randy wittman

Peter Hailey’s weekly writing roundup: Mid-August edition

Posted on by Peter Hailey

Barely in Bounds will always hold a special place in my heart. This blog has given me a space to demonstrate my admiration for D.C. sports stars like Santana Moss and John Wall, a page to express my frustrations with local sports figures like Brandon Meriweather and Randy Wittman, and an area where I can refine my writing skills while talking about my favorite topic of all: Sports in the nation’s capital.

Luckily, I’ve been able to take those skills I’ve been working on here and parlay them into additional jobs/internships with a few other publications. Besides being the creator of this lovely site, I’m now writing for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, blogging for Maryland’s student newspaper (The Diamondback) a contributor to Breaking Burgundy (Scout.com’s Redskins site) and a contributor to The Left Bench (a sports site started by Maryland’s finest journalism students). Read More

Magic people vs. Canadian dinosaurs: Answering the most important questions about the Wizards-Raptors first round matchup

Posted on by Peter Hailey

For the last few weeks of the NBA season, it looked like Wizards and Bulls fans would be treated to a rematch of last year’s first round playoff matchup, in which Washington dispatched Chicago in five games. However, after the way the year’s final games played out last night, the Bulls were able to surpass the Raptors to snatch the Eastern Conference’s third seed, meaning the Wizards will actually be facing Toronto with a spot in the Eastern Conference Semifinals on the line.

Game 1 between the two teams tips off on Saturday at 12:30, and before it does I’m going to do you a favor and tell you everything you need to know about the series by asking and answering the most important questions surrounding it. Now, I know there’s a lot of playoff primers going around on the web today, but I guarantee you this one will be the most fun and most comprehensive preview you’ll read. So put on your John Wall jersey, throw out all of your canadian bacon, and start scrolling. I know the second half of the year kind of sucked, but these guys need our support now more than ever. They’ve got a real shot to win this thing. Read More

Using Randy Wittman’s various faces to describe how Wizards fans have felt at different points in the season

Posted on by Peter Hailey

Wizards head coach Randy Wittman has received a lot of heat lately, and it’s probably deserved.

Many fans who watch the team night in and night out have grown tired of Wittman’s plain offensive sets, unwillingness to shake up the rotation, and the team’s overall lack of growth in the past month or so. Sure, Wittman should get a lot of credit for helping turn this franchise from a bottom feeder into a respected team, but the whispers about whether he’s holding them back from taking the next step are growing louder with each loss.

Now, whether or not Wittman is a good NBA head coach is up for debate. Whether or not the Wizards should get rid of him before the team’s recent slide turns into a free fall is also up for debate. But there is one thing about Randy Wittman that is not up for debate (and never will be up for debate) and that his ability to make really funny faces.  Read More

DO IT FOR THE VINE: The seven most entertaining Vines from the Wizards season thus far

Posted on by Peter Hailey

Yesterday, Grantland.com, the second best sports website in the world (behind this one, of course) published a pretty sweet post featuring some of the NBA’s best Vines from the season thus far. 

Now, because my mom reads this blog, and I know she has no idea what a Vine is, I’m going to really quickly explain what a Vine is: it’s a brief, six second video that anyone can take if they have the app on their phone, and then they can put it online. There you go mom (and anyone else who isn’t familiar with Vine), now ya know.

Grantland’s post was a lot of fun, but I couldn’t help notice as I was reading that there weren’t any Wizards related Vines in the article. This of course made me sad, until I remembered that:

1) I have just as much access to the wonderful world of Vines as Grantland’s writers do,

2) I know quite a lot about the Wizards, and

3) I happen to run a mildly successful DC sports blog that would allow me to create a similar “Best Vines of the year so far” post, but make it allllllllllll about the Wizards if I wanted to.

Well, guess what? I wanted to. So that’s how this (strictly Wizards) best Vines of the year post came to be. Read More

The First Annual DC Sports Awards: 50 fans decide on the best of the best in the past decade of DC sports

Posted on by Peter Hailey

The Golden Globes wrapped up a week ago and the Academy Awards nominees have just been released, meaning that It’s officially awards season for movie producers, directors, actresses, actors and fans alike. These awards are prestigious honors that everyone in the movie business dreams of winning, and watching the entire process unfold is a lot of fun.

Which is why I was inspired to bring the whole idea to DC sports.

For the second time in the past month, I surveyed 50 DC sports fans, this time asking them to choose a winner in five Academy Awards-ish categories to produce an Oscars-like DC sports awards post. The five categories the 50 fans were asked to vote on were: “Best Newcomer,” “Best Coach,” “Best Game,” “Best Team,” and “Best Player.” Read More

Nine extremely well researched and thought out lists ranking a variety of things related to DC sports

Posted on by Peter Hailey

As the final days of 2014 passed by, I found myself looking at a lot of lists. “Best songs of 2014,” “Best movies of 2014,” “Best games of 2014,” a list here, a list there, a list everywhere. Everyone was coming up with all these lists, and I began to get self conscious: “Am I doing something wrong by not having any lists?” I thought to myself.

So on the 29th of December, I sat down to make a list. But the problem was figuring out exactly what I was going to make my list about. Should I make it best about the best seasons by DC athletes, or the best plays by DC teams, or the biggest bloopers by DC teams, or the moments I felt like crying the most because of DC teams? I just couldn’t figure out what to make my list about!

But then, a funny thing happened. I realized I live in America, and I realized I have freedom.

It was at that point that I decided I wasn’t going to limit myself to just one list; I decided I was going to make a BUNCH of lists. So whenever I had free time, I would brainstorm a list and add it to the post. And now, after three days of hardcore listing, everything is finally ready. Read More

Most Likely To ___________? 2nd edition: Handing out high school superlatives to current and former DC sports figures

Posted on by Peter Hailey

Last night, my sister texted me saying, “You should definitely do another one of those high school superlatives posts.” I responded by saying, “I would LOVE to, but I feel like I already used all of the good photos in my first one!”

However, she wouldn’t take no for an answer; being the genius that she is, she told me to use former athletes to get the creative juices flowing, so I did. And after a lot of perusing of Google for the strangest/funniest/creepiest photos of people on or formerly associated with the Redskins, Wizards, and Nationals, I can now proudly present to you the second batch of DC sports superlatives.  Read More