What You Need to Know: The History of the Wizards
Home Town: Washington, DC
Owner:
General Manager:
Coach: Randy Wittman
Home Court
Name: Verizon Center
Opened: 1997
Seating Capacity: 20,173
Championships: 1978
Conference Titles: 1971, 1975, 1978, 1979
Division Titles: 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1979
The franchise was founded in 1961 as the Chicago Packers. A year later, they changed their name to the Zephyrs, before heading east and taking up residence in Baltimore.
In 1973, the team began playing home games in the Washington D.C. suburb of Landover, Maryland, and soon became known as the Washington Bullets. The team won its only NBA title in 1978, when Unseld and fellow hall-of-famer Elvin Hayes led the Bullets to an upset of the heavily-favored Seattle Supersonics.
In 1999, Michael Jordan became the Wizards' team president... and in 2001, he emerged from retirement and launched his second comeback -- at age 38. Even at his advanced (for a basketball player) age, Jordan was a force on the court, but his decisions as an executive were spotty at best -- most notably his decision to draft high-schooler Kwame Brown with the first overall selection in the 2001 NBA Draft. Jordan was fired after the 2002-03 season.
Flip Saunders reached an agreement to become the new coach of the team in mid-April, 2009. Despite having the second best chance at obtaining the number one overall pick in the 2009 draft, the Wizards were randomly chosen to pick fifth overall in the NBA Draft Lottery.This pick was later traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, along with Songaila, Thomas, and Oleksiy Pecherov, in exchange for Randy Foye and Mike Miller.
Despite having only the 5th-best odds of obtaining the No. 1 pick (10.3% overall), the Wizards won the 2010 NBA Draft lottery and selected All-American Kentucky point guard John Wall with the first overall pick. Later in the offseason, the team acquired the Chicago Bulls' all-time leader in three-point field goals, Kirk Hinrich and the draft rights to forward Kevin Seraphin in exchange for the draft rights to Vladimir Veremeenko.
The Wizards' first season with their new look was an eventful one. After a poor start to the season, Head Coach, Flip Saunders was fired and Assistant Coach, Randy Wittman, was appointed as the new head coach. On March 15, the Wizards were involved in a three way trade that sent JaVale McGee and Ronny Turiaf to the Nuggets and Nick Young to the Clippers in exchange for Nenę and Brian Cook.
After ending the season on a six game win streak, the Wizards finished with a record of 20-46 (season was shortened due to the 2011 NBA Lockout) and the second worst record in the NBA, comfortably ahead of the 7-59 Charlotte Bobcats who set a new NBA record for the lowest win percentage in a season with .106.
The Wizards sent Rashard Lewis and a pick to the Hornets for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza.
In the 2012 NBA Draft The Wizards selected Bradley Beal and Tomáš Satoranský.
(Sources: About.com and Wikipedia)
2012:
The Wizards finished 2012 29-53, with a .354 winning percentage, third in the Southeast division behind the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. This was enough to give the Wizards the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference, not enough for the playoffs. Third overall draft pick Bradley Beal finished third in Rookie of the year voting, and earned a spot on the All Rookie First Team.The team as a whole struggled with injuries, playing without John Wall, Nene and Beal for stretches of time. When he returned from injury, John Wall played like a true superstar. Martell Webster overplayed his salary, as a valuable contributor off the bench.
The Wizards look to be a lottery team for the near future, but could surprise in the Eastern Conference.