Bullets haunt team eight years after it changed its name

In 1997, the Washington Bullets changed their name to the Washington Wizards because the old moniker’s aura of gunplay seemed crass in a city riddled with gang violence. Eight years later, the name is forgotten and the violence lives on. Andray Blatche, pictured, the team’s second-round pick in the 2005 draft, lies in a Washington-area hospital after being shot in the chest on Sunday. “ The information we have received is that Andray was a victim of a carjacking,” Ernie Grunfeld, the team’s president of operations, said yesterday. “ We have spoken to Andray and the doctors have informed us that he is in good condition.” Police in Alexandria, Va., told The Washington Post that shortly after 6 a.m., a car carrying Blatche and two of his friends was approached by two masked men. One of the suspects had a gun and ordered Blatche out of the car but the gunman shot him in the upper body before he could exit. Blatche’s mother, Angela Oliver, told the Syracuse PostStandard newspaper in upstate New York that the bullet did not hit any vital organs. The Wizards took Blatche 49th overall in this June’s NBA draft. He had averaged 27.5 points, 16 rebounds and 6.0 blocks as a fifth-year senior at South Kent Prep in Connecticut after four seasons at

Henninger High School in Syracuse. The

19-year-old signed a two-year contract with the Wizards and averaged 9.2 points and 6.8

rebounds as a forward for the

Wizards’ summer league team.

Washington’s regular season

begins on Nov. 2 in Toronto.