Looks like that loss to a seven-man New York Knicks squad over the weekend was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as news is breaking that the Washington Wizards fired head coach Eddie Jordan this morning. Jordan, one of the longest tenured coaches in the league, had been in charge of the team since 2003 and enjoyed four straight playoff appearances, but got off to a very rough 1-10 start this year. Jordan......

Via Deadspin, looks like Madame Tussauds Wax Museum unveiled a Gilbert Arenas statue yesterday. Agent Zero paid lip service to the tourist attraction that immortalized him in wax:"It is an honor to join the ranks of sports icons such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods by being immortalized in wax at Madame Tussauds Washington D.C.," Arenas said. "Like the Wizards, Madame Tussauds has become a fixture in the nation's capital and one that I'm proud......

Even with all of their injury troubles, it's safe to say the Wizards didn't expect to start out 0-5 this season and be stuck with the dreaded "last winless team in the league" tag. But it's hard to say they don't deserve it. They currently rank last in the league in points allowed, opponents field goal percentage and three point shooting. Etan Thomas has already missed one game and Antonio Daniels is day-to-day with a......

College hoops -- there's just something about it that's addicting. It could be the conference rivalries, or the fact that it scratches a consistent weekday sports itch that other sports just can't, or that there's approximately 4,583 teams to cover and find something interesting about. So while it's important to note that today's exhibition game between George Washington and West Georgia might not count or even be close, it's just another sign that college basketball......

The Boston Celtics raised championship banner number 17 to the rafters last night and Greg Oden apparently can't play more than three minutes without getting injured. NBA basketball is back! The Washington Wizards start their season tonight at home against the New Jersey Nets at 7 p.m. Here are five hot issues that the Wizards will need to solve this season if they want to make it to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive......

Ruh-roh. Not long after news leaked out that Wizards starting center Brendan Haywood might be lost for 4-6 months, team captain Antawn Jamison went down with a knee injury in Dallas midway through the first quarter of last night's preseason opener. The team is officially calling it a "sprained knee" but on TV it looked much worse than that. The CSN broadcast cut to a nattily dressed Agent Zero on the Wizards bench and......

Original Video- More videos at TinyPic Dan Steinberg posted this funny Jeopardy clip over on the Bog, where none of the contestants were aware of any of Wizards star Gilbert Arenas's nicknames. Maybe the often injured guard has been out of the national limelight a little too much over the past two seasons? Of course we love Agent Hibachi no matter what, and if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to read about the......

It's all speculation and rumors at this point, but this is one potential reality TV show we're happy to hype. Mr. Irrelevant caught Wizard's star and highly trained professional blogger Gilbert Arenas calling in to 106.7 WJFK’s Big O and Dukes show, where at some point, he mentioned that he's been approached to do a reality show. Agent Zero is famous for not partying out on the town, preferring to stay home and play video......

Photo of Gilbert Arenas by Kyle Gustafson True to his word, yesterday Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas opted out of the final year of his contract, leaving $12.8 million on the table in the hopes of signing a longer and more lucrative deal. Whether that will be with the Wizards remains to be seen. Arenas played only 13 games this year, his season cut short by a nagging knee injury, leaving open the question......

Due to the unreasonable 6 p.m. start time, I missed most of Game Five last night, but I did get home in time to see Caron Butler play the hero, connecting on a tough drive with 3.9 seconds left to give the Wizards the win and bring their first round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers back to D.C. down 3-2. LeBron James attempted a contested lay-up at the buzzer that would have given the......

The NBA playoffs is all about adjustments. After their performance in Game Two, the Wizards needed quite a few and head coach Eddie Jordan responded in kind for Game Three. Gilbert Arenas was added to the starting lineup, the team switched a majority of its defensive matchups, and the result was a resounding 108-72 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers that likely had most fans at home on the couch switching over to Lost at 10......

Despite a sprained right wrist, Gilbert Arenas is expected to play tonight as the Washington Wizards look to even their first round playoff series on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers, after losing a very winnable Game One 93-86 on Saturday. Arenas, still making his way back from knee surgery, injured the wrist late in Game One as he fouled LeBron James. Arenas started out hot in Game One, hitting his first four three......

With only a week to go in the regular season, games mean more to some teams than others. The Boston Celtics long ago wrapped up the Atlantic Division and the first seed in the Eastern Conference while the Washington Wizards are making a final push for the fourth seed and home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. As a result, last night's 109-95 win over Boston can't exactly be taken as......

Memphis had it all figured out. But after downing the powerful UCLA Bruins and storming ahead of the Kansas Jayhawks to an eight point lead with two minutes to go, the Tigers blew it. College basketball pregame show enthusiasts and overanalyzers everywhere were rewarded for heeding their experts' warnings: Memphis cannot shoot free throws. It took a miracle three by Mario Chalmers and the lack of a Memphis inside presence (Memphis' Joey Dorsey fouled out......

Just like that, their seasons are finished. Each Washington-area team represented in the men's NCAA Tournament wore a different shoe: the true Cinderella, the scrappy mid-major, and the powerhouse favorite. All suffered the same fate -- a disappointing exit in the first weekend of the tournament. Wha' happened? Wildcat Rally Upsets Hoyas When the Georgetown Hoyas built up a 17-point lead against 10-seed Davidson, I came awfully close to picking up my bracket, grabbing my......

It's every NBA coach's nightmare: Under 20 seconds on the clock, LeBron James has the ball and he's staring down your defender. What do you do, hotshot? Double him and leave a teammate open for a jumper, or take your chances one-on-one with the best player in the NBA? Well, the Wizards went with option number two twice last night and came away with a 101-99 victory that had a raucous Verizon Center crowd......

March is without a doubt the dog days of the NBA schedule. College ball takes center stage while half the teams in the NBA start jockeying for ping pong balls. So do you stay at home and watch Idol murder the Beatles or take in a game against a team 17 games under .500? Judging by the "14,755" in attendance for Washington's 105-97 win over the Milwaukee Bucks last night, most people chose the......

Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison were chosen as reserves for the 2008 NBA All-Star games yesterday, a just reward for the two players largely responsible for keeping the Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt. The Feb. 17 game in New Orleans will mark the second All Star appearance for both players. Butler is in the midst of a career year. He is currently averaging career highs in points (21.9), steals (2.4), assists......

While it certainly doesn't have the cache like Celtics/Lakers or Celtics/Pistons, the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards have developed quite a rivalry in the last few seasons, with most of the memorable games coming here in The District. Two years ago, spurred on after a trash-talking Gilbert Arenas flipped him the bird, Paul Pierce hit an incredible game winning three pointer with two Wizards draped all over him. Last year, playing without Pierce, a......

The Washington Wizards won their last two games by 20+ points, something they hadn't done since December 2004. So what did they do for an encore? Look rather listless and lethargic while taking it on the chin 92-84 from the visiting Houston Rockets. With Tracy McGrady on the bench, the Wizards focused their defense around stopping Houston's 7-1 center Yao Ming, and they did an admirable job double-teaming him throughout the night. This tactic,......

With the Redskins falling to the Seahawks in Seattle on Saturday, it was up to the Wizards to rep for the nation's capital against that other Washington when the Supersonics visited the Phone Booth on Sunday. The Wiz's 108-86 win might not do much for the 'Skins fans out there, but as Bullets Forever points out, The District actually beat Seattle on aggregate if you combine both scores. Local product Kevin Durant scored 19......

With point guard Antonio Daniels out for 2-4 weeks with a sprained knee, the Washington Wizards were more than shorthanded going into Saturday night's game against the visiting Sacramento Kings. Rookie Nick Young started in Daniels' spot in the back court and scored five of the team's first seven points, but it was the hot hand of DeShawn Stevenson that led the Wizards to a 92-79 win. Stevenson played over 44 minutes and connected......

I doubt anyone is at the "Gilbert Who?" stage yet, but anyone who's been watching the Washington Wizards play since Agent Zero went down would be hard pressed to deny that the team has been just plain fun to watch these last few weeks - perhaps because with the big gun out, they are playing like a team. Last night three players had double-doubles and a total of six players scored in double figures......

Over in academia, it's finals time, but the receSs improv team over at George Washington University isn't compromising their weekend, which will mark the group's final show of 2007, over it. On their unofficial blog, The Colonialist, they're offering up reasons why their peers shouldn't either. In the past, receSs alums have gone on to pursue real-life comic gigs, including TJ Miller (now on the ABC show "Carpoolers"), Herschel Bleefeld (who landed a role in......

The mid-November start to the NCAA basketball season tends to get lost in the universe of sports coverage. This is probably due to the staggered opening nights around the country, but can also be attributed to competition with other sports -- college football entering its stretch run, the NFL in midseason, even the NBA's opening weeks garner more attention than college hoops. We're not about to let this exciting time slip through the cracks. With......

Who says the Washington Wizards didn't improve over the offseason? Last night DCist made our first trip down to the Verizon Center this season and noticed plenty of changes; fancy new press credentials (now with marketing slogans!), shiny, new flat screen monitors in press row in section 104, that snazzy $50 million scoreboard that puts a whole new spin on the Kiss-Cam and a new red carpet themed video set to Kanye West's "Bigger,......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

It's hard to believe that a musical could get you hooked on phonics. But spelling suddenly becomes irresistible in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," the touring production of the Broadway hit, now playing at the National Theater. The pleasing, goofy show takes an amalgam of precocious, oddball kids and makes you root for them all. There are archetypes for sure -- the obsessive Asian kid, the nasal, self-important geek -- but each one......

Last week was a busy one when it comes to good comments, with thoughtful and funny ones about the Navy Yard Metro, Columbia Heights Day's existence, avatars, and more. And speaking of avatars, why not set up your own? Maybe you can be like monkeyrotica, who was the talk of DCist's commentariat — what's his going to be? Something profane? Something phallic? Mr. Monkey's response was this: For an avatar, I was about to go......

Via our tipline comes a disturbing allegation about Washington's beloved NBA all-star, Gilbert Arenas. Game-fixing! Encouraging teammates to take dives to pad his own stats! And an unrepentant attitude that makes it all that much worse. Of course, the competitive enterprise in question is Halo 3, not NBA basketball. But that makes it no less disturbing. The allegations of Agent Zero's ill-gotten swag surfaced this morning on the forums of Bungie, the company responsible for......