Marcin Gortat’s top 5 plays with the Washington Wizards
By Keith Cork
On Sunday, Marcin Gortat announced his retirement from the game of basketball. Here are his top five plays in a Washington Wizards uniform.
I’ve had people really question whether or not Marcin Gortat was a great player when he was with the Washington Wizards. It baffles me as he was one of the scariest big men in the game for his stretch with our Wiz.
Sure, he wasn’t dropping 30 points per game. He couldn’t really step out and hit a three, taking only 20 in his whole career. He wasn’t going to blow past people either, no.
But when it came to playing the center position in a traditional sense, setting solid screens, rolling to the basket and finishing with panache, Marcin Gortat was one of the best. He patrolled the paint, and enforced the middle, while being the pick-and-roll partner that John Wall so desperately needed.
In his time with Washington, he averaged 11.6 points on 55.5 percent shooting, and snagged 9.2 rebounds. He averaged a double double in the 2016-17 season too, and chipped in a little over a block per game over five season.
Five seasons is the longest he spent with one team, playing four seasons with the Orlando Magic and three with the Phoenix Suns. He played one season and appeared in 47 games for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2018-19, then had a workout for the Los Angeles Lakers this past offseason before calling it quits.
In his five seasons, he helped the Washington Wizards make the playoffs four times, and averaged 10.6 points and 9.5 rebounds for the Wizards in the postseason.
Was he a Washington Wizard? Absolutely. Was he one of the best to play for the Wiz at the center position? Positively.
He’s 7th on the all-time lists for rebounds, 3rd in field goal percentage, and 8th in blocks. He also appeared in 806 games, the most for any Polish-born player ever.
To call him a legend isn’t far off. To question his achievements is foolish, and shortsighted. These top 5 plays by Gortat in a Washington Wizards uniform should help sway the uninitiated.