<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CHARLOTTE, Oct. 16 -- Antawn Jamison's storybook first season with the Washington Wizards is encapsulated in a picture that hangs in the locker room at Verizon Center: Jamison is smiling and hugging team owner Abe Pollin on the night the Wizards clinched a playoff berth in 2005 -- an image that is hauntingly reminiscent of the bear hug Wes Unseld gave Pollin after the Bullets won the championship in 1978. But here is an easily overlooked fact about Jamison's two years in Washington: He had his best statistical season as a Wizard last season. It didn't feel like it, though. Jamison averaged at least 20 points for just the third time in eight seasons, grabbed a career-high 9.3 rebounds and played in all 82 games but he didn't make the all-star team and was benched for two games in December. The Wizards also had fewer regular season wins (for which Jamison blames himself) and the team failed to get out of the first round of the playoffs. Entering his ninth season in the league, Jamison, 30, knows that statistics in the NBA can be hollow, that respect comes with wins, not 20 and 10. "Everybody says '20 [points] and nine [rebounds], I'll take that,' " Jamison said. "Back in the day [it would've meant something], but maybe it's a sign of my maturity, but I see the bigger picture. I see it as a sign that it's not about 20 and nine or 20 and 10. It's about 16 wins in the playoffs. "I'm at a point in my career where I realize I don't have another nine years left in me. The closer and closer you get to that -- the realization that you're not going to be in this game forever -- you think, 'What do you want to be known as?' For me, it's a guy who was able to hoist that trophy above his head."</div> Link The Wizards are bound to compete for the title in a couple of years and if Antawn Jamison does resign with the team next offseason, I think we should be set to go for it next year. Miami Heat is bound to fall apart with Payton, O'neal, and Shaq ageing and on the decline of their seasons, so we'll be able to beat take 1 step ahead of Miami. Atlanta and Charlotte at most will contend for a playoff spot in the next couple of years, and I think the Wizards are a step ahead of teams like Orlando, Indiana, and Milwaukee.
I think if we're to compete for a championship, Jamison is not the guy we would have at PF. Yes, the wins are the big thing, he's right, but where that has to come from is him grabbing even more rebounds (he's doing good as a rebounder, not saying he isn't), and him making a bigger effort to become a solid defensive player. If he's not willing to do that, then he can't expect results. Right now, we have a very good offensive team, what the team needs though is defense, maturity, and more controlled execution.
