Dinwiddie eyes his own legacy in DC, possibly with Bitcoin originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Throughout different eras of playoff teams the past two decades, the Wizards have been more often defined by the point guard position than any other. They went from Gilbert Arenas to John Wall and then to Russell Westbrook. All three were stars in their own right.
Now Spencer Dinwiddie is taking over the point guard role, as he was brought over in a sign-and-trade with the Nets to replace Westbrook, who was traded to the Lakers. Dinwiddie projects to be one of the Wizards’ best players this season, alongside Bradley Beal in the backcourt. But he sees himself as different than his predecessors.
“I’m not Gilbert, John or Russ. Those are all dudes with very interesting personalities. You’ve got some of the best players, obviously, Russ is one of the best players to ever play in terms of the triple-doubles. You’ve got Gilbert, one of the best scorers of all-time. You’ve got John, who had an extended run, you could argue, as the best point guard in the league,” he said.
“You’ve gotta always respect the accomplishments of what people have done… just my style of play is very different than them. I respect everything that they did. What I want to be known for is winning, and that’s what I hope to bring to the franchise at the end of the day. Just whatever it takes, and I think my career kind of shows that.”
Dinwiddie, 28, helped the Nets build a winner before Kevin Durant signed there in free agency. He developed from a second round pick to a 20-point scorer before suffering an ACL injury three games into last season.
Once he’s back to 100 percent, Dinwiddie plans to do whatever he can to help the Wizards win games. He also may be a fun character for fans to follow along the way. He provided a series of light moments during his introductory press conference on Monday, including when talking about the Wizards’ history of point guards.
One involved his favorite cryptocurrency, which he has advocated publicly for in recent years.
“I think I’ll be the first point guard in D.C. history to possibly lobby senators about Bitcoin,” he said.
If he does indeed follow through on that then, yes, he will almost certainly be the first. That is, unless Ish Smith was doing it all along and we just had no idea.
