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Wizards wear all black against Celtics for 'funeral' game vs. 'dirty' rivals

kelly dwyer

The Washington Wizards re-outfitted themselves in red, white and blue colors in 2011 as a patriotic throwback to the team’s red, white and (too-often) blue days as the Washington Bullets.

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On Tuesday night, they’ll be outfitting themselves in black, as a tribute to how much they hate the Boston Celtics.

The team decided to go with the color in anticipation of its third game of the season against its Eastern, uh, competitor.

Following the team’s win over Charlotte on Monday, leader John Wall confirmed the decision:

Excitable Wizards forward Kelly Oubre was on board:

“We’re ready for whatever,” Oubre said. “We’re wearing all black to the game. It’s a memo that the team is giving away. We’re ready for whatever, man. Round 3, let’s get it.”

Reporters also asked Wall about the dress code, and he responded, “All black everything. A funeral.”

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Sure enough, the Wizards showed up to the arena in the duds:

Boston must be cowering.

You might recall that Mr. Wall is still smarting from the would-be scar he took in from Celtics forward Jae Crowder less than a fortnight ago:

That back and forth, late in a Washington win, resulted in fines and a little postgame meeting between the hoped-for Eastern championship contenders:

Prior to that, Wall weirdly introduced his heel turn with a week that included two ejections and a rant to the refs about unfair treatment. The second ejection came when the East’s non-starter took acted the tumble technician with Boston’s Marcus Smart:

Wiz forward Otto Porter later accused the Celtics of playing dirty basketball. SB Nation’s Matt Ellentuck adroitly reminded us that the whole mess has dragged on a lot longer than you might remember offhand, especially if you’ve gone to great lengths to try and forget the Washington Wizards’ entire 2015-16 season. Jae Crowder (back again!) felt as if former Wizards coach Randy Wittman threw invective at him, and we should all keep in mind that Celtics big man Al Horford nearly became a Washington Wizard last summer, before deciding that the C’s had a brighter future in its sights.

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Celtic (likely) All-Star Isaiah Thomas? He’s not even mad. He thinks it’s funny:

“I saw the funeral and all black thing last night and I just laughed about it.”

[…]

“That’s cute that they’re wearing all black. It’s definitely not a Game 7. It’s not the playoffs.”

Game 7? The playoffs?

Oh yeah, Dan Devine reminds us. Kenyon Martin.

In 2013, Martin and his New York Knicks decided to wear all black prior to Game 5 of its first round series against the Boston Celtics, who did not feature Isaiah Thomas at the time. The idea was to signify a funeral, with the Knicks up 3-1 and looking to close the series out.

The gambit failed, Kenyon didn’t even approach sanguine in response, though the Knicks did eventually down Boston in six games.

No word on whether or not the Celtics will wear their black, alternate jerseys during the fourth and final regular season meeting of the season between the two teams on March 20.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!