Washington (AP) – With a New managing director and coachWashington’s mystics are just beginning the test process to build a competitor again.
Part of the plan is obvious. The mystics want to develop a reputation for a friendly organization of players.
“We want it to be a house, where players can find themselves and really want to be here,” said coach Sydney Johnson. “I think that the lasting success will follow.”
The mystics officially presented Johnson as their new coach and Jamila Wideman as managing director on Wednesday. Washington comes out of two consecutive seasons of sub500 and was silent in the free agency. During their press conference, Johnson and Wideman focused less on the XS and the OS and the strategy for building alignment and more on the creation of good culture.
“These two in particular have spent a large part of their lives flowing into other people,” said Michael Winger, president of monumental basketball, who manages both the mystics and the NBA wizards. “With little or no fanfare – they are not celebrated – but countless people have become better humans, better athletes, better defenders because of them. It was incredibly important to us, that we could have leaders who understood that there was so much more for the athlete behind the jersey, behind the sneakers.
With a new collective agreement planned after this season, the free agency in 2026 could be a great opportunity for teams who need to add talents. Wideman warned of emphasizing the next offseason too much, but it was easy to read between the lines when she and Johnson have talked about the future of mystics.
They want Washington to be an attractive WNBA destination.
Wideman thinks Washington has a lot to offer, especially for international players. The team’s current list includes Aaliyah Edwards (Canada), Sika Koné (Mali) and Jade Melbourne (Australia).
“This place, this city, speaks of itself. We also have to talk to the players why, “said Wideman.” While the League becomes more and more international, I think we have something really special in this city in the sense that there are so many communities and that there are such diversity. “
Wideman played in Stanford, graduated in 1997. She played in the inaugural match of the WNBA that year and was responsible for the first decisive pass in the history of the League. She has spent the past six years at the NBA, more recently as a senior vice-president of the development of league players.
Johnson was the Ivy League player of the year of his senior season in Princeton in 1997. He then trained the male teams of Princeton and Fairfield. He began his career as coaches as an assistant to Georgetown under John Thompson III, who is now vice-president of Monumental.
Johnson was assistant coach for the Chicago sky of the WNBA last year.
The mystics won their first championship in 2019 behind Star Elena Delle Dona, but due to the problems of pandemic and covid-19 injuries, she only played 51 games in the next four years. She then withdrew last season after the team gave her a basic designation.
Washington started 2024 with 12 consecutive defeats, and although the mystics have almost rallied to make the playoffs, they finished 14-26. The team replaced GM Mike Thibault and coach Eric Thibault with Wideman and Johnson.
These two are now starting with a fairly clean slate.
“There are a lot of things that we cannot control. To win, to win championships, it’s luck, it’s dependent, it’s a lot of things, “said Wideman.” What we can do is do our best to control what is in our hands. I think one of the things in our hands is simply to build culture. »»
___
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-mazing
