Hopwood Out

In the fall of 2000, I made the decision to buy Washington Wizards season tickets. It was perhaps a little impulsive. I was new to the DMV and not fully invested in the Wizards, but at $410 for an entire season, there was pretty much no way to say no. As a transplanted New York Knicks fan (the Patrick Ewing-John Starks-Charles Oakley-Marcus Camby-Latrell Sprewell-Larry Johnson Knicks, that is...) who stood almost no chance to ever get some decent tickets to games at Madison Square Garden, the opportunity to go to a game anytime I wanted for a mere $10 per was too much to pass up.

About 12 years after I made that decision to buy season tickets, I'd become entirely consumed as a Washington Wizards fan, despite there being no realistic chance to that point (or since) that the team even stood a remote chance of competing for an NBA title. I never missed a game unless it really couldn't be avoided and my passion was all year round. Season. Postseason. Draft. Summer League. Free Agency. Preseason. Repeat. So I decided to start writing some of my thoughts as a Wizards fan down and post them on the internet. Why not? Seemed like a natural way to extend my love of this team to others.

It has never been easy being a Washington Wizards fan. Losing sucks. And there's been lots of it since 2000. But over the last few years, I've become convinced that this team is never going anywhere near the NBA Finals for one pretty significant reason: ownership. And so 20 years into being a season ticket holder and 366 posts (including this one) into this blog, I think I'm done with both. I'm out.

Clinching the only Division title in 20 years.

So far be it from me to drop an accusation like I did in the previous paragraph without backing it up so here goes. I used to love how I was embraced as a season ticket holder. There seemed to be so few of us at times. I literally didn't know anyone else who would even consider such an apparent waste of money. But the situation was great. Tickets were heavily discounted and the perks were great. 

But those perks started disappearing. Access to special experiences started to dry up. Tickets got more expensive to the point where it was clearly cheaper to buy them on the secondary market. Eventually, it seemed like I was paying more than I should to remain a part of a club which had no real benefit.

And honestly, all of that would have been OK if there had been on court success these past 20 years. I'm OK even paying for season tickets with no discount if there were a chance at a title. But this organization is clearly not run with the goal of winning, unless it can somehow be done under the luxury tax threshold. Spoiler alert: it pretty much probably definitely for sure cannot be done under the luxury tax. The repeated decisions that have led to failure are baffling: conducting coaching searches with just one candidate in mind; trading first round draft picks for a get-in-the-playoffs-and-maybe-make-the-second-round-now reward; insisting on building through the draft and only through the draft (hey, it worked for the Caps!); and trading away mistaken signings at a cost or for nothing. None of that is going to add up to winning, especially when you hang on to coaches who clearly aren't right for this team (or the NBA) just so you can avoid eating a $7 million salary. 

Fewer perks, an increased cost that's more expensive than secondary market value, management and ownership decisions that lead to repeated on-court failures. Why should I stay? So I can get my 21st season mark after the team failed to deliver on my 20th anniversary reward? No thanks. I'm done. I love the Wizards but it makes no economic or emotional sense to stay in. John Wall was the last emotional reason to hang on. That trade was just the catalyst for me to end it.

All-Star weekend 2015. Meeting Earl Monroe.

So don't get me wrong here. I'm still a Wizards fan. I want this team to win more than practically any other team out there (the New York Jets after 42 seasons are still the one I want to win most). But this ownership and these past few seasons have taken the passion out of the whole thing for me. I don't feel important as a season ticket holder and I'm not excited about either the team's current prospects for winning something (in 20 years as a season ticketholder the team won one division title and nothing else) or even one player on the current roster.

I will also continue to go to Wizards games. I'm actually looking forward to the time when we can go again and I can actually buy tickets for way cheaper than I would have been paying as a season ticket holder. Unless that is the current team (which is 0-4 as of this writing) actually turns into a contender. My money's on that not happening.

I'd like to think that I've made a difference in my 20 years as a Wizards fan. I've certainly been there for the Wizards in a number of ways. I've done two perfect seasons; seen the team on the road in 17 different NBA arenas (against 18 teams); attended every home playoff game in the last 20 years; been to the NBA Draft; been to Summer League seven years in a row in Las Vegas (2008-2015; there was no Summer League in 2011); been to the All-Star Game in New York when John Wall started the game; and was even there when the team clinched their one and only Southeast Division title in March of 2017. And yes, I know that last game was on the road in Los Angeles. I just happened to be there.

A very young John Wall signing at an Obama fundraiser in New York, 2012.

There are still some things I want to do, Wizards-wise. I likely won't ever make it to all 29 (I'm projecting forward to the Clippers having their own pad) other arenas to see the Wizards play on the road. But I'd love to one day watch a Wizards game courtside (yes, I know all I need to do is cough up about $1,000 per seat to do that); I'd love to see the Wizards play in the NBA Finals (absolutely no control over that); and I'd love to see a Wizards player enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. And I don't mean like Mitch Richmond or Paul Pierce or someone like that. I mean someone who you could legitimately think of first and foremost as a Wizard. I guess John Wall has the best shot, although that may be a super long shot. Might be waiting a while on that last one just like that Finals appearance.

I've had a great time writing this blog. Most of the stuff I've written on here has been stupid, silly stuff like ranking team logos and critiquing bobbleheads but I believe in everything I've written on this thing no matter how or when I've written it. It's been a labor of love and I've really enjoyed it. It's also connected me to a larger basketball community in D.C. in a way that I wouldn't have been if I hadn't ever written a single post on this thing. I've also met some people (some of whom have contributed to this blog) that I wouldn't have otherwise met.

Eight and a half years is a long time to write about a basketball team that has accomplished almost nothing and is owned and managed by people who have proved that they don't really know what they are doing. 366 posts (a leap year's days worth of posts, if you will), seems like a good number to end on.

I've dug up some of my favorite Wizards pictures over the years and included them in this post but the one below is still my favorite. I have no idea what's going on in the game but my friend Mike and I are clearly celebrating something good that the Wizards have done on court when nobody else (and I really mean nobody else) is paying the slightest attention or exhibiting any sort of excitement about what the Wizards are doing. It perfectly sums up my experience as a Wizards fan. It's even perfect that it's blurry.

It's been real. Go Wizards. Always.