The Washington Mystics finally have their next head coach and general manager.
The Mystics hired former Chicago Sky assistant and USA Basketball coach Sydney Johnson as their next head coach Monday afternoon. They also announced that NBA Senior Vice President Jamila Wideman will take over as the team’s next general manager.
With open arms, DC welcomes you, Sydney Johnson, as the new head coach of the Washington Mystics.
We look forward to starting the new year with a new journey on and off the field. pic.twitter.com/qdDNjlqxWQ
– Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) December 23, 2024
The duo will take over from Éric Thibault and Mike Thibault, who were both fired in October. Mike led the team to a WNBA title in 2019 while in both roles, then his son, Eric, was promoted to head coach in 2023 when Mike left coaching. Eric had also served as an assistant coach for the team.
Washington went just 14-26 last season and finished ninth in the league while missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Mystics also started the season 0-12. The team reached the playoffs in the first two seasons of Eric’s tenure as head coach, but failed to win a playoff game under his leadership.
Johnson, who played at Princeton, spent four seasons as head coach of the Tigers after four years as an assistant coach at Georgetown. He then managed Fairfield for eight seasons. He worked last season as an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky, and he has coached in various roles with USA Basketball since 2020.
Wideman has spent the last six seasons in the NBA’s league office. The former Los Angeles Sparks guard, who was the third overall pick in the inaugural WNBA draft, actually recorded the first assist in league history. She focused on player development within the league, although she never worked for a team’s front office.
“The wealth of Sydney and its history of building teams and its ability to wrap its arms around these teams – I think that bodes really, really well for the Mystics,” said Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger, via Washington Post. “And then you add in Jamila’s ability to just lift people up. We obviously look more at human development and less at the mundane manager-operator type of thinking.
“That’s how we feel like we’re going to go through the next era of the ‘W’ and overtake a lot of teams that are doing it the same way that most teams are doing it. And we just didn’t want to do it the way most teams do.
The Mystics were the second team in the league to hire a new head coach on Monday, after The Dallas Wings have hired former USC assistant Chris Koclanes to replace Latricia Trammell. Washington was the last of seven teams to hire a new coach this offseason. The Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces are still looking for new general managers.
Washington will have the Nos. 4 and 6 overall picks in the WNBA Draft in April. The team will then begin the season against the Atlanta Dream on May 16.
