Washington Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld must sometimes feel like the guy with the broom and shovel cleaning up behind the elephant at the circus.
Playing the elephant in this scenario — Michael Jordan.
Grunfeld cleaned up the mess left by Jordan from the Jerry Stackhouse trade, which sent Richard Hamilton to Detroit.
Not only did Grunfeld clean up the Stackhouse mess by actually getting the Dallas Mavericks to take Stackhouse’s ridiculous salary, he managed to get Antawn Jamison in return. That is making chicken salad, baby.
And now, it appears Grunfeld has done it again — trading Jordan’s biggest mess, problem child Kwame Brown, to the Los Angeles Lakers for Caron Butler, a quality young player, and probable backup point guard Chucky Atkins.
Anyone who can trade the biggest NBA draft bust in recent memory for a player who scored nearly 16 points a game on a team in which anyone who touched the ball besides Kobe Bryant must have considered it a privilege is making chicken salad again, baby.
With apologies to Betty Wright, just call Grunfeld the Clean-Up Man.
To get anything for Brown after his playoff debacle — quitting on his teammates when he claimed to have a stomachache — is a credit to Grunfeld. In both the Stackhouse deal and the Brown trade, Grunfeld not only erased mistakes, but he replaced them with plusses.
Brown left his best days behind him in Brunswick, Ga., where he will always be the high school phenom. He wouldn’t be the first one to peak in high school. I’ve known lots of people whose best days were spent at study hall and the Dairy Queen. It’s not that unusual. However, those people usually don’t go from high school to their careers in one step. Time’s weeding out process often exposes those lacking the desire to cultivate their talent. Sometimes it is not just maturity. Sometimes the fire just doesn’t burn enough, and never will.
The irony is the one who must light that fire is Phil Jackson, Jordan’s old coach. Jackson is probably convinced that once he gets Brown on a good reading program — you know, a little Dr. Phil, a little Deepak Chopra, maybe some of the writings of Hunter S. Thompson — he will be able to do what others could not and turn Brown into the second coming of Kareem.
Here’s two words for the Zen master to remember — Elden Campbell.
Grunfeld took some heat for letting Larry Hughes leave for Cleveland, breaking up the Big Three that led the Wizards to the playoffs — Jamison, Hughes and Gilbert Arenas. However, Grunfeld could not pay Hughes the money he was looking for — the five-year, $70million deal offered by the Cavaliers. With Arenas making more than $11million a year, Grunfeld could not realistically invest that much money in the backcourt, not when the Wizards so desperately needed to upgrade under the basket.
If the Wizards can sign 6-foot-9 forward Donyell Marshall as expected when the July 22 moratorium on signing players is lifted, they may actually be a better team, even with the loss of Hughes — certainly a more balanced team.
To find a sucker who wants Brown is one thing, but to find one willing to give something of value for him is so un-Wizards-like, it really makes you believe the dark days are gone, that this franchise may really have entered a new era.
Finally.
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