The Wizards’ season kicks off Wednesday night right here on The Team 980, and when Corey Kispert joined Chris Russell on Tuesday, he revealed that as he enters his third season, opening night is now just business as usual…sort of.
“It’s business as usual, now that I have more years under my belt, but you still get some jitters and excitement,” Kispert said. “We’ve been practicing with each other for two months now, so we're excited to see somebody else. We’re gonna fun and feisty, and the first couple months have been amazing. We’re basically starting from the ground up, so everybody’s getting used to each other and trying to set the tone and culture we’re building here, and it’s something to be really excited about.”
Part of the new crew is a new front office, who is rebuilding the team in a new image – and making noticeable changes cosmetically, too.
“Our job day to day is still play the game, and that never changes, but everything from the color of the floor on the practice court to the landscaping, things there are changing, and you notice it as a player,” Kispert said “Their No. 1 goal has been to support us, and they’ve made that very clear, but also support our families. They want this organization to be something that we wanna be excited to play for and excited to be a part of, and that also means that our families feel welcomed as well. These first couple months have been all positive steps in the right direction and you notice that as a player.”
Expectations on the court aren’t very high, at least outside the building, but just as Danilo Gallinari told Doc & Lynnell on 106.7 The Fan Tuesday, Kispert admitted this season is as much about growth and building the future as it is the here and now results.
“It’s more along the lines of just trying to be better than you were yesterday. That’s kind of been the underlying theme when we come into the facility every day,” Kispert said. “I don’t think anybody in the building is necessarily as caught up in wins and losses at this point or trying to meet a certain record at the end of the year, because the front office has a plan and a vision, and it's been laid out to us as players and we've bought into it as well.”
He even admitted it’s a team of guys that need to work together to play their best, which is kind of the opposite of the current NBA, but they can still do some damage.
“It’s up to us to play that standard and play as a group and play cohesively, but we can be feisty and different,” Kispert said. “It can be a lot of fun, and if we stick to our game plan and we stick to what works, we're gonna rack up a lot of wins.”
Take a listen above as Kispert also discusses his personal growth in his first two seasons and goals for year three, chemistry with Jordan Poole, thoughts on Bilal Coulibaly, and more!