gilbert Arenas’ downfall this past year, Irene Pollin has become, in many ways, the soul of the franchise. Though no longer an owner after the Pollin family agreed to sell its majority stake upon Abe’s passing, Irene is still very much a part of the franchise. She cheered the team on to victory during the final game of the season and represented the Wizards at Tuesday night’s draft lottery in Secaucus, N.J. She brought along her husband’s championship ring, and his longstanding desire for success for the franchise and the city of Washington D.C. Thanks to her, and a little luck, the Washington Wizards’ future hasn’t looked this bright in a very long time.
Photo of Gilbert Arenas by Keith Allison via Wikimedia Commons.
