How The Wizards Got Erased From NBA History

Crazy to think that as of January 7th, the Wizards are 6-29 but are being overshadowed by the Pistons being 3-32.

As a Washington DC area native, my mind was blown when you stated the fact that the Wizards haven’t won more than 50 games since 1979. And now that I think about it, I can’t think of the Wizards ever once cracking 50 wins since I started following the NBA in the mid 2000’s. For reference, I was born in 1989 so at the time I was born it had already been a decade… Jesus Christ that hurts to hear 😅

As a wizards fan of 23 years, I can tell you my basketball fan life has been atrocious 💔

in terms of remembering the Wizards for one player, I can list either John Wall or Arenas. They were spectacular players and gave everything they had to D.C. People forget how good John Wall was.

The reason unseld and the wizards are forgotten is because their best years were during the 70s which is the most forgotten era

I love the long-form video, Andy. It would be just as interesting to see you cover the history of other 'forgotten' teams like Charlotte or even the Hawks up until now

No 50 win season in over 40+ years is actually insane.

Two of the most forgotten teams in NBA history have to be the Wizards and Hawks, both ironically in majority black cities that historically produced NBA talent throughout the decades.

They refuse to acknowledge Wes Unseld the way they should as well as elvin Hayes. Wes won an mvp as a rookie, led them to 4 finals and won a chip and not a peep is mentioned on him when talking about all time great center, all because he wasn’t a big time scorer.

I remember Bullets team in 1997. They had a really good roster back then and advanced to the playoffs (lost to CHI in 3 games). Strickland, Cheaney, Howard, Webber, Muresan, T. Murray. They were fun to watch and impressive.

That mid 90s team was all the right players at the wrong time. Webber was battling his shoulder injury, and both Rasheed and Ben Wallace where just too young. Howard actually peaked early. Also, having 4 power forwards and no real outside threat doesn't help.

A franchise thats got John Wall, Agent Zero, and for a flash of time C Webb and MJ. I don't recall anything about their teams in the 2 plus decades I watched the NBA outside of knowing about those aforementioned players being once part of the Wiz/Bullets teams. And yet when you think about it, their history from the past was honestly as solid and even great at times as the Raiders in the NFL and like the Raiders they were relatively irrelevant after the 1980s outside of flirting with potential, but unlike the Raiders this Wiz franchise is largely forgotten. Really sad.

"you may recognize the name but not the game" that line was hard😭

I've been casually following the Wizards on and off for close to 20 years. Like Andy said, I've always been waiting for them to make SOME kind of splash to get attention from the NBA, either with a big star player, or a deep playoff run, or something. They're a blank slate, but they always seem to be rebuilding, and it makes me wonder if management and ownership cares about this team at all.

Bernard King was actually very memorable for his Bullets tenure. He made that amazing comeback from serious career threating injuries, and each year he was a Bullet, he improved. Finally, he made it back into the All-NBA discussion and was threatening to win a scoring title deep into the season. Unfortunately, that's when another serious injury struck. It's a story of redemption, then another final fall, but definitely a memorable one. He was the only really memorable part of the post-Unseld playing career, though Webber, Arenas, and Wall did make some impact as well. And of course, there was Jordan.

It must be suck really for the Wizards to be forgotten. I truly appreciate it even if this is the longest video you had so far. I really enjoyed it.

This is really the longest video I've seen from Andy. Very well done.

I feel for the Wizards fans. 35-44 or so wins is definitely a rough spot to be in. Sacramento Kings languished for the ENTIRE mid 2ks and 2010s in that zone. Not good enough for the West playoffs, but were better than several 6-8 seeds in the East. Being mid definitely sucks 😢

Talking about DC being transient I feel like if Vegas gets a team same thing will happen, that’s already happening with the Raiders sometimes there’s more fans from the opposing team …

It's sad that Jordan and everyone else either forgets or simply pretends that his time with the Wizards happened because up until his miniscus injury, Jordan was getting slowly back to his Bulls numbers. He didn't have the insane athleticism we were accustomed to seeing from him, but also remember, he was playing at 38-40. In professional basketball, that's about 70 years old, especially for the era he played in. But despite all of that, his time in Washington was remarkable as hell! He was keeping up with the 20-somethings and he still had all-time performances. I wonder what would've happened had his injury not happened.