From the time he received that unfortunate phone call about the death of Abe Pollin until he eventually purchased the Washington Wizards eight months later, Ted Leonsis and his consultants spent considerable time researching the franchise in an attempt to understand why it had experienced so many decades of mediocrity.
In the 32 years since the Bullets last reached the NBA Finals, the franchise had won just two playoff series, gone through 13 coaches and made several shortsighted trades that surrendered yet-to-bloom talent. Leonsis, who had executed a successful rebuilding effort with the NHL’s Washington Capitals, came away convinced that the faults of Washington’s basketball team were rooted in a lack of continuity and a failure to commit to a strategy and a core group.
“My experience with the Caps started to color that — continuity and strategy and a plan could work in the NBA,” Leonsis said during a nearly hour-long conversation, his first extensive interview since the regular season ended. He discussed his rookie season as an NBA owner, a year in which he dealt away former face of the franchise Gilbert Arenas, placed the team in the hands of 20-year-old rookie John Wall, finished with just 23 wins, but came away encouraged about the direction of the organization.
Leonsis also threw his support behind President Ernie Grunfeld and Coach Flip Saunders, hoping to quell any more speculation about the two, who have been maligned by critics through a difficult season that ended with the Wizards advancing to the lottery for the third consecutive year.
“Ernie is under contract next year and Flip’s got two years. So there honestly is no reason to even be having these discussions,” Leonsis said. “We’re not afraid to make change. It’s just the change has to be responsible and you make it because you’re not meeting expectations and my expectations were met this year. In fact, I have to say, we’re ahead of my expectations.”
Before taking over as majority owner, Leonsis spoke with the Pollin family about his desires to start the team over from scratch and asked for their assistance. Grunfeld helped those efforts at the trade deadline last season, when he abandoned the Big Three era and cleared up cap space by dealing away Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. And, after the team secured the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, Grunfeld helped restock the cupboard with young talent by acquiring Kirk Hinrich, $3 million and the 17th pick, Kevin Seraphin, from the Chicago Bulls. “Another seminal moment along with getting the first pick,” Leonsis said of the deal, “because you can track what we were able to do there.”
At this season’s trade deadline in February, he used Hinrich to add another rookie, Jordan Crawford
, along with Mike Bibby,
Maurice Evans and the 18th pick in the upcoming draft from Atlanta. With Bibby giving back his entire $6.2 million salary next season to get out of his contract, the Wizards will have ample salary cap room whenever the league and the players’ union reaches an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.
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