Breaking: Hornets star in tears after he was traded to a rival club

Just as they did when PJ Washington saw Buzz Peterson at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in February, tears continue to fall from his eyes. Any drops that emanate from Washington’s face now, however, signify a different emotion. It’s not melancholy as it was after the last-minute trade to Dallas three months ago.

Washington is beaming now as he gets ready to play in the NBA Finals. Even when he’s mean-mugging for the camera and adopting the viral “standing on business” stance from the Mavericks’ victory over the Clippers in the Western Conference first-round series. On Wednesday night, the eve of the Mavs game against Boston at TD Garden, Washington told reporters, “I think for me, it’s just showing people we’re not going anywhere.” We have always been a close-knit family, even before I moved here. Everyone is there for one another. We simply use that way of thinking every single day. We simply want to come in here take care of business and try to win four games.

As his stint with the Charlotte Hornets draws to an end, Washington already has 12 postseason wins under his resume. Washington never made it to the playoffs in his more than four seasons with Charlotte, as he watched the Hornets lose in the in-season tournament in 2020 and 2021. After spending two years at Kentucky, Washington was taken by the Hornets with the No. 12 overall pick in 2019. Washington is essentially repeating what he demonstrated there. Just a lot more attention is focused on him. He made the fifth-most 3-pointers in Hornets history during his more than four seasons with the team. He was also a decent defensive player, swatting 295 shots to rank eighth all-time in Hornets history.

And in the event that February didn’t work out for him, he might still be wearing purple and teal.

Kyle Kuzma of the Washington Wizards is to blame for Washington’s current predicament. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Dallas coveted Kuzma, but the emotion wasn’t reciprocated, so the Mavs focused on Washington. Thus, Washington might still be a member of the Hornets if Kuzma had not turned down approaches from Dallas before the deadline, which would have allowed Daniel Gafford, a teammate of Kuzma’s, to be traded to Texas. Rather, he teamed up with Gafford to create a potent duo that has eased some of the pressure on Mavs star Luka Doncic and demonstrated their ability to be important members of a winning team. Gafford, a rebounder and rim protector from Duke, plays with freshman Derek Lively.

Washington, who was raised in Frisco, a city north of Dallas, offers defense, tenacity, and the capacity to make 3-pointers under duress. Regarding Washington and Gafford, Doncic remarked, “Yeah, it speaks a lot.” “You also see further examples. However, I believe they mesh well with us. We are a much better club now, especially defensively, thanks to the move. They therefore play the ideal roles that we require. Washington’s greatest weakness as a Hornet was his inconsistent play. On numerous times, he would score a high number of points in one game, but the next, he would only score one or two points. Prior to this previous season, he had acknowledged that he needed to improve at it.

However, his role also changed several times, which contributed to the length of time it required to reach a consensus on Washington’s three-year contract. The parties initially couldn’t agree on a monetary amount and the number of seasons, so he didn’t sign until late in the offseason. According to a league source, the Hornets did not see Washington as a starter throughout the discussions and instead imagined him as a reserve player, similar to what happened when Miles Bridges returned after serving a one-year suspension for felony domestic abuse.

However, Dallas saw Washington as a front-line starter from the beginning, and since coming to Texas in exchange for Grant Williams, Seth Curry, and a protected first-round selection in 2027, he has been very successful. Washington just needs to focus on playing off of Kyrie Irving and Doncic.

Washington responded, “Yeah, Ky, he’s done a great job of keeping us cool, calm, and collected.” He’s certainly been here a lot of times previously. merely telling us to express all of our feelings, be ourselves, and come out.” That accurately sums up Washington’s current state of affairs. When he fiercely defended Charlotte three months ago in response to Terry Rozier’s assertion that losing was ingrained in the Hornets’ DNA, he was in a very different place.

Now, he’s on the opposite side as Rozier, ecstatic about a winning environment rather than just wanting to snap the NBA’s record-breaking playoff drought and earn a postseason ticket for the first time in less than ten years. That’s why he went on Instagram live to express his pleasure and giggle at how quickly he jumped from last to first after the Mavs defeated Minnesota to win the Western Conference. Although some Hornets supporters saw it as a slight, Washington didn’t seem to have it as their ultimate goal. He was living out a fantasy and was utterly ecstatic, engulfed in a moment in time he never imagined would come.

Washington stated, “I just felt it was a great fit for me to come here and showcase what I can do.” “I think I can come in and help us obviously get here by obviously bringing something to the defensive end.”None of that surprises me in the slightest. Since we moved here, I have basically made an effort to come in every day and perform my job. I’m proud of my teammates; we’ve played excellent defense. We are merely content to be here.