Larry Hughes Back at the Verizon Center

Larry Hughes Back At Verizon Center

Soulja Boy wasn't the only special guest at Verizon Center last night. You may have noticed that former Secretary of State Colin Powell was in the building as well, wearing a Wizards "White Out" T-shirt to boot. Then, early in the first quarter, former Wizard and Cavalier and current Chicago Bull Larry Hughes grabbed a seat near the Wizards' bench.

C'mon, Andy. Stop flopping. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

Hughes was rocking a Yankees cap, instead of his usual St. Louis Cardinals one, but he also was wearing a white T-shirt - which was strictly coincidental, he said.

"I'm always in D.C.," Hughes said. "I still talk to all those guys. I'm here to support everybody. I just wanted to come out and see a good game. They've been battling a little bit, so I definitely knew it would be a good game."

But who does he want to win this series? "That's tough, man. That's tough," he said. "I really can't pick one."

I caught up with Hughes at halftime in the VIP section, where he was hanging out with Redskins running back Clinton Portis. By that time, his former teammate and friend Gilbert Arenas was already done for the night after experiencing another setback - a bone bruise - in his surgically repaired left knee.

Hughes has dealt with his share of injuries over his career and has been talking to Arenas all season about how to deal with it, suggesting that Arenas should've shut it down after having surgery in late November.

"I've been through that - trying to come back and trying to show that you want to fight and help the team," Hughes said. "You're obviously not going to come back and play as well as he has been all year. I told him just to chill out all year and make sure you come back healthy. But he chose to come back and he has to deal with it."

Gil, you don't have to play if you are really hurt, man. (Getty Images)

Hughes dealt with some serious hardships the past two times he made the postseason with the Cavaliers. He lost his little brother, Justin, two years ago during the Eastern Conference semifinals against Detroit.

Last season, Hughes suffered a torn plantar fascia in his left foot during the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit. For the first time in his career, Hughes took cortisone shots in his foot to relieve the pain and continued to play until his body broke down completely in the NBA Finals and he painfully had to back out of the last two games.

Hughes spent a good portion of his 2 ½ seasons in Cleveland hurt and playing hurt, and he never found happiness there after leaving Washington in the summer of 2005 to sign an incentive-laden, five-year, $60 million contract with the Cavaliers. When he was traded to the Bulls at the trade deadline last February, Hughes made some comments to Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal about leaving a contender in Cleveland to join a lottery team in Chicago that didn't go over too well with the folks in Ohio.

Here's what he said: "I play to enjoy myself, some people take this the wrong way, but winning a championship is not what I base everything on. I was given an opportunity to play basketball, travel around and have fun doing it and that's what I want to do. I wouldn't take being unhappy and not being myself and winning.

I'm not winning but I'm happier than I was in Cleveland. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

I would rather enjoy myself with 18,000-20,000 people watching the game and the people sending fan mail and those things and be happy ... I didn't come here to play the point guard, that's just it. I came here to run the wing, just like [LeBron James] was running the other wing. I was asked to sacrifice for the team to win and for everybody, I guess, get paid. That is what was told to me and I wasn't happy with that."

After saying that, some perceived Hughes as a player who would rather lose and have fun than win. Hughes said on Thursday that he didn't care how his words were interpreted.

"I didn't react, because like a week later, Steve Nash was on ESPN giving the same interview," Hughes said. "He said it didn't matter, that it didn't justify his career to win a championship. All I was really saying is, 'Yeah, I want to win. Yeah, I go out every night and try to get the win, but I want to have fun doing it.' "

I asked Hughes why he was unhappy in Cleveland. I knew full well that he wanted to play an open, fast-breaking offensive style similar to what Eddie Jordan ran in Washington. Instead, Cleveland ran a slow, boring half-court offense that often featured LeBron James dribbling at the top of the key and kicking it to Hughes in the corner to launch jumpers. Uh, that was not going to work for someone who could do a lot well on the basketball court - other than shoot.

"It wasn't my style of basketball," Hughes said. "It wasn't how I enjoy playing. Nothing against what they are doing over there, it just wasn't how I thought I would go over there and play."

Hughes was a poor fit in Cleveland. He didn't like it. The fans didn't like him. One fan even created this website.

I know I wouldn't have called you overrated. (Photo by Tony/cavaliers.com)

The trade that yielded Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Delonte West and Joe Smith was made specifically to get rid of Hughes. The organization grew frustrated because Hughes couldn't stay healthy, couldn't play point guard, or shooting guard, or sixth man, or shooting guard again. Every experiment failed until the Cavs decided it was time to move on. Yes, the Cavaliers wanted to give James a better supporting cast - and it's debatable if that really has happened - but they really just want to say farewell to Hughes.

Being out of the playoffs for the first time in four years, Hughes said it was painful to watch the Wizards and Cavaliers go at it and not be a part of it.

"We'll be back," Hughes said. "The team I'm playing on will be back in the playoffs soon. You have to step away from it and really realize what you're missing. I've watched every game so far."

As Hughes spoke, a Wizards fan walked up to Hughes and said, "We miss you, Larry. We want you back."

Hughes smiled at the fan and said, "That might still happen."