Two Wizards Players Picked for All-Star Game

WASHINGTON (AP) - Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin and his staff ushered a huge cake onto the MCI Center court, bringing practice to an abrupt halt.

A celebration was long overdue for a team that rarely sends two players to the All-Star game.

Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison were chosen as reserves for the Eastern Conference squad Tuesday, making them both first-time All-Stars, and giving Washington a pair of All-Stars in the same season for the first time since Jeff Malone and Moses Malone were selected in 1987.

Included in the celebration was Larry Hughes, who leads the league in steals per game and would have been a strong candidate had he not broken his thumb Jan. 15.

"This is a special year," Pollin said as the team gathered around him. "C'mon, Larry, you're a part of it. You three are special. You three are All-Stars."

At nine games over. 500, the Wizards are on pace for their best season in decades and their first playoff appearance since 1997. Arenas, Hughes and Jamison - buddies and former teammates with Golden State - have led the way.

"It's the best cake I've had in the long time," Jamison mumbled after stuffing his mouth full.

The All-Star game is Feb. 20 in Denver. Arenas and Jamison will be Washington's first All-Stars since Michael Jordan in 2001 and 2002.

Jamison, acquired from Dallas in the offseason trade for Jerry Stackhouse, has provided the locker room leadership missing for many years in Washington. He's also averaging 20.5 points and a team-high 8.1 rebounds.

"When the trade happened, I thought this could have been a great opportunity," said Jamison, who was the league's sixth man of the year last season with the Mavericks. "I just wanted to prove a lot of people wrong, that not only myself, but also Gilbert and Larry, we could all be a part of something special. For it to happen this quickly is surprising a little bit, but I'll take it.

"It's time. This organization's been through a lot, and I'm just happy to be a part of things going in the right direction."

Arenas, in the second year of a six-year, $65 million contract, is averaging a career-high 24.7 points. Although the votes were already in, he delivered an All-Star performance Monday night when he took over the game in the fourth quarter against Indiana and matched his career-high with 43 points in a 108-104 victory.

"I finally made it," Arenas said. "But you can't get ahead of yourself. You've still got 40 games left to play to get to the goal you had at the beginning of the season."

Arenas often throws his jersey to the fans after a game, but he said he'll have to save his All-Star jersey for his father, who has been asking for one for years.

"If I don't, I know he'll be mad at me," Arenas said.

Arenas and Jamison have been the two biggest acquisitions by president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld, who took over personnel matters after Jordan was ousted by Pollin in 2002.

"Our goals remain a little bit bigger than just this," Grunfeld said. "We want to make the playoffs."

Although Jordan was the team's last All-Star, his selections were largely ceremonial. Bernard King (1991), Michael Adams (1992), Chris Webber (1997) and Juwan Howard (1996) were the only selections in the 1990s.

These Wizards, however, are determined to turn the tide.

"We're doing things in the right way," coach Eddie Jordan said. "We're headed in the right direction, and we're just beginning. That's the best part."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)