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Happy Birthday Nick Young: Remembering His Time With The Washington Wizards

By Ben Mehic

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Nick Young turned 30-years-old yesterday and he made it a memorable birthday by proposing to unintelligible pop-star Iggy Azalea.

The self-proclaimed Swaggy P was once considered a part of Washington’s young core, which also featured the likes of Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, both of whom are currently out of the NBA.

Thankfully, the Washington Wizards have come a long way since then. They’re no longer relying on low basketball I.Q. players to carry their franchise.

John Wall, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter have led the team to two consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Beal and Porter are both younger than every player that Washington had in their predraft workout yesterday at Verizon Center. With a player like Wall leading the team and a budding star like Beal, Washington’s future seems to be a lot brighter than it was when Nick Young donned the red-white-blue uniforms.

Still, even though he’s been lumped into the same category as Blatche and McGee, I don’t think Nick Young deserves the same criticism they received during their stay in the nation’s capital.

For a couple of seasons, Nick Young was Washington’s go-to option on the offensive end of the floor. With Wall in the back court, the horrendous Wizards were actually kind of watchable.

Seeing Wall run towards the basket recklessly and Nick Young chuck his way to 20+ points, along with a sad-looking Flip Saunders staring aimlessly into Andray Blatche’s soul, was kind of entertaining. Of course, I’d much rather watch the winning brand of basketball that Washington has been displaying over the past few seasons.

Regardless, it’s weird to think that Nick Young has become somewhat synonymous with pop-culture. His relationship with Azalea has helped, but despite playing bad basketball, he’s become extremely popular since becoming a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Our Nick Young. The same Nick Young that choked on cinnamon for the whole world to see online. The same Nick Young that Gilbert Arenas would fake injuries for so he could get playing time.

Young was drafted by the Washington Wizards almost a decade ago. At this point, his time in D.C. is forgotten by all but the hardcore fans.

For his birthday, I thought we should take a look back at a few of his finest moments in Washington.

Nick Young Drops 43 Points Against Sacramento

As a Wizards fan, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who would convince myself that Nick Young was actually good. I mean, his 43-point performance against the even crappier Sacramento Kings was proof!

Seeing Nick Young step into awful, contested deep two-point shots brings back a lot of memories. Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier try to sound enthusiastic, but their enthusiasm was drained out of them way before the season even started.

Just take a look at the bench. Al Thornton was coolin’, waiting to check into the game. Rashard Lewis was spotting up in the corner, hoping to receive a pass from John Wall that he’d inevitably botch or end up bricking.

There were a few moments in Nick Young’s career in D.C. that actually made people think he was good, including myself. The man nicknamed Bean Burrito never had a chance, even after he averaged 17 points per game during the 2010-2011 NBA season.

He would later be traded to his hometown team, the Los Angeles Clippers, for Brian Cook. He led the Clippers to a Game-1 comeback against the Memphis Grizzlies, because Nick Young does those sort of things:

A Microcosm Of Nick Young’s Career In D.C.

The Washington Wizards seem to play well against the Los Angeles Lakers, regardless of how bad they actually are.

In 2012, the Wizards made a comeback against the Lakers at home. When you think of the Lakers, you might think of Jeremy Lin, Jordan Hill and Wesley Johnson, but believe it or not, it wasn’t always that way. In that specific game, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum all scored 19+ points.

Trevor Booker scored 18 points to go along side 17 rebounds. Roger Mason and Kevin Seraphin scored 14 each off the bench. Nick Young, however, led the team with 19 as the sixth man. Jordan Crawford took his starting spot. That was the Washington Wizards.

Despite his solid performance — one that caused Kobe to call Nick Young a “fantastic young player” — he botched a wide-open layup and earned recognition as the worst layup of all time:

His time in Washington may not be remembered, but Nick Young will forever be a Wizard — even if he hates the team.

Happy birthday, Nick Young.

Next: Gallo To The Wizards: A Trade Idea

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