- 11 hours ago
The Wizards won the NBA Draft Lottery. Grant & Danny can hardly believe it, but this changes everything for the Wizards.
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00:00Any of the unthinkable happened.
00:02The Washington Wizards are the talk of the NBA.
00:07Everybody will be discussing what their next move is for months
00:12because the lottery balls fell in their favor.
00:15The Wizards have the number one pick.
00:18In everybody's mouthpiece.
00:20Right in everyone's face.
00:21You were right.
00:22I was wrong.
00:22I expected doomsday.
00:24You had that optimism in your heart.
00:26As a former member of the Optimist Club,
00:28who did a great job of the spaghetti dinner,
00:2920-some years ago.
00:31Absolutely.
00:32No, thank you.
00:33Hell yeah.
00:34Yes.
00:35The first legit reason to hope in forever.
00:39And we'll drag along the buffoons that don't understand things too.
00:42You guys are welcome to experience the joy.
00:44You're allowed.
00:45Even though you shouldn't,
00:46if it was up to me,
00:47you'd have to be alone in a dark room
00:48and you could never watch them win
00:49because you wouldn't sit through the other thing without complaining.
00:52This is why we're here.
00:53That's how probability works.
00:54I don't have time to explain math to you.
00:55I did it in high school.
00:56You should have done it too.
00:57And you should have been able to come to a better conclusion.
00:59Whatever.
00:59I'm not even mad.
01:00I'm not mad.
01:00We shouldn't waste any time today being petty.
01:03I know.
01:03But I do want to kick everyone off the wagon.
01:05I'm going to be Tom.
01:06That didn't want to tank.
01:08That wasn't on board with this plan.
01:11Because you didn't get it.
01:11I don't understand why it was brilliant
01:13and how they were doing exactly the right things every step of the way.
01:17I thought yesterday summed up, Danny.
01:22Like, what did yesterday mean for you?
01:24My answer would be the end justified the means.
01:27Right?
01:28It was all worth it.
01:30The 1-24 finish.
01:32Shutting down the stars you acquired.
01:34Giving up 140 points every time you turned around.
01:38Bam!
01:39Hanging 83 in one of the most embarrassing efforts in the history of D.C. sports.
01:45Three seasons of a combined win total of 50 victories the last three years
01:49with nobody at the arena being the butt of jokes,
01:53people checking out left and right.
01:55It was not in vain.
01:57It was all worth it.
01:59You did everything right, and you were rewarded for it finally.
02:03The end justified the means.
02:05There is a great case to be made, and I will make it,
02:08that this has been, over the last roughly 50 years,
02:11there is a championship in there the year before I was born,
02:13this has been the worst franchise in the NBA.
02:16I would make that case.
02:17There are moments of flare-up where they've had some quality teams.
02:20They've never been a title contender there,
02:22whereas pretty much everybody else has been.
02:24That 49-win team where John Wall, who we'll talk to today at 3,
02:27just basically broke his own back,
02:28just killing himself at both ends to make third-team All-NBA,
02:31was the best it's been in my lifetime
02:33with 17 power forwards that couldn't hit water
02:36if they thought of a boat.
02:37And centers that never had hands.
02:38Center blocks for hands.
02:39By the way, John Wall.
02:41John Wall.
02:42John Wall.
02:43Love you so much, buddy.
02:44Back to save the day.
02:45Good luck charm, John Wall.
02:47That's John Wall's music.
02:50I've done the other way my whole life.
02:53The build from the middle, see if we can get that eight seed.
02:56No, wrong.
02:57This is correct.
02:58This is how you do it.
02:59The best they were was when they had the number one overall pick
03:02and the number three overall pick a little bit later
03:03and badly built, and they were pretty decent.
03:05Again, poorly managed.
03:06Ernie Grunfeld stunk then.
03:07He stinks now, but they ran into something.
03:10This is how you do it.
03:12You have distressed assets who can still help you.
03:14You have young pieces.
03:15You're building something together.
03:17You're not tied down to anybody.
03:18You keep salary cap flexibility.
03:20You keep move flexibility.
03:21The world is their oyster.
03:22Now, the Stephen A. Smiths of the world,
03:24we'll get into that too.
03:25The buffoons that are tourists that just go,
03:27look at their record.
03:28They have a disgrace.
03:29They have a disaster.
03:32You didn't stop by.
03:33You haven't been paying much attention.
03:34You're not aware of the new information.
03:36I went to London twice in my life for a total of eight days.
03:40Can I tell you what it's like to live in London?
03:41Can I tell you the ins and outs about what it's like
03:43to raise a family there?
03:44Of course I couldn't.
03:44I know a little bit.
03:45I got a little Google search in that one hotel I stayed in one time
03:48in Notting Hill.
03:49Shout out Hugh Grant.
03:50No, no, no, no, no, no.
03:51He's a tourist.
03:52That's what he does.
03:52I don't care about his opinion, but the league does.
03:54The league is in that space.
03:56Everybody has to talk about my team right now.
04:00The 30 minutes of the pregame.
04:01What's the fit for A.J.
04:03DeBazzo when he goes to Washington?
04:04Not some other city.
04:06Not, what are the Lakers going to do?
04:08My turn, my team.
04:09My turn, my team.
04:10My turn, my team.
04:11Now, everybody taste it.
04:13Everybody gets slapped in the face with the Washington Wizards discussion
04:17that's coming your way.
04:18National NBA.
04:19Dialogue changes.
04:20We change.
04:21First legitimate reason for hope in decades.
04:23Decades, GP.
04:24I love it.
04:25I'm so excited.
04:26This is not only the first legitimate chance for hope, which is accurate.
04:30This is a legitimate opportunity at a generational Hall of Fame player
04:35if they draft correctly at one.
04:37For me, it's A.J.
04:38DeBazzo.
04:39For me, too.
04:40And I'm turning down trade offers,
04:41and I'm not worrying about other options at the top of the board.
04:45But the world is your oyster.
04:47Maybe someone gets crazy and offers you the world because they really love DeBazzo.
04:51Yeah, the Utah owner's got the steamies for DeBazzo, who went to BYU.
04:55If he does something improbable and ridiculous and over the top because he's a crazy person,
05:00I'll let him be crazy.
05:02What if you swap picks with Utah, end up with Darren Peterson plus Jaron Jackson plus a future draft pick
05:09or something like that?
05:10That's not the craziest thing in the world.
05:11It's a pretty good consolation prize.
05:12Guys, I'm telling you, the point is, they get to.
05:15No one gets to do anything without the Wizards say so first.
05:18We want to make a pick.
05:19I bet you do.
05:20You're going to have to wait for me, though.
05:21I'm going to make my decision.
05:23Then you get to make yours.
05:24They have prima nocta on the whole NBA, and I love it.
05:27Again, John Wall goes to Chicago and comes back with pick number one
05:31and was one of the great players in organizational history
05:35and the best wizard of all time, very probably.
05:38Him, Gilbert Arenas, shortlist, right?
05:41Yeah.
05:42I'm not trying to knock John Wall.
05:44He was amazing.
05:45He is an icon in this town, and his star is shining as bright now today
05:50because of what he did this weekend, as maybe it ever has.
05:53And he's been on a heater.
05:54He's going to join us at 3 o'clock.
05:55But the chance of DeBonsta reaching his ceiling, to me, is still greater than anything they've ever had.
06:04They haven't had a future Hall of Famer.
06:06They have not had the generational pull who's attracting like a magnet all the other stars
06:12around the NBA, and at least for right now, you've got the hope that that could happen at 1-1,
06:17whichever direction they go in.
06:19But on top of that, Danny, this to me was just a weekend where just seeing the outpouring of emotions
06:28from Wizards fan,
06:29seeing the videos, people reacting, the screaming, grown people emotional and crying when they got the number one pick,
06:37it makes sense because this team has just never had a real shot.
06:44And it's because until recently, they never did anything correctly.
06:48But this group for three years has, every single step of the way.
06:52Michael Winger was hired May 24, 2023.
06:54We're coming up on the three-year anniversary in less than two weeks.
06:57May 24, 2023.
06:59They have put on a team-building clinic.
07:02They have executed with proficiency.
07:05They have put on a roster-combiling clinic, asset management masterpiece.
07:10One move after another, from you and I breaking down all the trades they were making initially
07:14to getting out of Beal and everything they've done.
07:16They've been playing chess when everyone else was playing checkers.
07:20And they tanked so good, they're about to change the rules.
07:22And they weren't even one of the teams that got fined for doing it.
07:24So they avoided the fines.
07:25They weren't even getting called into their principal's office.
07:28And they just, right before they closed down the bar,
07:31they just took the bar for all they were worth.
07:33And they went in, they ordered a bunch of stuff,
07:35they're walking out with just a bunch of bottles other teams want to go do
07:37what the Wizards have done the last three years.
07:39And now they're not going to be allowed to.
07:40So you got in, you got out, just in time before the cops got there.
07:43To say, you can't do this anymore.
07:45I'm so happy.
07:46But I'm really, truly, I'm happy for you guys, for Wizards fans.
07:51We monitor because we have to for work.
07:53Look, I don't know how much attention would have been paid otherwise,
07:58because it has been a grind.
07:59It has been difficult.
08:01There are so many gigs and rams in the head.
08:04But for the people that kept going out to Capital One Arena,
08:07the very few people that were still watching basketball games out there,
08:11when I was going to a couple games a year the last couple of seasons,
08:14Danny, you and I combined, don't go to five games a year at this point.
08:17For the people that have been living and dying and out there at those games,
08:21God bless you.
08:21This one's yours.
08:23Take it, enjoy it, wear it.
08:25You've earned it.
08:26And I mean that.
08:27You've earned it.
08:29Again, I want to be pettier, but I'm too happy to be petty.
08:33It's not petty day.
08:35Yeah, today's not petty day.
08:36Today is celebrate day.
08:37I got plenty of Bryce Petty.
08:38I got plenty of Richard or Tom in the holster.
08:41You guys will catch some plenty of time between now and the draft.
08:43But today, that moment, I couldn't believe it.
08:46I could not believe it.
08:48The line I had prepared was,
08:50I don't know if it's rigged or not.
08:52I don't think it is.
08:53But I sure as hell know it ain't fair.
08:55When the Wizards were going to get screwed yet again.
08:58That's what I already had in my brain.
08:59Was that they were going to get the fifth pick.
09:01Chicago jumped up.
09:02I see someone else.
09:03I already know it.
09:04I know what's going to happen.
09:05Didn't you feel like,
09:06more than any time ever before,
09:08they had done all the homework?
09:10They had earned a grade on the project.
09:12Yeah, and that's why the screw job was going to feel that much worse.
09:15It was going to feel worse, yes.
09:17Had they have gotten screwed,
09:18it would have been the worst screwing yet.
09:19Because in the past,
09:21they're sitting in the classroom as the paper gets handed back out,
09:24and they get a worse grade than they probably should have.
09:27But they had never really grinded to earn it.
09:30They showed up.
09:31They bubbled in some numbers.
09:32They did a little bit of the reading.
09:34They got on Sparknotes.
09:35But they did the bare minimum.
09:37This was not that.
09:39This was hours and hours getting tutoring.
09:41This was office hours with the professor.
09:44This was going out to lunch to learn more about the teacher's assistant.
09:48They couldn't have done any more.
09:50And that is where my optimism was.
09:53They, this was earned, man.
09:55They have done this for three years in a row.
09:58They're batting close to 1,000.
09:59And I'm so pumped for Winger and for Dawkins,
10:02who's been a godsend and schlink in that entire front office.
10:05But there are so many real ones out there
10:08that listen to the show all the time, Danny,
10:10who, you know, we don't talk a lot of wizards.
10:12And funny, I texted, you know, Joe House,
10:15House from D.C. with Bill Simmons.
10:17So I texted him today.
10:18I was like, hey, you around to come on the show?
10:20And he's like, GP, wow.
10:21Like, long time no hear.
10:23I mean, this is like a person in town
10:25whose work I love and admire and have listened to for years.
10:28But we're not reaching out to him
10:29because we're not doing a lot of wizards content, right?
10:31And it's just kind of funny to think about that.
10:33I was like, happy Wizards Day.
10:35The commanders hit me up about something we're working on.
10:37And they're like, hey, don't want to do anything today.
10:39Because we don't want to take away from the Wizards.
10:41Today's like their day.
10:42But what about later in the week?
10:44Dot, dot, dot.
10:44And I'm like, what a weird exchange.
10:46What universe is this, by the way, where that happened?
10:48But yeah, it is.
10:49That's today.
10:50And for those Wizards fans who every day just wish
10:53you'd like to turn on the radio in D.C.
10:55and hear a breakdown of your team's game
10:56or conversations about your team.
10:58It just hasn't been plausible.
10:59It's not a thing we can do.
11:01And I think those days are dying.
11:02I think it's just about over.
11:04I think we're out of the woods on that.
11:05Now, I don't think that this coming fall,
11:10it's now max capacity at cap one,
11:13and we can lead every show regardless of what's happening
11:16with the rest of sports with the Wizards breakdown
11:18from the night before.
11:19I don't think that's there now, just starting based
11:23on this moment.
11:24I do think we got our little knapsack.
11:27We'll put it on a stick like those old movies where people
11:29go, I'm off for my new adventure.
11:31I'm going to go somewhere new and start again.
11:33My novel will come in, I tell you.
11:35And we started walking that path.
11:36We started walking to a place where this could be
11:40really, really, really big.
11:41No guarantees.
11:43Obviously, everybody knows.
11:44I'm not telling you that nothing bad is going to happen.
11:46I'm telling you, that's the first step that happened
11:48last night.
11:49Danny, 58 wins, 19,600 per game.
11:53Come on.
11:54Number two in the Eastern Conference.
11:57Playoffs, Eastern Conference Finals, Game 6 at home
12:00or whatever, you've got to leave the train station
12:03at some point to get to that destination.
12:06I think that's the farthest stop on the line that we're on.
12:09You could pick if it's red or blue or green or orange
12:11or pink or something new.
12:12I don't know.
12:13But you've got to leave the station.
12:15And the train left the station yesterday.
12:17That's what yesterday was.
12:18The beginning.
12:18But if you watch Terry Davis score the first ever points
12:21at Capital One Arena, if you remember how long
12:23Courtney Alexander hung in the air on that jump shot
12:26before he actually released the ball, it was always amazing to me.
12:29There's a little extra burst.
12:30He would bend his knees kind of three-quarters of the way up there.
12:33And it's like, why isn't he coming down yet?
12:34If you knew that Jan Vesely was never going to be any good
12:38the first time that you saw him, which is almost everybody.
12:41Yeah, I was going to say, everyone but the people
12:43that drafted him.
12:44If you talked yourself into Peter John Ramos when he would
12:47just sit right – remember how he'd always sit right behind
12:49the bench?
12:49Yes.
12:50But he was like seven foot three.
12:50He didn't get to be on the bench.
12:51He got to be behind the bench.
12:52That was tough.
12:53He was behind the bench.
12:53And if you don't know who Peter John Ramos is, do a little
12:56homework today and learn about PJR, the next great Washington
13:00wizard at one point in time.
13:02If he got excited when they traded for Josh Howard because he was
13:08going to give you 15 points in a bleak time or any of the other
13:13ridiculous things through the years that you experienced, this day
13:16makes a lot of that pain more worthwhile.
13:19The Michael Ruffin blooper, the Gilbert Arenas antics, the guns in
13:22the locker room, the poo in the shoe, it has been a long winding road,
13:26my friend.
13:26But I think we're just about ready to come out of it.
13:29You had to do the power wash.
13:30You had to do the cleanse.
13:31And that's what this front office has done.
13:33Finally, washing away all of the stink of all those unserious years.
13:37Because that's what it was.
13:37It was unserious.
13:39Even if they were good basketball players.
13:40And good basketball players came through here.
13:42You mentioned a couple of them.
13:43But Paul Pierce was here at the end.
13:44He called game right off the backboard.
13:46Nene was a good player.
13:47Marching with Todd was a good player.
13:49Rip Hamilton was a good player.
13:50Ben Wallace was a good player.
13:51They won championships elsewhere.
13:52So was Rasheed.
13:53There's a million different dudes that came through here that could play.
13:56The organization itself was unserious.
13:58It took a little while.
14:00Again, you had to power wash, clean all these different things.
14:02The same way the Nationals had to become an adult organization.
14:06It took Jason Wirth to do it going, no, no, no.
14:08We're not having nothing but grilled cheese and fry baskets here.
14:11Let's have some nutrition.
14:12Let's change this.
14:13Same way Mike Shanahan changed the then Redskins organization.
14:16Update Redskins Park at that point.
14:19And more changes come here with the Harris Group.
14:21It's either you're serious or you're unserious.
14:24It's a binary.
14:24And when you're now serious where all the facilities match up, all the rhetoric matches up, all the performance, all
14:29the metrics for success and the reviews and the different things.
14:32Not just your key card works when it, oh well, we got the nine seat.
14:36No, no, no.
14:36What's the plan?
14:37How are we executing upon it?
14:38That's what's happening now.
14:39Now, that was a reward, to your point, about all the work that had been put in.
14:44Still, it's up to fate.
14:45It's up to the ping pong balls and it's terrifying and it's awful.
14:48You get lucky or you don't, but you have to give yourself the best chance to get lucky and they
14:52did.
14:52And the best chance, the worst it could be was five.
14:54Last year, the worst it could be was six and that's what they got.
14:56So, they were even better this year, quote unquote, in being worse.
15:00It finally turned their way.
15:02It's going to be their turn.
15:04I've always argued it's been our turn for a long time.
15:06It's not just automatically in New York or Boston or L.A. or one of the cool cities or Miami.
15:10It's now D.C. that is going to be front and center and we clean the house.
15:15You're all welcome to come by.
15:16It's now nice.
15:17The addition looks good.
15:19It's a cool basement.
15:20It's one of those cool basements where you got to duck your head a little bit.
15:21Go, wow, look at this.
15:23Why don't you do this?
15:23Why don't you get this done?
15:24Where'd you get those chairs?
15:25And there's a dartboard and a pool table and a big screen.
15:28The basement works.
15:30Everything now is ready for company.
15:32Come on over.
15:33You know, it's also so this is the third time they've hit this first overall pick, right?
15:38The first was Kwame Brown, Glen Academy, Georgia, turn of the millennium.
15:41The second was John Wall.
15:43So, most recently, about 16 years ago, when they did it with John Wall, you got a guy that
15:47we said earlier in the segment might end up having turned into the best wizard of all time.
15:52Super, super player, right?
15:54He'll be on the show at 3 o'clock today after delivering number one overall in Chicago.
15:58Yesterday, looking forward to catching up with him.
16:00The other time it was Kwame Brown.
16:02And frankly, that was a bad draft.
16:03This is the best draft in years.
16:06Anybody who covers the sport or is in the sport will tell you that.
16:10So, to get the number one pick in this draft this year means that much more.
16:15It's just a bigger deal.
16:18It's not that you got the number one pick.
16:19That's great.
16:20It's when you get the number one pick.
16:21You got the number one pick in the draft that everybody would most want the number one pick in.
16:27There are a few years along the way when LeBron's coming out or what have you.
16:30It's the 0-3 draft again, yeah.
16:31Maybe the number one pick would have meant more.
16:34But in this draft, with this class, the pick of this litter, or fielding the offers that
16:39could be coming in for this generational group to be able to play some chess.
16:43Who would you rather want doing that than this triumvirate in the front office that has been
16:47absolutely sensational?
16:49This was the year to win the lottery, and they did.
16:52And a lot of those other disappointments, well worth it.
16:56If you only got one, you would have saved it up for this year.
16:59And potentially this player and A.J. DeBonsa, who come in here and score and work his mid-range
17:03game and help them as a small forward right away when you can dream on Trey Young and
17:07Kashawn George and him and Sarr and Davis and what that looks like next year.
17:12You were at home, right?
17:13Watching on TV?
17:14Got home just after my oldest son's soccer game.
17:17So I had the kids at the movie theater yesterday to get them out of the house so that the
17:21wife
17:21could have a little time at home for Mother's Day to do whatever she wanted to do.
17:25So I took the kids to go see Sheep Detectives, and we were solving a crime.
17:28And my mom was with us, and at 2.59 and 30 seconds, I excused myself from the movie theater
17:36to go out for what I was hoping would be like nine minutes.
17:39Turned into about a half hour.
17:40Yeah, I was going to say 30 minutes.
17:41They really milk that TV show for all it's worth, don't they?
17:44But I am at the Fredericksburg Regal Cinema Theaters, I'll never forget it, and waiting
17:50in the hallway as we're going to commercial break, and I'm getting blown up with texts.
17:54All I wanted was the sweat.
17:55Get to the break.
17:57Get me into the top four.
17:58And then when the first card flashed, I knew.
18:00I kind of felt right then and there.
18:02When they were in the top three, it's going to happen.
18:05Card two.
18:06And eventually you find out the Washington Wizards have the number one pick.
18:10And I think your reaction was video, right?
18:13Yes.
18:14So you can go check that out on 106.7, the fans' social accounts.
18:17I don't even know what I said.
18:18I blacked out.
18:18You know how people say that?
18:20It's like, ah, funny.
18:20Yeah.
18:20I'm not even sure what I said.
18:22I don't think I cursed.
18:23I watched it afterwards on the accounts.
18:25A couple minutes of it are pretty embarrassing, to be honest with you.
18:28I'm just sort of delirious with joy saying the first thing that came to my mind.
18:32Mostly positive stuff.
18:34I may have challenged people to verbal fights or like a knife fight at dawn or something.
18:38I have no idea.
18:39I was just so happy.
18:40I was in a hallway in the movie theater, so I kind of had to be quiet.
18:43But I just started fist pumping.
18:44I started like sprinting back and forth, not knowing what to do, getting winded.
18:48It's just, where do I put my hands?
18:50What do I do with my arms?
18:51Where do they go at this point?
18:53If you guys want to tell us how your afternoon went and where you were and what your reaction
18:59was to the Wizards winning the lottery, we'd love to hear from you next.
19:02800-636-1067.
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