Build your own franchise, part 2: Wiz Kids pick up Heinrich and #17 pick.

Photo via WashingtonWizards.com

June 24, 2010 is a big day for the Washington Wizards as a franchise. Already with the number one overall pick in the draft and the numbers 30 and 35 selection, the Wizards picked up Kirk Heinrich from the Chicago Bulls and added another valuable pick at number 17.

I wrote yesterday on the Build Your Own Franchise game Leonsis has begun playing since buying the team, and the trade today makes that idea even more realistic. Why yes, I am patting myself on the back right now.

This team will obviously need some growing up before they can compete with the elite teams in the Eastern Conference, though the timeline could be accelerated thanks to the immense talent that will be coming to the franchise.

It should also be pointed out the level of individual talent across the four major sports in DC. McNabb wearing burgundy and gold, Ovechkin as arguably the best player in the world, some kid named Strasburg throwing Mach 1 fastballs and soon-to-be Wizard John Wall gunning it with Arenas (pun intended?), DC is quickly become a haven for elite individual athletes.

Now let’s see these teams win championships.

I won’t be able to watch the draft tonight (seven p.m. on ESPN) because of other obligations and will be going out of town this weekend to spend time in the wilderness. Alone. Without Internet. No phone reception. Bears. Machete murderers. Yeah, my weekend is going to be a horror movie.