Lockout videos: Those Washington Bullets knew how to jam

The Washington Bullets changed their name to the Washington Wizards before the start of the 1997-98 season, a campaign that followed the team's first playoff appearance in over a decade. The 1990s were hardly fruitful times for a Washington team that often appeared full of promise and young talent but rarely followed through and made it to the postseason. The name change was supposed to herald a new era, but more futility was to follow.

With that in place, however, the team still seemed to appear in quite a few music videos.

The first is one I stumbled on a few weeks ago, gladly. It's a song from Crystal Waters (featuring a sample from Earth, Wind and Fire's classic "September") called "Say ... If You Feel Alright."

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The video features a litany of historic and then-contemporary NBA highlights, along with appearances from Juwan Howard, Calbert Cheaney, Ben Wallace (who played all of 197 minutes as a Washington Bullet) and a fellow by the name of Ashraf Amaya that I am proud to say I called out before looking to see who number 50 was. Honestly, I'm beaming with pride over here.

The other clip was brought to our attention by a commentator named "hotplate" (a John Williams reference?) from Bullets Forever. It's a re-worked version of "Hip Hop Hooray," by Naughty By Nature, and it's pretty amazing:

That would be Marty Conlon and Brent Price dancing in sweats, Tom Gugliotta and Michael Adams references, and the initial credit at the end of the video thanking the catering outfit (O'Brien's Pit Barbeque, if you were wondering) ahead of everyone else. Like I said, it's pretty amazing.

But, yes ... still end this lockout, please.

Kevin McHale George Mikan Earl Monroe Shaquille O Neal Hakeem Olajuwon