Abe Pollin

In a surprise development, Washington Wizards general manager Wes Unseld announced yesterday that he will take a leave of absence from the club after the June 26 NBA draft. Unseld, whose tenure with the Wizards goes back to 1968 when the team was in Baltimore and was known as the Bullets, reportedly informed team owner Abe Pollin on Thursday that he wanted to step away for now. "It's time for me to take a break," said Unseld, in a prepared statement released by the club. "I've been putting some things off for several years now that I need to address, but it was important to me to leave on my own terms and in my own time frame.

WASHINGTON -- Washington Wizards majority owner Abe Pollin said last night that general manager Wes Unseld has agreed to a new five-year contract. "I'm not sure he's signed to it, but he's agreed to it," Pollin said after the Wizards' 110-102 loss to the Charlotte Hornets last night at MCI Center. Unseld, 53, has been part of the organization since he was the No. 1 draft choice of the then-Baltimore Bullets in 1968. One of the most celebrated players in the franchise's history and selected among the 50 all-time greatest players in NBA history, Unseld coached the team from 1987 through 1994 and has served as vice president and general manager since 1996.

Good news for ferrets and the people who love them: Those small, mildly stinky critters may now be bought and sold without a special permit in the city. Ferrets are no longer considered wild animals by the health department. The city had been the only metropolitan-area subdivision that restricted ownership of the increasingly popular pets, a domesticated variety of polecat. The Baltimore Ferret Club is quite excited by all this -- though I'll bet they're not too excited by my use of "mildly stinky."

None of the five final name proposals had received widespread approval -- with fans booing the selections loudly each time they were displayed during recent home games -- but yesterday the name change became official for the Washington Bullets.The new name -- the Washington Wizards.Bullets owner Abe Pollin made the announcement last night on a D.C. newscast. Pollin was joined by players Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace and Jim McIlvaine.McIlvaine had stated his liking of the name Sea Dogs, one of the finalists along with Dragons, Express and Stallions.

The Baltimore Arena is operating in the black for the first time in recent memory, but the city still paid $332,000 last year to the firm that manages the facility.That fee, however, is a far cry from the $1.2 million the city-owned arena cost taxpayers before its management was put into private hands in 1988.Under a complex 1988 contract giving control of the 13,000-seat building to Centre Management, the city will pay a fee to the company until the arena's profit tops $484,000. But Centre management is obligated to cover any losses above $650,000.

With contract negotiations at an impasse, Washington Bullets general manager John Nash said yesterday that he is prepared for the possibility of playing the upcoming season without first-round draft choice Tom Gugliotta, the All-ACC forward from North Carolina State who was the sixth player chosen in the 1992 NBA draft."

With no firm counteroffer forthcoming from Europe, NBA lottery choice Tom Gugliotta and his agent have renewed talks with the Washington Bullets this week after rejecting last month's offer of a five-year contract worth $10.725 million.Bullets general manager John Nash confirmed yesterday that Gugliotta -- a 6-foot-10 forward from North Carolina State who was the sixth player chosen in the 1992 draft -- and his agent, Richard Howell of Atlanta, visited the team's Capital Centre office Tuesday.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W. Va. -- This time last year, Washington Bullets owner Abe Pollin vowed, as a matter of principle, he would never trade John Williams, whose lingering weight problems limited him to 33 games over the past two seasons. The veteran forward was under medical suspension all of last year.But last week Pollin gave his full endorsement to the trade that sent all 318 pounds of Williams to the Los Angeles Clippers for rookie forward Don MacLean and reserve center William Bedford, who has since been released by the Bullets.

After bringing the Washington Capitals into the NHL 19 years ago, watching them flounder, then become one of the league's most successful franchises, Abe Pollin is considering selling the team.According to a report in yesterday's editions of The Washington Post, Pollin said that Capitals president Dick Patrick, who represents the team at the league level, would have the first option of purchasing the team.Patrick, a Northern Virginia attorney and real estate developer, owns 20 percent of the Capitals.

The rivalry between Prince George's County and the District of Columbia to build a successor to the 20-year-old USAir Arena re-emphasizes that the basketball Bullets and hockey Capitals are metropolitan Washington's teams. They are not the Washington-Baltimore Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area's teams.In the two decades since the Bullets fled the Civic Center (now Arena) in post-riot downtown Baltimore, where few souls would venture after dark, much has happened. That part of Baltimore is alive and vibrant.