2002–03 Washington Wizards season

2002–03 Washington Wizards season
Michael Jordan's final season
Head coach	Doug Collins
Owner(s)	Abe Pollin
Arena	MCI Center
Results
Record	37–45 (.451)
Place	Division: 5th (Atlantic) Conference: 9th (Eastern)
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com
Local media
Television	CSN Mid-Atlantic, UPN Washington
Radio	ESPN 980

The 2002–03 Washington Wizards season was the franchise's 42nd season in the National Basketball Association (NBA). This season marked Michael Jordan's final season in the NBA.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	11	Jared Jeffries	Forward	United States	Indiana
1	17	Juan Dixon	Guard	United States	Maryland
2	38	Rod Grizzard	Guard	United States	Alabama
2	39	Juan Carlos Navarro	Guard	Spain	FC Barcelona (Spain)

Michael Jordan

Jordan during warm-ups for the last Wizards home game, on April 13, 2003. The jersey is a throwback to the Washington Bullets uniforms.

Jordan announced he would return for the 2002–03 season, and this time he was determined to be equipped with reinforcements, as he traded for All-Star Jerry Stackhouse and signed budding star Larry Hughes. Jordan even accepted a sixth-man role on the bench in order for his knee to survive the rigors of an 82-game season. However, a combination of numerous team injuries and uninspired play led to Jordan’s return to the starting lineup, where he tried to rebound the franchise from its early-season struggles. The move led to mixed results, as several of Jordan’s younger teammates complained about playing in Jordan’s shadow and his unfair expectations of them.^[1] By the end of the season, the Wizards finished with a 37-45 record once again. Jordan ended the season as the only Wizard to play in all 82 games, as he averaged 20.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 steals in 37.0 minutes per game.

After the season, Wizards' majority owner Abe Pollin fired Jordan as team president, much to the shock of teammates, associates, and the public. Michael Jordan felt he was betrayed, thinking that he would get his ownership back after his playing days ended, but Pollin justified Jordan's dismissal by noting that Jordan had detrimental effects on the team, such as benching Larry Hughes for Tyronn Lue, making poor trades, and squandering the teams' 2001 1st round draft pick on high schooler Kwame Brown who never panned out. Without Michael in the fold the following year, the Washington Wizards were not expected to win, and they didn’t. Despite the signing of future All-Star point guard Gilbert Arenas, which had been made possible by Jordan's previous cap-clearing maneuvers as a team executive, the team stumbled to a 25-57 record in the 2003-04 season.

Jordan's stint with the Washington Wizards was closely watched by both fans and the media. While the team failed to qualify for the playoffs in either of Jordan’s two seasons as a player, the team was competitive and sold out arenas around the league.^[2]

The Wizards replaced Jordan's managerial role with General Manager Ernie Grunfeld. Though the organization fielded a competitive team built around Gilbert Arenas for several years, the team again stumbled into the lower echelon of the league in the years following Arenas' numerous off the court issues. However, after the Wizards drafted John Wall in 2010, and Bradley Beal in 2012, they have returned to prominence, making the playoffs in 2014.

Standings

Atlantic Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Div
y-New Jersey Nets	49	33	.598	–	33–8	16–25	16–8
x-Philadelphia 76ers	48	34	.585	1	25–16	23–18	17–7
x-Boston Celtics	44	38	.537	5	25–16	19–22	13–12
x-Orlando Magic	42	40	.512	7	26–15	16–25	14–11
Washington Wizards	37	45	.451	12	23–18	14–27	11–13
New York Knicks	37	45	.451	12	24–17	13–28	9–15
Miami Heat	25	57	.305	24	16–25	9–32	5–19

Player stats

Note: GP= Games played; MPG= Minutes per Game; STL= Steals; RPG = Rebounds per Game; APG. = Assists per Game; BLK = Blocks; PPG = Points per Game

Player	GP	MPG	STL	RPG	APG	BLK	PPG
Jerry Stackhouse	70		65	3.7	4.5	28	21.5
Michael Jordan	82		123	6.1	3.8	39	20.0
Larry Hughes	67		86	4.6	3.1	24	12.8
Tyronn Lue	75		47	2.0	3.5	1	8.6
Christian Laettner	76		82	6.6	3.1	40	8.3
Kwame Brown	80		50	5.3	0.7	80	7.4
Juan Dixon	42		26	1.7	1.0	3	6.4
Brendan Haywood	81		32	5.0	0.4	119	6.2
Etan Thomas	38		8	4.3	0.1	23	4.8
Bryon Russell	70		70	3.0	1.0	7	4.5
Jahidi White	16		1	4.6	0.1	12	4.2
Jared Jeffries	20		8	2.9	0.8	5	4.0
Bobby Simmons	36		10	2.1	0.6	3	3.3
Anthony Goldwire	5		0	0.6	0.2	0	2.6
Charles Oakley	42		13	2.5	1.0	6	1.8
Brian Cardinal	5		0	1.0	0.2	0	0.8

Roster

Washington Wizards roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. From F 5 Brown, Kwame 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 270 lb (122 kg) Glynn Academy F 35 Cardinal, Brian 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 245 lb (111 kg) Purdue G 3 Dixon, Juan 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 164 lb (74 kg) Maryland G 15 Goldwire, Anthony 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 182 lb (83 kg) Houston C 00 Haywood, Brendan 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 268 lb (122 kg) North Carolina G 20 Hughes, Larry 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 184 lb (83 kg) Saint Louis F 1 Jeffries, Jared 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 230 lb (104 kg) Indiana G/F 23 Jordan, Michael 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 195 lb (88 kg) North Carolina F/C 44 Laettner, Christian 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 235 lb (107 kg) Duke G 10 Lue, Tyronn 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Nebraska F/C 34 Oakley, Charles 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 225 lb (102 kg) Virginia Union F 2 Russell, Bryon 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 225 lb (102 kg) Long Beach G/F 21 Simmons, Bobby 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) DePaul G/F 42 Stackhouse, Jerry 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 218 lb (99 kg) North Carolina F/C 36 Thomas, Etan 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 256 lb (116 kg) Syracuse F/C 55 White, Jahidi 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 290 lb (132 kg) Georgetown	Head coach Doug Collins (Illinois State) Assistant coach(es) Larry Drew (Missouri) Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) Brian James (Illinois State) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured

Award winners

• All-Star: Michael Jordan (14th)

References

1. M. Jordan's Legacy Is a Vastly Different Tale of Two Cities
2. His playing career ends -- with frustration, betrayal and flashes of brilliance

• Washington Wizards on Database Basketball
• Washington Wizards on Basketball Reference