Washington Wizards: Top 5 takeaways from an AMA with Tommy Sheppard

5. Tommy is as much a fanboy as the next Washington Wizards fan.

Perhaps the most heartwarming takeaway from Tommy Sheppard’s AMA is that he’s probably just as big a Washington Wizards fan as anyone else out there. When he was asked about his 16 years of service for the Washington Wizards franchise, he had a lot of nice things to say.

Take, for instance, what he had to say about recently retired Washington Wizards center Marcin Gortat:

"It was great to see him the other night. We text back and forth all the time – it was awesome to have Marcin back home. The stories we can’t tell from Polish Heritage Night are the best ones, but… When Marcin was a free agent, I went to Poland to recruit him to come to the Wizards. I gave him my cell phone, and I called John Wall and Bradley Beal. He got off the phone with them and Marcin said, “Ok, I’m in.” It was great how much those players meant to him."

It’s just so awesome to have someone who has been involved so long with an organization to see them take the next step and become even more key to the organization. He was there when Gortat was recruited, and he helped make that happen.

Despite your personal feelings about Gortat, he had a very storied career with our Wizards. And during his tenure, the Wizards had their best string of playoff appearances, mostly due to John Wall obviously, but also due to his solid play in the paint.

On top of the fact that he’s just been involved for so long, Tommy has some real sense of ownership over the team’s success too. WIth so much of his life dedicated to Washington, he’s personally invested in the team and it bodes well for our future.

And, of course, as a fan someone had to ask him about his favorite Wizards moment, and ol’ Tommy boy did not disappoint laying this one on us:

"Pretty tough to top the night when John hit the game-winner in Game 6. Magical moment was followed by the worst memory – losing Game 7 – that was very difficult."

Just like any other fan, Tommy lived for that moment. And he lives to see it again. Just like me and just like you.

You have to love that the guy at the helm is a true fan, and this AMA just reinforced my confidence that he’s the right guy for the job. Let’s hope he can turn this thing around and get us back in championship contention.