The Washington Wizards bear a unique debt to their fan base.
Among NBA franchises founded before 2000, Washington is the only team that hasn’t recorded a single 50-win regular season in the last four-plus decades.
Washington hasn’t won 50 games in a season since 1978-79, the year after the then-Bullets won their only NBA championship. Since then, 14 different franchises, slightly less than half of the league, have won at least one title, and every other team (except the current Charlotte Hornets, who started play in 2004-05 as the Charlotte Bobcats) has reached at least one conference final. In fact, more than half of the NBA’s teams — 17 — have made five or more conference finals during that stretch.
Fans in D.C. have waited longer than any other fan base in the league for a team that both wins at a consistently high level and has a real chance to contend. Many franchises have built, rebuilt and re-rebuilt contenders during that stretch, while Washington has meandered from decade to decade, never achieving anything approaching league wide relevance.
Occasionally, a superstar has come through the District — Chris Webber, Gilbert Arenas, John Wall — and, briefly, raised expectations. But it’s never been sustainable.
The Wizards’ new brain trust has been empowered by team governor Ted Leonsis to do whatever it takes to, finally, put the franchise on a true contender footing. The new front office is attempting to do just that, with a comprehensive rebuild of the franchise from the bottom up. The Athletic is examining the myriad changes in philosophy, personnel and infrastructure that the Wizards are making as they try, at long last, to remake the NBA’s most forlorn franchise.