CHICAGO — One of the greatest moments in Washington, D.C., sports history occurred approximately three miles due south from Navy Pier, where the NBA held its annual draft lottery Sunday afternoon.
In January 1988, at Soldier Field, the football team then known as the Washington Redskins upset the Chicago Bears in an NFC Divisional playoff game, 21-17. That was the frigid afternoon when Darrell Green returned a punt 52 yards for a touchdown, hurdling a would-be tackler on the play. Three weeks later, led by quarterback Doug Williams and rookie running back Timmy Smith, the Redskins won Super Bowl XXII.
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It’s far too early to know whether the Washington Wizards’ victory in the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery will ultimately be regarded as fondly as the football team’s 1988 victory over the Bears is remembered.
But for the NBA’s longest-suffering franchise and its loyal fans, what happened Sunday might be the clear inflection point when things finally shifted. The football team’s road to Super Bowl XXII was glorious, but it wasn’t transformative; the franchise had won a title several years earlier. Sunday’s lottery win could transform the Wizards.
“Ultimately, it’s our fans that have endured the most,” said Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger, who represented the Wizards in the room where the lottery drawing took place.
“To me, this No. 1 pick is for them. It is a reward for hanging in there with us. It’s a reward for continuing to support us despite sometimes really bad basketball. They knew, and they supported, a multiyear teardown and a multiyear reinvention of the franchise. I think it’s a moment to celebrate them.”
Winger has a singular perspective as a primary architect of the Wizards’ teardown and attempt at a build-up, so it’s no wonder that he reported feeling a mixture of celebration and relief. His excitement for the fans is sincere. But even he might not fully appreciate how much Greater Washington’s pro basketball fans have stomached over the years.
Ted Leonsis, the principal owner and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, hired Winger three years ago. Winger knows the Wizards’ history — how the franchise has not won at least 50 games in a season since 1978-79, back when it was known as the Bullets, and has not reached the Eastern Conference finals since 1979.
Yet because he is from Ohio and did not grow up a Bullets or Wizards fan, even Winger cannot know what it felt like to ride the roller coaster of so many false starts: the 1980s trades for Gus Williams and Moses Malone; the implosion of a promising young roster headed by Chris Webber and Juwan Howard; Michael Jordan’s comeback; and the injuries that upended the careers of Gilbert Arenas and John Wall.
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Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins tore down the roster so they could build it back up.
They understand that to win an NBA title, you simply must have an elite player.
The last NBA championship team not to feature at least one player who made an All-NBA first, second or third team that same regular season was the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons, and that team was anything but devoid of high-level talent. The Pistons’ playoff roster was led by former No. 2 pick Isiah Thomas and another future Hall of Famer, Joe Dumars.
Over the last three years, Winger and Dawkins have added promising young players such as center Alex Sarr, wing/forward Kyshawn George and shooting guard Tre Johnson, but none of those youngsters currently project as definite future All-NBA players.
Given the quality of this draft, whoever the Wizards pick first overall next month almost certainly will have All-NBA upside. Whether Washington will draft BYU wing AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke big Cameron Boozer or North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson remains unclear. But any one of those four almost certainly will be the most talented of the Wizards’ young players.
“I’m just really thrilled for our organization but also for our fans,” coach Brian Keefe said. “This is just a great day for them to celebrate that. Another step for our journey.”
In the drawing room, Winger sat stone-faced as NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell announced the number on each of the four pingpong balls to emerge from the lottery machine: 4 … 2 … 1 … 13.
Winger calmly wrote each number in a soft-cover journal that also included a photo of his wife, Sadie, and their four children.
“Congratulations to Washington for winning the first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft,” Spruell said after pingpong ball No. 13 was drawn.
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Indiana Pacers executive vice president and assistant GM Ted Wu, sitting to Winger’s left, patted Winger on the back. Winger gave a thumbs-up signal with his left hand.
About one hour later, after he emerged from the secure drawing room, Winger told reporters that he felt “extremely excited” but did not have any difficulty not showing emotion because there was no one else in the room to celebrate with.
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“(I was) the only one there for the Wizards,” Winger explained. “I didn’t have a friend in the room who was sort of there to support me. So I could have celebrated by myself and looked around for somebody to high-five. There wouldn’t have been anybody there. But otherwise, it moves pretty quickly. We were sort of already on to the next thing. And I just didn’t feel it was my place to celebrate.”
Winger said a dinner for team officials scheduled for Sunday night probably was going to be a bit different.
“I’m sure that it will be a lot of fun, and the wine will be passed around,” Winger said. “But we’ll move on to the next thing pretty quickly. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. Six weeks until the draft, and there’s a lot of work to be done, and we’ve got to get after it.”
Winger’s right. A lot could still go wrong. The Wizards will have to make the best possible choice at No. 1 and then help develop that player to his best potential.
But there’s no question that the Wizards have an opportunity now to ascend.
Their fans have waited a long time for this moment.
Attendance at Capital One Arena during the miserable 2025-26 tanking season was among the league’s worst, but longtime Washingtonians know how hungry the city and its surrounding suburbs are for a sustained winner. You only had to live through the Bullets’ successes during the 1970s and the college scene of the subsequent decades — with Georgetown, Maryland and Virginia often at or near the top of the men’s college basketball pantheon — to know the area’s potential as a basketball hotbed.
This is the Wizards’ chance.
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When Darrell Green led the Redskins to that 1988 victory over the Bears, the Redskins were only five years removed from their first Super Bowl championship.
Wizards fans have waited 46 years for a second NBA title.
After Sunday, they can begin to dream about being part of the conversation again. The Wizards are relevant now.