the longest tenured owners in the national basketball association. they bought the baltimore bullets in 1964. poland moved the team to washington, changed their name to the wizards and built an arena which helped to revitalize downtown d.c. we begin our reporting with dan hellie who is at the verizon center. dan? reporter: abe poland s body has been deteriorating for the last year or so. he had a rare illness. he was in a wheelchair, didn t make it to as many games as he would have liked, but he was sharp of the mind. when you talk with people here who worked with mr. poland for a long time, they say he was compassionate, caring, he was loyal, and boy, did he love the people who worked for him, especially the players. there are several guys who have been on this team for a number of years like gilbert arenas who were shocked and saddened to hear of abe poland s death. gilbert said he was like a second father and he will be missed. first person i called was my dad. he was