The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. They are a member of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team plays its home games at the Capital One Arena (formerly the MCI Center and the Verizon Center). The franchise was established in Chicago, Illinois as the Chicago Packers in 1961; after one season, its name was changed to the Chicago Zephyrs. In 1963, the franchise moved to Baltimore, Maryland and was renamed the Baltimore Bullets. It moved to Landover, Maryland in 1973 and changed its name to the Capital Bullets. After one season, the team became the Washington Bullets. In 1978, the Bullets won the 1978 NBA Finals in seven games for the franchise's only championship. In 1997, the team became the Washington Wizards, which is the team's current name. Since their formation, the Wizards have won six divisional championships, four conference championships, one league championship and have appeared in the playoffs twenty-three times.
There have been 24 head coaches for the Wizards franchise. The franchise's first coach was Jim Pollard, who led the team for one season. Dick Motta is the only Wizards coach to have led the team to a championship; the team won the 1978 NBA Finals as the Washington Bullets during his tenure. Gene Shue is the only Wizards coach to have won the NBA Coach of the Year Award; he won it twice, in 1969 and 1982. No Wizards coach has been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach, but four have been elected into the Hall of Fame as a player: Jim Pollard, Buddy Jeannette, K. C. Jones and Wes Unseld. Shue is the franchise's all-time leader in regular-season games coached (1027) and wins (522); Jones is the franchise's all-time leader in regular-season winning percentage (.630). Dick Motta is the franchise's all-time leader in playoff games coached (51) and wins (27), as well as playoff-game winning percentage (.529). Five Wizards coaches have spent their entire NBA head coaching career with the team: Mike Farmer, Bob Staak, Jim Brovelli, Leonard Hamilton and Ed Tapscott. The team's current head coach is Brian Keefe.
Key GCGames coachedWWinsLLossesWin%Winning percentage#Number of coaches*Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Packers/Zephyrs/Bullets/Wizards
Coaches # Name Term GC W L Win% GC W L Win% Achievements ReferenceRegular seasonPlayoffs1 80 18 62 .359 — — — —2 38 12 26 .316 — — — —3 – (as player-coach) 122 44 78 .361 — — — —4 80 37 43 .463 10 5 5 .5005 80 38 42 .475 3 0 3 .0006* (interim) 9 1 8 .111 — — — —— (interim) 16 3 13 .188 — — — —7 – 548 291 257 .531 40 14 26 .350 NBA Coach of the Year8 – 246 155 91 .630 31 14 17 .4529 – 328 185 143 .564 51 27 24 .529 NBA Championship (1978)— – 479 231 248 .482 15 5 10 .333 NBA Coach of the Year10 – 122 57 65 .467 8 2 6 .25011 – 547 202 345 .369 5 2 3 .40012 – 210 82 128 .390 — — — —13* (interim) 1 0 1 .000 — — — —14 – 149 77 72 .517 3 0 3 .00015* (interim) 18 5 13 .278 — — — —16 44 14 30 .318 — — — —17 (interim) 38 15 23 .395 — — — —18* 82 19 63 .232 — — — —19 – 164 74 90 .451 — — — —20 – 421 197 224 .468 26 8 18 .30821* (interim) 71 18 53 .254 — — — —22 – 181 51 130 .282 — — — —23 – 377 178 199 21 12 9 24 – 390 183 207 24 10 14 25* – 207 77 130 — — — —26 –present 203 43 160 — — — —
Notes A running total of the number of coaches of the franchise. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once. Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.
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