His fitted suit on straight, out went Marcin Gortat. Again and again at the end of last season, Gortat would finish getting dressed, then depart the locker room at a brisk pace. The gregarious Washington Wizards center rarely stopped to talk with reporters. He was using silence as a shield.
Gortat is expressive and open, something that endears him to the media and public. Old-school cantankerous coaches don’t embrace his commentary in the same way. Often the day after Gortat spoke to reporters, the cost of doing so would come, so he clammed up.
“Well, listen, just because I didn’t talk to you doesn’t mean I don’t like you,” Gortat said Monday. “I was just protecting myself. I’d rather sneak out from the locker room and not speak to anybody than stand in front of you and say something stupid. Then you gotta write it, because it’s your job. But I gotta take responsibility for it. I’d rather just sneak out and say, ’Not English’, ’I don’t speak English.’ I’m a 10-year veteran, I know when I have to protect myself.”
What was going on?
“There was a lot of things going on,” Gortat said. “It doesn’t matter.”
He is happier now. The coach is new. Much of the team is new. Other slight alterations to the Wizards’ world have occurred.
“Just because we’re called Washington Wizards doesn’t mean that everything is the same thing,” Gortat said. “We have a lot of new things on the team, including the carpet in the locker room. It’s fresh. We have a nice logo. We got two coolers now with drinks, with Gatorades, not only one. There’s a lot of new things around.”
Gortat met with new Wizards coach Scott Brooks during the summer. Beyond that, he did not do much digging about Brooks. Asked if he studied Brooks over the summer to get to know him, Gortat laughed.
“I was studying different things,” Gortat said. “The beach and the pool.”
He was running his basketball camp in Poland when news broke that the Wizards had signed free agent center Ian Mahinmi. His first two seasons in Washington, Gortat was often paired with Nene in the frontcourt. Last season, the Wizards pivoted to a “pace-and-space” offense, which put Gortat on the floor with a power forward who spread the floor. That lineup increases the pressure on Gortat to be a dominant rebounder.
So, when Mahinmi was graced with a $64 million contract — one that slightly exceeded Gortat’s five-year deal in 2014 — questions about their roles emerged up from unlikely locations. Gortat was forced to take questions from the miniature reporters around him at his camp.
“Kids were popping questions to me,” Gortat said. “Are you going to get traded? Are you going to be a backup now? Are you leaving the team? And, I’m like, ’What are you all talking about?’ I didn’t even know. Then, the media at the camp asking me questions. I’m traveling from city to city. I’m checking the Twitter. They keep saying I’m going to get traded. They signed Ian Mahinmi. I was completely fine. I didn’t even know that he signed with us at some point. Then, a Wizards member called me and said you don’t have to worry about anything.”
Gortat would prefer to play alongside Mahinmi. He also knows there is a “99 percent” chance that will not happen. The NBA has moved so far away from that concept, it seems an idea anchored in the time of black-and-white film.
Which puts him in a similar position to last season. Despite playing the majority of his minutes without a fellow big man on the floor, and being in a bad mood from what was going on around him, Gortat’s production was consistent. Before the All-Star break, he averaged 13.5 points and 9.9 rebounds. After the break, he averaged 13.5 points and 9.8 rebounds. His shooting percentage even increased as the season wound down.
Gortat feels everything is better now. A summer filled with riding jet skis in Miami, adding tattoos to his arms and visiting a giraffe in a Polish zoo that was named after him helped clear his head. A new coach surely helped, too.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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