Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Wizards haven’t been playing their best ball lately. Naturally, we blame the coach.
Randy Wittman has been in everyone’s crosshairs over the past month or so, whether it’s because of his offensive strategy, rotations or just his weirdly expressive face.
No one’s going to argue that Randy Wittman is among the best coaches in the history of basketball. But in the history of the Wizards? Well, that’s a different story. When you look back at this franchise’s past, you might realize that Randy Wittman isn’t so bad. In fact, this team has lived through a whole lot worse.
There are only two criteria for inclusion in this ranking: first, said coach had to have coached the team after the move to Washington, DC in 1973, and second, said coach had to have been the full-time coach, not an interim. (Sorry, Eddie Tapscott.)
Let’s get to it, starting with one of my least favorite humans of all time.
Next: 13-10
Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
13. Flip Saunders: 2009-12
51-130
It was under Flip Saunders that the Washington Wizards franchise hit its ultimate rock bottom. Gun scandals. 20-win seasons. Mike Bibby. But the horrible travesty that was the Flip Saunders Era goes beyond win and losses.
After the waking nightmare that was the 2009-10 season and the jettisoning of most of DC’s veterans, Saunders suddenly had in his hands a very young – but very talented – team. Andray Blatche, Nick Young and JaVale McGee all had star promise, and under Flip Saunders, not one would ever come close to fulfilling their potential.
To me, one of the greatest tragedies to ever befall the Washington Wizards franchise was the way Andray Blatche’s career played out. He had absolute superstar potential – he was a big man with incredible natural talent, who could excel in any area of the game he wanted, and most importantly, he was just so smooth.
He could have been the greatest big man to play in DC since Elvin Hayes. In general, NBA players are a highly competent and self-motivated bunch – they don’t need disciplinarians or taskmasters to order them around. But at the very least, an NBA head coach needs to be able to both command the respect of his players and to have fostered a culture of accountability.
In that sense, and every other, Flip Saunders was a failure. And instead of becoming the All-NBA player he could have been, Andray Blatche is merely part of the Wizards’ lost generation.
12. Leonard Hamilton: 2000-01
19-63
You know Leonard Hamilton, the Florida State coach? Fun fact: he actually coached the Wizards for a year! Hamilton was a career college coach, a longtime assistant at Kentucky and later the head man at Oklahoma State and Miami, when the Wizards took a flyer on him in 2000 – it was a disaster. Let’s not speak of it anymore.
11. Garrell Heardker: 1999-2000
29-53
The era of Washington basketball between the reigns of Gene Shue and Eddie Jordan was terrifying and aimless. We were but mere babes, wandering through the mist – this was epitomized in the lost 1999-2000 season, where former NBA players Gar Heard and Darrell Walker combined for an exceedingly mediocre 29-53 record.
Gar Heard, at least, will live in NBA lore forever for his famous turnaround buzzer beater that sent one of the greatest games in the history of basketball, Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals, into triple overtime. In two stints as an NBA head coach, he went 23-74 – he was fired 44 games into the season in his lone campaign as Washington Wizards skipper.
Darrell Walker was a similarly failed former NBA coach who had had a nice NBA playing career. He spent 10 years in the league, four with the Bullets in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s – in the 1989-90 season, he posted one of the NBA’s all-time weirdest stat lines, averaging 9.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 8 assists for a full season.
He returned to DC after posting 41-90 in a year and a half as the head coach in Toronto. He went 15-23 with the Wizards, and never had a head job again.
10. Jim Lynam: 1994-97
82-128
Best known as the head coach for the Charles Barkley-era 76ers, Jim Lynam’s greatest glory came as the coach for St. Joseph’s during their Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in 1981.
In his three seasons as the Bullets head coach, Lynam never had a winning record, and was fired halfway through the 1996-97 season despite being just under .500. He’s now a studio analyst for the Philadelphia 76ers. He seems like a decent guy and a somewhat competent coach overall, and I have little to say about him. Thanks for all that you do, Jim Lynam.
Next: 9-7
Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
9. Doug Collins: 2001-03
74-90
Oh, the Jordan years. What were we thinking?
8. Wes Unseld: 1988-94
202-345, 2-3 playoffs
Wes Unseld hasn’t played a game in 34 years, but they still wear his jersey in DC. Next to Abe Pollin, he’s the most significant figure in this franchise’s history. He was the cornerstone player for the Bullets’ glory years, Washington’s head coach for seven seasons, and the general manager for five more.
Well… one out of three ain’t bad. Unseld’s tenure as the Bullets’ bench boss actually started pretty well – after Kevin Loughery started 8-19 in 1987-88, Unseld was able to get the Bullets into the playoffs, where they’d drop a very hard-fought first round series to the Bad Boy Pistons. Unseld coached six more years in Washington, and never again posted a winning record.
Later, as GM, he’d manage to trade away Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber AND Ben Wallace before any of them hit their primes. But he drafted God Shammgod! We can never stay mad at you, Wes.
7. Eddie Jordan: 2003-08
197-224, 8-18 playoffs
My dad and I first started going to Washington Wizards games regularly in 2005. At that time, the person who sat in front of us in section 113 was a guy named Leon who would drive down to the games from Bowie, Maryland. Leon was a nice guy, but he absolutely couldn’t stand two people: Antonio Daniels (I can’t explain that one either) and then-Wizards coach Eddie Jordan. I was 11 years old then, and viewed sports with a generally uncritical eye: if the Wizards won, hurray, if the Wizards lost, sadness. The Wizards were decent then, so I had no qualms with Eddie Jordan.
But in time, Leon’s steadfast hatred of Eddie Jordan rubbed off on me, and I think it played a small part in helping me become the snarky, manic-depressive NBA fan that I am today.
Eddie Jordan’s transgressions were thus: he inherited the most talented Washington team since the 1970s, and only won one playoff series. His teams scorned defense and played hero ball offense. The Eddie Jordan era will forever be synonymous with missed potential – much of his misfortune was not his fault, but he never was able to improve the situation.
Eddie Jordan did less with more than just about any coach you’ll find. Goodbye forever, Eddie.
Next: 6-4
Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports
6. Kevin Loughery: 1986-88
57-65, 2-6 playoffs
Kevin Loughery, who spent eight years with the Bullets as a player, guided Washington to a playoff appearance in his one full season as head coach. The other two years, due to various shenanigans, he only coached a combined 40 games.
Loughery was a Bullets assistant in 1985 when Gene Shue was fired with just 13 games left in the season, and Loughery was able to guide DC to a playoff spot. The next year, Loughery’s Bullets went 42-40 – they’d get swept in the first round, the Bullets would start 8-19 the next year, and Loughery was out.
Loughery also coached the Nets, Hawks, Bulls and Heat, and had the privilege of being one of two men to coach the infamous 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers team that went 9-73. Loughery coached the final 31 games, going 5-26 – he was brought aboard after Roy Rubin won just four of the Sixers’ first 51 games.
Rubin was the former head coach at Long Island University, very well respected in the collegiate ranks, who ended up getting the 76ers job after the team posted a want ad for a head coach in a local paper. Rubin never coached again after ’73, and ended up running an IHOP in Florida. Why doesn’t stuff like this happen in the NBA anymore?
5. Bernie Bickerstaff: 1997-99
77-72, 0-3 playoffs
Few men gave as much of their lives to the NBA as Bernie Bickerstaff. A coal miner’s son from Kentucky, Bickerstaff was a Bullets assistant coach for 13 years under KC Jones, Gene Shue and Dick Motta, serving as lead assistant for the Bullets’ championship team in 1978.
He later went on to head jobs with the Sonics and Nuggets, before returning as Bullets coach midway through the 1997 season, when he replaced a fired Jim Lynam and guided the Bullets to their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade. The next year, they were the Washington Wizards, and Bickerstaff did what seems utterly impossible today – he had a winning record in the East, but missed the playoffs.
After an 18-32 campaign in the strike-shortened 1999-2000 season, Bickerstaff was out, later reappearing as the first head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats and as an assistant coach for various teams up until last season. At the age of 72 and after over 40 years in the NBA, Bickerstaff’s career may be over, but he currently stands as one of just four men to have a winning record as head coach in Washington.
That’s a basketball life well spent.
4. KC Jones: 1973-76
155-91, 14-17 playoffs
KC Jones is just ludicrously successful. Not only did he win two NCAA championships alongside Bill Russell at the University of San Francisco, he got to follow his college teammate to the Boston Celtics and win eight more NBA titles as a player. He also won two NBA titles as an assistant coach (the ’72 Lakers and the ’81 Celtics) and two more as the Celtics head coach in 1984 and 1986.
He didn’t do too bad as the Bullets head coach either: he won at least 47 games in all three of his years at the helm in DC. But for better or worse, KC Jones’ career as the Bullets coach will forever be defined by what happened in 1975 – that was when the Bullets romped to a 60-22 record, but in one of the greatest disappointments in Washington sports history, fell in a stunning upset to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. KC Jones inherited the greatest team in this franchise’s history, but he wasn’t the man to take them to the promised land.
Fun fact: there are nine men who have won seven or more NBA titles as a player. Eight of them played for the Bill Russell-era Celtics; the other was Robert Horry. Some guys just have all the luck.
Next: 3-1
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.