Alright, so let's get this thing going.

First off, my name's Mike Jones -- yeah, yeah, I know, "Who?" But yes, that's my name, and no, I'm not a rapper. I'm the new Wizards beat writer for The Washington Times, and I'm more than excited to begin this new chapter and glad to have you along.

You may, or may not have, seen my name before. For almost two years now I've been masquerading as a sports copy editor while writing the occasional feature and, most recently, the weekly NBA Report while waiting for my call to the big leagues.

Almost 10 years after I started writing for one of the papers in my hometown of Warrenton, Va., as a junior in high school, aspiring of some day landing a gig like this, here I am.

I take over for veteran NBA writer John Mitchell, whom everyone down at Verizon Center -- Wizards players, coaches and officials, P.R. people and competing reporters -- all describe as a legend. J-Mitch spent 10 seasons covering the Wizards for The Times, so I have a lot of catching up to do. "You've got big shoes to fill," the aforementioned crowd has reminded me repeatedly during the past week I've been shadowing Mitchell. But I'm not going to try to be him. That's impossible. What I will do however, is go all out the best way I know how and try to take you inside the Wizards, beyond the post-game highlights and box scores.

While welcoming me to the beat, fellow reporters have told me, "This is a fun team to cover." And it's taken me no time to see that. Last week it was Gilbert Arenas cracking jokes about Antawn Jamison to interrupt Jamison's interview with the media. This came after Jamison joked that he was going to sing Mitchell the old Boyz II Men song "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" as a farewell gift. A few days later, the veteran Wizards recounted a tale of dumping rookie Nick Young into a tub of ice water for shooting off at the mouth. Then on Tuesday rookie Oleksiy Pecherov interrupted another Jamison interview, screaming in his thick, Ukrainian accent, "MY BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER!" right after Pecherov had challenged Caron Butler to a shooting contest.

Yes, this will be a fun team to cover. And tonight it starts in full force with a matchup in Cleveland against LeBron James. Let's get it on!

-- Mike Jones