Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
3. Randy Wittman: 2012-present
124-143, 6-5 playoffs
Randall Scott Wittman is not a tactical genius. His offensive philosophy is byzantine and frustrating. His rotations are occasionally baffling. His Wittman Faces are bizarre. But he is still one of the greatest coaches this franchise has ever had – and the reason why doesn’t have much to do with X’s and O’s.
In 2012, Randy Wittman inherited an utterly lost team and immediately installed a defensive ethic and a sense of accountability – it started with a few DNP – Conditionings for Andray Blatche, and ended with the Wizards celebrating their most successful season in decades just two years later.
Is Randy Wittman the man to lead the Wizards to a title? In all likelihood, no. He simply doesn’t possess the tactical cunning and creativity. After all, Wittman is the guy who tried to make Kevin Love stop shooting threes. But more than any other single person, Randy Wittman made the Wizards a winner. Criticize him for his mistakes, he deserves it. But give the man just a little bit of credit.
If not for him, the Wizards would still be flailing in the darkness.
2. Gene Shue: 1966-73, 1980-86
522-505, 19-36 playoffs
2x Coach of the Year
A Baltimore native and Maryland Terp, Gene Shue took the head job for the Baltimore Bullets two years after he retired from his playing career as a Bullet. Considering what he did as both a player and a coach in the NBA, he’s arguably one of the most accomplished men in NBA history.
Commonly credited as the inventor of the spin move, Shue was a five-time All-Star as the Detroit Pistons’ point guard and the only Bullets/Wizards coach to win NBA Coach of the Year: which he did twice, in 1969 and 1982. Shue’s first tenure with the Baltimore Bullets resulted in three 50-win seasons and an NBA Finals run in 1971, before he left to take the head job with the Philadelphia 76ers.
He returned in 1980 – coaching the remnants of the 1978 championship team, he made three more playoff appearances. Shue’s 522 career wins are by far the most in Bullets/Wizards history, and it’s a record that may last forever. I mean, if Eddie Jordan couldn’t do it, who can?
1. Dick Motta: 1976-1980
185-143, 27-24 playoffs
1978 NBA Championship
Dick Motta only spent four years in Washington among stints with Chicago, Dallas, Sacramento and Denver – he was a head coach as recently as 1997. Although only 185 of his 935 career wins (it should be noted that he lost 1,017 games too) came with the Bullets, by winning Washington’s only championship he cemented his status as the franchise’s greatest coach and coolest dude.
It was Motta who popularized the phrase “the opera ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings,” which became the Bullets’ famous rallying cry during their title run – and it was Motta who allowed Wizards fans today to look down and scoff at the poor unfortunates like the Toronto Raptors and the Memphis Grizzlies and the Cleveland Cavaliers. We have a title, they do not.
We are forever bejeweled.