A recent hands11 post at BulletsForever: There's no way he's millie, is there???? The rambling, the abbreviations, etc. Millie never posted like this.
We are the home of Gilbert Gungate. That's what most fans know the Wizards as. And a perennial bottom dweller for 30 years. Think GSW or LAC of old. Thats right. Both those franchises sucked forever and where jokes. Blown picks. Bad trades. All of it. Hell we got Gil and Webber from GS. LAC were horrible for the longest time before Blake and CP3 and Doc. Hell, even with them, remember their owner ? But with some luck, franchises turn it around.
We made two 2nd round appearances. That started to get people attention but its not enough. People are still waiting for them to be consistently good before they jump on board. This fall back year won't help. We can see that from loyal fans here. Not even they believe. You think the average fan would ?
But they will rise again next year. Count on it.
You have to remember. Lots of fans are just partial NBA fans. They don't even have a home team. They just watch sometimes and because of that, they tend to watch whoever is a top 3 teams. Those fans are watching GSW right now. They were Lakers fans. The ones with a little more basketball knowledge are also watching SAS. CA fans are still in love with the Lakers and some part time fans are tending toward the Clippers but Lakers fans are like Redskins fans from 20 years ago. They will always be fans. Then you have your KD fans. Then the LeBroners. Boston fans are die hards that pass down a legend to titles and one kind of recently with RA, PP and KG. Hell, MIA even has some lingering but because it was a LeBron arrival for title pickings group, most are probably back to CLE, except the lingering Wade fans that became Wade fans back when Wade was the ****. TOR fans that where Bosh fans are watching TOR again. We know about TOR fans. Loyal and hopeful to the end.
That's a good chunk of the fans floating around right there. 7-8 teams. Then you have the NY fans who are kind of quiet right now waiting for Zen to get them there but probably with half a heart waiting for him to return to LA. NY has has a rough 10-15 years. Melo dreams never happened. They are in Redskin territory. Once great, but its been a long time.
Washington isn't even on anyone's radar yet. They most likely started to reach some exposure because of Gil and then they watched it all blow up over Gungate. To the average fan, Washington might look something like IND after the brawl of 2004 when they had Reggie fans only Reggie never went mental.
Its been only since 2010 when they got the #1 pick and got Wall. Then dreams of Ves that never happened. The Beal draft that we all loved but he has been to injured his whole career. Otto was was a pick we liked but not a great draft class. Solid citizen Otto. Good dude. Solid player but not what people expect of a top 3 target. Two 2nd round appearances. No big name coach to speak of. Oubre is a nice 20 year old pick no one outside of DC knows about but you just wait. Kid has something. Now a missed playoffs. From Gungate to that, just not enough to move to needle for the average fan. Hell. Home some home town fans can't even get sold. Now they added Morris. Still not enough.
But land KD. Make it to the ECF. Maybe a title. Oh trust me. Fans will start to rally. Now do it two years in a row and we will be up in LAC territory.
But to reach the masses and life longers, you have to do it for a long time. You need multiple titles. Something like a three peak or 4 titles in 6-7 years. Or something like SAS with 20 years of success. Hell, they are the most underrated best franchise in the league. They just didn't start early enough like Boston.
We are just scratching the surface with Wall, Beal, Otto, Oubre, Morris and Gortat. But with KD, the window opens. A nice 5 year run of that, and Washington Basketball will be on the map. Just like GS is. But not even GS as good as they are is a Boston or LAL or SAS. They takes decades.