Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
February 18, 2010, Washington Post

Washington Wizards prepare for next season by trading Butler, Haywood, Stevenson

I know the Winter Olympics are in full swing, but I want to talk about some other sports stories this week. I'll get to the Olympics next week.

The Wizards: The Washington Wizards traded all-star forward Caron Butler, center Brendan Haywood and guard DeShawn Stevenson to the Dallas Mavericks for forward Josh Howard and center Drew Gooden and two guys I had never heard of.

Then in another move, the Wizards were involved in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers. Antawn Jamison will become a Cavalier. In return, the Wizards will get three players and a draft pick from the Cavaliers. Gooden, who never played a game for the Wizards, will go to the Clippers.

If you are a Wizards fan, don't expect these trades to improve the team right away. Believe it or not, the Wizards may get worse. I think Butler, Haywood and Jamison are better than the players the Wizards got in the deals.

The idea is that the trades will allow the Wizards to sign new players for next season. Superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are just some of the free agents who may be available after this season. Don't get too excited. Those big names probably won't come to Washington.

The blizzards: You may have noticed that the Washington area got loads of snow in the past couple of weeks. And that means sledding, snowmen, no school . . . and no sports.

The wild winter weather postponed hundreds of kids sports events.

My fifth-grade basketball team, the Woodlin Wizards, hasn't had a practice or a game for three weeks. When we get back together, I may not be able to tell Jackson from Jefherson or Kalil from Connor or Clement.

As a coach, I hate when practices and games are postponed. The best way to learn any sport is to work on a skill in practice and then try it out in a game. If it doesn't work in the game, you know you have to practice more.

Once when I was coaching a team, we worked on the crossover dribble every time we practiced. In a crossover, a player who is dribbling moves the ball quickly from her right hand to her left hand (or left to right) to get by the defense.

During a game, one of my players was dribbling downcourt when a player on the other team came up and tried to steal the ball. My player switched her dribble from her right to left hand and drove to the basket for the score. During our next timeout, she smiled at me and said, "Now I know why we practice the crossover dribble."

So let's hope the blizzards of 2010 are over and everyone -- from the Washington Wizards to my Woodlin Wizards -- can get back to practicing and playing.

Fred Bowen writes the KidsPost's sports opinion column and is the author of 14 books, including a football book, "Touchdown Trouble."

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