Lollygagging leads to locker shuffle

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When Antawn Jamison was a young player right out of college, he turned to the veteran role models on his team.

"Terry Cummings, John Starks, Mookie Blaylock," the Washington Wizards captain said, listing his teammates with the Golden State Warriors. "They took me right under their wing and immediately started showing me all the things I needed to do to become a professional. Lifting weights, coming in at 3 for a game that starts at 7:30.

"You might not even get in the game, but you did it because you believed what they were doing was the right way to be a professional."

That's why Jamison yesterday disbanded the group of lockers in the far end of the team's locker room formerly occupied by rookies Nick Young and Dominic McGuire and third-year player Andray Blatche.

Young (22), McGuire (22) and Blatche (21) used to huddle around center Brendan Haywood. Jamison, a 31-year-old in his 10th season, knows that the rookies — getting more playing time because of injuries — need to mature quickly this season.

Tired of a lack of focus before games, Jamison shuffled the locker room in an effort to help the rookies learn quicker.

Young's stall is now next to Caron Butler's, McGuire is beside Jamison and Blatche is on the other side of the room next to Haywood.

"I recall when I first came into the league it was about being surrounded by professionals and learning how to be a professional," Jamison said. "So far we are not satisfied with the growth of that. We are just going to try something different because this is a veteran team.

"It's not a young team where you can just go out there and play ball. You have to do it a certain way both on the court and off the court. And right now as a group we think there are too many distractions with the young guys. They get in their little corner, and everybody recognizes it. It's nothing bad. Is it affecting the way they are playing? We're going to see."

The Wizards (17-15) play host to the Houston Rockets (17-17) tonight.