Washington Wizards: Top 5 Moments of the Decade
By Jack Skolnik
#4: (2019) The Washington Wizards fire longtime General Manager, Ernie Grunfeld
What a great day it was. After sixteen seasons leading the Wizards front office, Ted Leonsis fired Ernie Grunfeld on April 2nd, 2019. The only word that came out of a majority of Wizards fans mouths was, “finally.”
Grunfeld’s reign in DC was one that many fans did not understand from start to finish. Grunfeld was hired in the summer of 2003 after the end of the Michael Jordan era. In his first move as GM, Grunfeld signed former Warriors guard, Gilbert Arenas to a 6 yr $60 million dollar deal. It was a very solid move to start out Grunfeld’s tenure, and it was all downhill from there.
After years of incompetent move after incompetent move, the Wizards faithful thought Grunfeld would finally be fired after gungate in 2009. But Nope. He went on to be the GM for another decade.
In his time as the head man, Grunfeld made some of the worst moves I have ever seen in the NBA by an executive, which included:
- Signing Gilbert Arenas to 6 yr $111 Million dollar deal AFTER tearing his ACL in 2008
- Trading the #5 pick in the 2009 draft for Mike Miller and Randy Foye
- Drafting Jan Vesely #6 overall in the 2011 draft
- Signing Ian Mahinmi to a 4 yr $64 million dollar deal in 2016
- Signing Otto Porter to a max contract in 2017
- Trading Kelly Oubre Jr. for 40 games of Trevor Ariza in 2018
I do not want to harp too much on the negatives as this is supposed to be a list of good memories, however its hard to mention Grunfeld without the negatives. For some reason Grunfeld was given chance after chance and continued to make the worst of his situation. For some reason though owner Ted Leonsis stuck with him.
After so many years of incompetence, Ted finally saw what the players and fans were talking about, and gave Grunfeld the boot. In his place, Tommy Sheppard has done a nice job since taking over the team. Sheppard’s list of above average moves since taking over, just show how low the expectations were under Grunfeld.
To be able to move on from Grunfeld after years of incompetence should be a moment for which everyone involved (unfortunately) should always be grateful. With Tommy Sheppard now running the team, the Wizards have been given some new life.