Bub Carrington said the quiet part out loud, and now the whole NBA is listening
Washington Wizards guard Bub Carrington told a WUSA9 reporter that his team was "held back" last season to land AJ Dybantsa, and now the league is paying attention. The NBA reportedly won't punish him, but the words are already out there.
In brief
Bub Carrington said the quiet part out loud, and now the whole NBA is listening
It wasn't a hot mic moment. Nobody leaked a text. Bub Carrington just sat down with a WUSA9 reporter ahead of Washington's 2026-27 preseason and said what D.C. basketball fans had suspected for two full years.
"We've all, in a way, been held back just because, like you said, we were trying to get AJ Dybantsa," Carrington told the station. He didn't stop there. "But now no one has handcuffs," he added. "Everyone's shackles-free."
The comments spread fast. By Thursday afternoon they were everywhere: NBA Twitter, league-office inboxes, the lead item on basketball podcasts from New York to Los Angeles. For Wizards fans in the DMV who watched a 17-65 season with gritted teeth, there was something almost cathartic about hearing a player confirm what they had long assumed. For the rest of the league, it was a five-alarm moment.
What Carrington actually said, and why it landed so hard
The comments, made in an interview with WUSA9, spread across the NBA world at an awkward time for a league that has been increasingly aggressive about tanking. The league had already fined Utah and Indiana during the previous season for alleged tanking practices, and the NBA had adjusted its lottery system partly to deter exactly this kind of deliberate losing.
Washington entered the 2025-26 season as a rebuilding team and eventually finished with the NBA's worst record at 17-65. That gave the Wizards a 14 percent chance at the No. 1 pick, tied with Indiana and Brooklyn for the best odds. The Wizards won the lottery. They took Dybantsa. And then one of their own players described the journey on local television, on the record, two days before preseason games began.
The backdrop made Carrington's words harder to wave away. Most fans felt the Wizards were obviously tanking last season, particularly when they made two midseason trades for injured stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis. Young played in only five games, while Davis never took the court for Washington after arriving in a deadline deal. Both arrivals generated enormous buzz at the time. Neither one produced meaningful basketball. People noticed.
What is surprising is hearing a young player like Carrington openly admit to his own team "handcuffing" players in an effort to make them play worse for the sake of draft lottery odds. Carrington is 21 years old, Baltimore-born, a former 14th overall pick out of Pittsburgh. He is not some backup trying to make headlines. He is the starting point guard on a team that needs credibility heading into a season the entire city is watching.
The NBA is not going to do anything about it
That might be the most remarkable part of the whole episode. Tied for the league's best odds to win the NBA Draft Lottery in May at 14 percent, the Wizards won the drawing, received the draft's top pick and used it to select BYU wing AJ Dybantsa. According to a league source, the NBA is not expected to discipline Carrington or the Wizards for his comments.
The distinction the league appears to be drawing: Carrington is a player describing how the Wizards operated, not an owner or executive announcing an organizational strategy to lose. Mark Cuban famously received a $600,000 fine in 2018 after saying he told Mavericks players that "losing is our best option." Carrington used softer language, framed it as a player-level perception, and stopped short of quoting a front-office directive. Barely.
On its face, the statement amounts to an admission that the Wizards, wittingly and on an institutional level, tanked at least one season to secure the most desirable draft pick possible, with the gig coming good this past summer as Washington won the draft lottery and selected Dybantsa first overall.
Where the Wizards go from here
The preseason opener is October 8 at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks, with the regular-season home opener set for October 21 against Milwaukee at Capital One Arena. The roster that walks onto the court that night looks genuinely different from anything Washington has fielded in years. Trae Young, now healthy after his cameo last season, is expected to anchor the offense, though the star guard has not shied away from questions about his defense going into 2026-27.
Fans filled nearly 85 percent of the arena's lower bowl at the Wizards' open practice last Thursday. "That's by far the most I've ever seen in an open practice," said Wizards coach Brian Keefe, who has been in the NBA for nearly 20 years. That energy, real and measurable, is exactly what the front office was banking on when it engineered two seasons of calculated losing.
Carrington's comments cut both ways inside the locker room. He is telling fans, and opponents, that last year's Wizards were not actually that bad. He is also signaling that the shackles are off, which is either confidence or pressure, depending on what happens in October and November. He told the reporter: "Like whenever we get there, whether that's this year, next year, or the year after, we're gonna stay there. And that's the culture we're trying to change."
Nobody in the Wizards organization has publicly pushed back on his characterization. Carrington, for his part, didn't sound like a man who thought he'd said anything wrong.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
