Leonsis, Wizards consider St. Elizabeths site for practice facility

[Wizardspride]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2015/08/28/leonsis-wizards-consider-st-elizabeths-site-for-practice-facility/

Leonsis is weighing whether to build a glitzy Wizards basketball practice facility on the site of the former St. Elizabeths Hospital, a mostly vacant campus in Southeast D.C. that is considered one of the District’s largest redevelopment opportunities.

At St. Elizabeths, the Wizards would practice amongst some of the city’s poorest communities and could serve as a central component of a long-promised revival that could also include a Microsoft Innovation Center, offices for technology firms, new shops and affordable housing.

The campus is one of three final locations that Leonsis and his company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, is weighing for the facility, along with a property on the campus of Howard University and a location atop parking garages near the Silver Spring Metro station.

The idea is to build a complex similar to the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, in Ballston, which serves as a practice center for the Capitals hockey club, another Leonsis team, and as a community skating rink for Arlington County, said Randall Boe, Monumental’s executive vice president and general counsel.

Boe said Leonsis expects to make a selection next month, which could mean the facility would be under construction by the next summer, when NBA teams go to the free agent market looking for talent.

Among the players that might be available is four-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant, a native of Seat Pleasant — seven miles from St. Elizabeths — whom the Wizards are hotly pursuing.

“It’s a huge recruiting tool for free agents. This is where the players go to to work every day,” Boe said.

[fishercob]

ZONKER!!!!

[Ruzious]

I was kinda hoping that spot would be saved for the inevitable upcoming zombie apocalypse, but if it'll help get Durant, then I'll work around it.

[payitforward]

St. Elizabeths -- a name and place familiar to poets, as that's where Ezra Pound was hospitalized after WWII.

[montestewart]

St. Elizabeths -- a name and place familiar to poets, as that's where Ezra Pound was hospitalized after WWII.

"Hospitalized" in the sense that he was in a hospital. Apparently, all the examining physicians found him sane, but Pound had a few influential friends. St. E's was more a cushy incarceration than a hospitalization.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/31/books/researchers-dispute-ezra-pound-s-insanity.html

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Pound

How can an otherwise erudite, literary genius be so shallow as to be an anti-Semite or a racist or anything else that paints hatred with such a broad brush?

I had never heard of Ezra Pound. Thanks, payitforward and montestewart.

[payitforward]

St. Elizabeths -- a name and place familiar to poets, as that's where Ezra Pound was hospitalized after WWII.

"Hospitalized" in the sense that he was in a hospital. Apparently, all the examining physicians found him sane, but Pound had a few influential friends. St. E's was more a cushy incarceration than a hospitalization.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/31/books/researchers-dispute-ezra-pound-s-insanity.html

Yes, hospitalized in the sense that he was in a hospital -- he certainly wasn't nuts. I.e. not in the usual way the term is used. (In every other way he was a total whack job.)

I haven't read any of the materials the linked article points to, and I can't imagine being interested enough in the particulars of this long-ago situation that I ever will. But the claim that one hospital psychiatrist could have protected him from prosecution had anyone really wanted to try him is ridiculous on the face of it. The point is nobody wanted to put him on trial. The reasons for that were complex and various and not so very worth going into here. Start by remembering the Nuremburg trials -- we'd already tried and executed many Germans for actual horrible deeds of death-doing.

It's worth mentioning that Ezra Pound was a great poet. One of the greatest in the English language in the XXth century. No doubt his achievements in this regard were also part of what made it seem likely to be more trouble than it'd be worth, a mare's nest, to bother trying him.

[montestewart]

St. Elizabeths -- a name and place familiar to poets, as that's where Ezra Pound was hospitalized after WWII.

"Hospitalized" in the sense that he was in a hospital. Apparently, all the examining physicians found him sane, but Pound had a few influential friends. St. E's was more a cushy incarceration than a hospitalization.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/31/books/researchers-dispute-ezra-pound-s-insanity.html

Yes, hospitalized in the sense that he was in a hospital -- he certainly wasn't nuts. I.e. not in the usual way the term is used. (In every other way he was a total whack job.)

I haven't read any of the materials the linked article points to, and I can't imagine being interested enough in the particulars of this long-ago situation that I ever will. But the claim that one hospital psychiatrist could have protected him from prosecution had anyone really wanted to try him is ridiculous on the face of it. The point is nobody wanted to put him on trial. The reasons for that were complex and various and not so very worth going into here. Start by remembering the Nuremburg trials -- we'd already tried and executed many Germans for actual horrible deeds of death-doing.

It's worth mentioning that Ezra Pound was a great poet. One of the greatest in the English language in the XXth century. No doubt his achievements in this regard were also part of what made it seem likely to be more trouble than it'd be worth, a mare's nest, to bother trying him.

It was Pound's numerous friends in the literary world, including some of the biggest names in American letters, who came to Pound's rescue. People like Ernest Hemingway and William Carlos Williams spoke out against his actions, and their own patriotism was not in question, but they advocated for him and attempted to minimize his actions. I get the sense the St. E's psychiatrist was merely the rubber stamp to the "insanity" characterization.

If they tear down St. E's and put up a Wizards practice facility, WTA will have a fit!

[Ruzious]

If they tear down St. E's and put up a Wizards practice facility, WTA will have a fit!

There should be plenty of room for a CVS and a Walmart near the practice facility.

[fishercob]

If they tear down St. E's and put up a Wizards practice facility, WTA will have a fit!

There should be plenty of room for a CVS and a Walmart near the practice facility.

Ha, Walmart has been in the works at Skyland for years. CVS is already there!

[payitforward]

...It was Pound's numerous friends in the literary world, including some of the biggest names in American letters, who came to Pound's rescue. People like Ernest Hemingway and William Carlos Williams spoke out against his actions, and their own patriotism was not in question, but they advocated for him and attempted to minimize his actions. I get the sense the St. E's psychiatrist was merely the rubber stamp to the "insanity" characterization....

Yes, I know. But, to tell the truth, those zany guys running the country didn't always listen to William Carlos Williams and such. I mean, if you can believe it.

Big point was, I think, there was little to be gained and something to be lost and he was a PITA old fart. And anyway, the focus pretty quickly was on Stalin, anti-Communism, the Iron Curtain....

[closg00]

It appears that the deal is gonna happen according to the Post his afternoon..they just have to workout the details.


~When your FO is unanimous on drafting Jan Vesely, you know you gotta clean-house~

[Zonkerbl]

ZONKER!!!!

I KNOW!!!!!

[Zonkerbl]

Huh... actually they're going to move the Mystics there! I could bike to Mystics games! Up a big hill though.

[dobrojim]

Hills are good for you. Treasure them.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Do you all think this could be prelude to the Wiz getting a D league team?

How great would that be for player development to have them practice and play games at this facility?

[Wizardspride]

Do you all think this could be prelude to the Wiz getting a D league team?

How great would that be for player development to have them practice and play games at this facility?

Yep. Ted has discussed a D League team playing in the facility.

[Wizardspride]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/644165664803024896[/tweet]



[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/644169605951303680[/tweet]



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[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/644176042521985024[/tweet]



[tweet]https://twitter.com/HoopDistrictDC/status/644177197750702080[/tweet]


[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/643874786184138752[/tweet]


[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/644176590168059906[/tweet]



[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/644184306080972800[/tweet]



[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/644185474681192448[/tweet]

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Best news from the Boulez/Wizards in a long, long time.

Finally, the organization actually appears to be thinking strategically. Getting a D league team in this facility just makes sense. Right sizing the venue for the Mystx. Check. Moving closer to KD's home. Yep. Participating in the revitalization of a community with a building that can be of the proper, human scale. Yes sir.

How cool would it be if this venue hosted a big 5 type event (like the Palestra in Philly)?

Lot's of possibility here. Props to Bowser.

[dobrojim]

What LSBF said. Get us our own D-league team and have them play there.