Spencer Dinwiddie opened up on his tenure and exit from the Washington Wizards. What started as a great relationship for the player and the team ended up with the former Brooklyn Nets player exiting the squad with more grief than glory, amid rumors suggesting he wasn’t appreciated in the locker room.
Dinwiddie talked with ESPN about his time in D.C., revealing he felt hurt when he heard those comments about him.
“I think that’s what hurt the most,” Dinwiddie said. “I’ve never bashed Washington. I’ve never said an ill thing about the team. In fact, I thank the owner or chairman Ted [Leonsis], I thank Tommy Sheppard the GM and I thank [Bradley Beal] for those three kind of collectively deciding to give me my contract. They didn’t have to pay somebody coming off an ACL.
“I’m appreciative of that, appreciative of my time there. … So to be bashed out on the way out the door hurt my feelings for sure. I think I’m human, of course.
“When the role changed and they wanted me to pass more — they felt like I was scoring a lot — I did that. I took my foot off the gas scoring-wise because that’s what they felt — the team needed to get [Kyle Kuzma] and [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] and those guys shots. I said, ‘Look, I already got paid. This is about y’all trying to get the shots that y’all need, whatever.’
Former teammate Kyle Kuzma and head coach Wes Unseld Jr. reacted to those comments, saying that even though things didn’t go as desired, they had nothing against Dinwiddie and are past that moment.
“I’m not going to get into the accuracy of that statement. It’s one of those things where, organizationally, it worked and he was aggressive early. We won a lot of games,” Unseld Jr. said, via NBC Sports.
“Bottom-line, we had to make a change [at the trade deadline] and to get something we had to give up something. He’s a really talented guy, he’s playing well and he’s healthy. We look forward to seeing the benefit of that trade. It is what it is. I think it’s one of those things where we just have to move on and get past it.”
As for Kuzma, he said that everybody on the team wanted Dinwiddie to be aggressive, but didn’t give more details about it, stating that they’re focusing on the players on the roster and nothing else.
“I’m sure if you go back to tidbits, I know I always said I wanted him to be aggressive, I know Brad [Beal] always said he wanted him to be aggressive. So, I’m just going to leave it at that. We’re past that, honestly. We’re focused on the guys that are here and we’re all motivated to take that next step,” Kuzma said.
When he was traded from Brooklyn, Dinwiddie was expected to create a terrific duo with Bradley Beal in Washington. Unfortunately, things didn’t go that way for the player. He’s now in Dallas, trying to create something good with Luka Doncic and co. It seems like the situation in Texas is a lot better than in DC, but it’s still early to know who won the trade between Wizards and Mavericks.
