VCU trying to lure Wizards to Siegel

With about three months left before the start of the regular season, the Wizards are still looking for a place to practice in October.

After trading for a sixth man, drafting a 7-foot-3 foreigner and adding three free agents to a team that finished last season 25-57, they need to find a place to practice soon.

Tim Lampe, director of the Stuart C. Siegel Center, said Wizards officials are considering VCU’s Stuart C. Siegel Center as an option for its October 4-10 practice session.

Lampe said team representatives came down on Saturday Aug. 15 to look at the 5-year-old arena, which is one of few gyms on the East Coast with six full courts and 16 baskets-one for every player currently on the Wizards roster.

“There aren’t a lot of places you could go where you could do that,” Lampe said, “which makes it so attractive.”

Lampe said that in the past years, he has had several conversations with members of the Wizards organization in an attempt to bring the NBA franchise to Richmond, but this opportunity just recently presented itself.

“It’s not something that’s been out there brewing,” Lampe said.

Talks haven’t progressed since the visit in mid-August, Lampe said, and a timetable hasn’t been set for when talks should conclude. He said his guess is that discussions will pause since some of the team’s officials have been in Athens for the Olympics.

The team’s second-round pick in this summer’s draft, Peter John Ramos, has seen limited minutes with the Puerto Rican national team that stunned Team USA in it’s first of five preliminary games.

In the offseason, Washington also traded guard Jerry Stackhouse, forward Christian Laettner and the draft rights to Devin Harris to the Dallas Mavericks, adding the league’s 2004 Sixth Man of the Year Antwan Jamison to a roster with an average of about four years of experience.

Lampe said talks with the Wizards are still in their earliest stages. Details like whether or not the practices will be open to the public have yet to be determined.

“The ball’s in their court,” Lampe said. “It’s just a waiting game.”