Published: November 19, 2009
For the first time in the two years since I’ve been covering the Washington Wizards, I had a legitimate dilemma: Who was I going to interview after the game?
On one side of the locker room there was new and improved Gilbert Arenas, who recently vowed to leave the drab, monosyllabic responses behind, in favor of the old effusive, “Agent Zero”. Sure, Gilbert didn’t have the greatest of games (6-of-22 from the field, 18 points and eight assists), but a talkative Areans trumps the muted one any day.
On the other side of the locker room there was Antawn Jamison playing his first game of this young regular season. Jamison’s play (31 points and 10 rebounds) had led the Wizards to victory over the previous streaking Cavaliers, and he was seemingly the logical player for me to choose given that fact. But as nice of guy as Jamison is, as a writer covering a team, you sometimes want the flair over the substance because it makes for a better story.
That line of thought would lead you to believe that I chose Arenas over Jamison, and I did…kind of.
I initially went over to talk to Arenas, and who is the first person he wanted to talk about? Antawn Jamison.
“It was great having him back out there, especially for me, because they can’t key on me as much because, you know, most of my pick and rolls are involving Antawn, ” Arenas observed as he was flanked by reporters. “He came off stroking it early, and he dominated that first quarter.”
Once Arenas said that, I immediately realized that I made the wrong decision on who to talk to during the post game. I ended my visit at Arenas’ locker and went to stand in front of Jamison’s area. He was still a couple of minutes away from being ready to talk, but I wanted to be in prime position to speak to the star of the night.
By the time Jamison was ready, there were at least 20-30 people around him, and the questions came at a rapid pace. I patiently waited for the opportunity and then I asked him about his right shoulder. Jamison had injured that shoulder during a preseason game with the Cavaliers back on October 14, and even though both he and the training staff had declared the shoulder fit for contact after a month of rest, Jamison had on a protective sleeve for this game.
Still, Jamison said the shoulder was no problem at all.
“My shoulder’s been fine, and it’s been fine for awhile, ” Jamison explained in his trademark quiet tone. “It’s just getting the proper rest and making sure I didn’t come back too early. It was good to get back in those positions that they[team doctors] were kind of skeptical about as far as how I would react to it. I think Delonte [West] blocked my shot and it got[my shoulder] in that position, and then diving on a loose floor and knowing my shoulder was involved lets me know that it’s behind me.”
Before this victory over the Cavaliers, the Wizards had been in midst of six game losing streak, which included small flashes of great play, but mainly frustrating stretches of inconsistency. After one particularly bad loss in Indiana, where the Wizards scored just 86 points and committed 19 turnovers, Jamison, who was still in street clothes at the time, cursed his teammates out for their listless play.
After last night’s victory, Jamison hinted that his presence in the lineup was a bit more influential than his behavior out of it.
“It’s different when you’re out there trying to direct the troops in suit, and you’re trying to get them up and things of that nature, ” Jamison reflected. “But when you’re out there competing and they see you sweating and leading by example, those are things that I missed, and it felt good to go out and do that tonight.”
Wizards Coach Flip Saunders seemed to be especially happy about Jamison’s return. Prior to the game, Saunders had mentioned that Jamison’s presence as a leader was sorely missed the first few weeks of the season.
After Jamison’s performance, Saunders sung his praises once again.
“Jamison is as professional as you can get,” Coach Saunders said after the game. “I said all along that when Antawn comes back, he’s going to loosen things up for everybody. He makes the offenses look so much better because he spreads the floor and it becomes easier for everybody.”
Even LeBron James, who rarely says anything complimentary about the Washington Wizards, took some time to briefly praise the play of Jamison.
““I’ve always been a fan of Antawn. He is a real good competitor.”
After about eight or nine minutes of Jamison’s press conference had gone by, I began looking around the locker room for someone else to interview. I felt like I had gotten all the quotes from him that I needed and now wanted to look for Caron Butler, so I could wrap up the night and begin writing my game notes. As I began to walk away, I heard someone ask Jamison if this big victory would springboard the Wizards into a more successful season.
At first I casually listened, and then I heard something that reinforced my decision to go talk to him in the first place.
“I’m not going to say everything is fixed. We did what we set out to do and we defended our home court, ” Jamison cautioned. “Now we got two pretty teams that play well at home (Oklahoma City on Friday, San Antonio on Saturday) that play well at home, so now we have to find a way to get it done on the road…but let’s not kid ourselves, we gotta lot of room for improvement.”
Spoken like a true leader. Welcome back, Mr. Jamison.
One Comment on "Jamison’s Return Makes Quite An Impression"
Truth About It » Washington Wizards On Wale and Pregame Music on Fri, 20th Nov 2009 2:13 am
[...] [Rashad Mobley - Hoops Addict] After about eight or nine minutes of Jamison’s press conference had gone by, I began looking around the locker room for someone else to interview. I felt like I had gotten all the quotes from him that I needed and now wanted to look for Caron Butler, so I could wrap up the night and begin writing my game notes. As I began to walk away, I heard someone ask Jamison if this big victory would springboard the Wizards into a more successful season. [...]