Live Q&As

Hey, sometimes you have to make some sacrifices in life. In my case, I sacrificed looking like a fool and getting comments calling me an idiot in exchange for having an NBA team readers care about again.

I'll work on your other columns soon.

Wow, I'm really getting some well-deserved credit here. Thanks.

The thing I don't understand is why so many people are saying "I think Evan Turner might turn out to be the better pro, but you have to take Wall." If Turner might turn out to be better, then why isn't this an open question, especially since the one spot that's theoretically filled is point guard with Arenas. (I guess Blatche's spot is also filled, whatever position he plays.)

Anyhow, it sure seems that the massive, overwhelming consensus is building around Wall. Read Wilbon's comments from Magic Johnson this morning. That was pretty powerful.

With Tracee Hamilton on vacation for about a month, Barry Svrluga and I will apparently be rotating on these chats every other morning. This is convenient for me, since I already am working late at night, in the mid morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon.

And no, I don't expect you to feel sorry for me.

That certainly seems to be the theory, and some of the stuff Flip Saunders was doing with Livingston at the end of this season (No, I don't really expect you were watching, and I hardly was either) seemed to set up a two-guard scenario like this.

It's not like the Wizards have anyone who fits the Evan Turner mold right now, either. And if the Wiz had gotten the No. 2 pick, I'm pretty sure lots of people would be salivating about Turner in that ungodly blue next year.

Also, what does hibernate mean in this context?

I'm not sur what's more bizarre, that you thought to do this or that there's only one John in the NBA. How about Jon?

Also, the Great Wall of Chinatown is funny, if nothing else. Credit to the 72 people who simultaneously thought of that last night.

Poor Kwame. His name will be mentioned and disparaged so many times over the next few weeks. A lot of what happened was his fault, but a huge portion wasn't. I'm not sure that he deserves another round of scorn just because the Wizards got lucky. But ESPN was already showing footage of him on stage with David Stern this am.

Here's a better question: the east side of the Verizon Center has traditionally been home to banners touting the Wiz's biggest star. Now that Ted has control of the building, what banner goes there? Wall? Ovechkin? No. 1 picks together? Gotta be the latter, right? Make that happen.

The first conversation between those two is going to be epic.

Yeah, but 33 in quarterback years isn't horribly old. If McNabb actually re-ups here and stays healthy, this could be a really special few years. Yes, I'm sort of buying the McNabb stuff.

I'm not sure this would make us the hottest sports town -- Wall will be exciting but just turning the Wizards into a playoff team would be a major, major accomplishment. And the Nats are more about getting competitive than actually contending. Compare us to, say, Boston, where all four teams are annual threats to win actual titles.

But for young starpower, this could be fun.

I finished an entire bag of sunflower seeds while I was scanning the Internet for Wall stuff last night. Same basic idea.

Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo is unquestionably one of the best NBA writers in the country.

I do agree that he's seemed awfully, awfully negative toward the Wiz in the last few months.

But I was here one of the first times he had an extended conversation with Arenas, and he really liked him. Found him funny, refreshing, honest, etc. I think he has NBA people telling him that the Wiz coddled him too much and let him undermine this season, and he's not afraid to write what he thinks.

Would love to hear from Buckhantz today. In fact, that's a great idea. I'll call him when I'm done here.

Haha, a lot of people have said this, because of the excitement of playing with a top PG, LeBron's oft-expressed affinity for Wall, perhaps his ties to Leonsis (writing a blurb for his book), etc. It seems fantastical to me. If he wants international stardom, he could go to New York. If he wants NBA tradition and a chance to win a title next year, he could go to Chicago. If he wants unbridled adulation, he could stay at home. And D.C. offers, what, Fun Street, Le Boulez, and the knowledge that he'll still be second-fiddle to the Redskins?

As many have said, it takes titles. Yes, we could be looking at Harper, Wall, Strasburg and Ovechkin by next year, but the Nats have never had a winning season, Ovechkin has won one playoff series, and the Grunfeld Wizards have done the same. Just having big names and exciting talent isn't enough to dethrone a team that won three Super Bowls in many of our lifetimes.

Also, there's enough attention for everyone. Whether an Ovechkin story is leading the local news or on A1 of the paper or not, the Caps are not hurting for media attention anymore.

Well, Ernie Grunfeld is one of the tight-lippiest of people out there. If there are early indications, I'd check in with Michael Lee for that. I haven't heard a single person suggest Cousins go No. 1, whether in whisper or full voice. There seemed to be more Turner talk back in March, and by this month, everyone's been treating Wall as a done deal. I mean, ESPN had its cameras trained on Wall seconds after the Wizards' name was announced. 95 percent sounds fine to me.

Woj thinks this will do nothing to stop the Wizards from attempting to rid themselves of Arenas. But Arenas has never been a real point guard, despite one assurance after another that that's what he is and what he wants to be. Gilbert scores the ball. Whatever label you want to put on him, his greatest attribute is putting ball into basket. Wall seems to be a guy who enjoys passing, but can do more -- Rondo is getting so much love for what he's doing in these playoffs, but one of the real revelations is that he's maybe one of the top three or four passers in the game. You can be a star by doing that.

As for the impact on free agent signings, I've always believed that for the vast majority of players, the money and playing time questions are more important than culture questions. Not for the very few elite guys or the veterans obsessed with winning, but I never really believed the stuff last year about how the Gilbert situation would chase free agents away. even if there was any truth to that, you'd think it would have to be gone now. Wall already has a major name and reputation, and free agents don't run away from exciting point guards.

We don't know how major a part of their plans he was before that. He was always extremely non-committal when asked about the future. A lot of fans were hoping he'd stay, and I don't imagine that'll change, but Livingston is going to want to play. Like I said, I never got the vibe that he was committed to coming back here.

Barry's last name gets a bad rap. There are two vowels out of seven letters. Wilbon has two out of six. Hamilton has three out of eight. Heck, John Wall has two vowels out of the eight letters in his name. We can't all be like Michael Lee.

Nope. Toddler questions. Mine is three. Bring 'em on.

I like the Chris Bosh fantasy. Dude is hilarious, and plays basketball very well.

Wait, so he reverse fixed?

Barno, one of the loudest commenters on all the Post's sports blog, has this theory that Stern always fixes the lottery, and that he overreacted to the Arenas situation, and realized that after Arenas got no jail time, and felt bad for the franchise in disarray and the death of Pollin, and so he set Leonsis up for the future.

Me, I'm not into conspiracies. I also believe that campaign donations never have any impact on American democracy.

Sorry, can't help but laugh.

I'm asking this because I really can't think of the answer off the top of my head, but what was the last team to win an NBA title whose best TWO players were smallish guards? I can't think of a ton of them.

What I'd hope for is a return to annual playoff contention. The atmosphere in Verizon Center in 2005 was terrific. Not Rock the Red terrific, but terrific nonetheless. Last year's empty, dead building was really depressing. Let them get back to contending for playoff spots, and then let's talk titles later. I still think the other three teams in town would be closer to winning a title than the Wiz.

Why in the world did you listen to a Jay Bilas/House podcast if you're a soccer guy? Not a lot of soccer talk in that one.

But thanks. I've never met this House fellow, but he's a big D.C. sports fan and should probably be featured here somehow.

Hey, I followed along the results of that match via the D.C. United Twitter feed. Does that count?

Completely agree. His quotes were fine and dandy, but he was barely even smiling. Like, it was more like grimacing. No idea where he was hoping to go, but if he was smiling on the inside, he did a great job of hiding it.

I don't see it as an either-or. Of course, there is some either-or with the TV broadcasts when both teams are on at the same time, and it's certainly possible that a moderately competitive team led by an exciting No. 1 overall pick could help the Wizards regain their spot ahead of the Caps in TV ratings. But that's more of a pride thing than anything. The Caps will still sell out their games, and as long as they're competing for top seeds (and backing it up in the playoffs), people here will care.

Ted Leonsis has resisted my pleas to address the uniform situation. I'm sure he will, in some fashion, pretty soon. He's a very savvy guy, and he reads everything, and he knows that people are talking about this. Whether that means a change, I have no idea.

Say what you want about Jamison/Butler/Haywood/Ovechkin, but none of them disgraced the wall. They just didn't happen to win this year.

Sweet, a toddler question.

My daughter goes to a pretty full-time preschool, and around the time of her third birthday virtually all the kids started shedding diapers. They had done some toilet training earlier, but it really kicked in then, and peer pressure ruled the day. She still wears a diaper to sleep at night, but we're golden during the day. Not golden in that way.

At home, we did things like offer treats for success (M & Ms) and got sit on the toilet even when she said she didn't have to go. Her teachers would take them to the potty as a group like every 30 minutes. Some other parents in our class offered a puzzle piece after every success, so to complete the puzzle, their son had to keep going.

But peer pressure was the best influence.

My daughter has no interest in watching sports on TV with me, but she recognizes them and knows I like them. We saw some kids playing little league the other day, and she said "Look dada, your favorite show"

I would say yeah, three is easier. She's more stubborn now, but she's also more of a person, so we can have real conversations and she can understand real concepts. It's been tons of fun.

I think the Caps will win a Stanley Cup within the next five years.

The name of my blog is the D.C. Sports Bog. Bog, no L. Bog. It's been that way for three-plus years. There's an explanation at the top of my Bog. Bog, no L.

Our Wiggles stage was very brief, and the only one's name I ever learned was Murray. Oh, and Anthony. We're much more into Max and Ruby right now.

I'm noticing a very different crowd goes to Tracee's chats than my chats. I'm also noticing that I'm never going to get any work done if I do 90-minute chats four times a week. Gotta run. Tune in tomorrow for Svrluga. Please ask him about the Nats. It makes him happy.