The Basketball History of Washington Wizards Washington Post Edition

The Washington Wizards began life as the Chicago Packers way back in 1961, but first tasted success as the Baltimore Bullets two years later. Led by Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, the Bullets lost the 1971 NBA Finals to the Bucks and four separate Conference semi-finals to the New York Knicks before moving to Washington in 1973. Five years later, in the franchise’s third Finals appearance, the Washington Bullets became NBA Champions with a 4-3 victory over Seattle. 

The 2020/21 NBA season was a typical one in Washington, as the Wizards finished 8th in the East and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Indeed, in the past 17 seasons, the Wizards have reached the postseason nine times, but have never made it past the Conference semifinals. Young Wizards fans won’t be able to remember the glory days of the 1970s, but they can learn all about a team that reached four NBA finals in nine years, via authentic Washington Post newspaper articles published at the time.

Archivist insight: We reproduce these newspaper articles from scan archives. In some cases, there’ll be blemishes and the reproduction quality might not be as clear or precise as it was in the original paper.