Bigger Failure: 100 Losses For the Nats, or Kwame Brown?
The gentlemen over at Mister Irrelevant got me to thinking about sports failures in Washington, as they are counting down the failure that is the Washington Nationals 2008 season. And yeah, 100 losses is as bad as going 5-11 in a football season, or sucking your way into the NBA Draft lottery.
But could it be classified among the biggest debacles in Washington sports history? Most notably, the drafting of Kwame Brown by the Washington Wizards?
The Nats benefit from being a woeful franchise transplanted to a woeful sports city just finding its identity. The Nats don’t expect to contend for a pennant anytime soon, and Washington D.C. doesn’t expect too much out of any of its team.
It would spoil the surprise if they did.
But Kwame Brown may be the biggest first-pick, non-injury related bust in the history of the NBA, and the Wizards will forever hold the distinction of introducing him to the league’s ecosystem. His ineptititude on the court, and poor attitude off of it, set the tone for several years of mediociry.
Now, his potential did eventual benefit the WIz, enabling the squad to get Caron Butler in a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers. But there were times in his Chocolate City tenure where even George Bush cringed at Kwame’s treatment by fans and media.
No one would disagree that the Nats are horrible, but they likely won’t have room for expectation until they create them. Kwame Brown moved to D.C. with expectations, and moved out with far more angst towards him than most players could ever imagine.
And the only thing worse than failing in the present is being remembered for it for all eternity.
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