The magical 1978 championship run was a very, very long time ago. Washington actually would make it back to the NBA Finals the very next season in a rematch with the Seattle Supersonics, however they fell victim to Seattle's revenge, losing in 5 games and never returning to the game's brightest stage. The following 30 years saw Washington become arguably the most insignificant and least compelling franchises in the NBA.
For the next three decades, pro basketball in the nation's capital was a mixture of ineptitude and irrelevancy performed by a revolving door cast of head cases, cast-offs and faded stars. The endearing quality of blue collar, misfit rosters soon wore away and by 2010 a wave of unbelievably bad luck had Wizard's fans resigning to the new norm: expect the worst.
Yeah, it was that bad. But in 2010, the Wizards won the lottery, literally.
Irene Pollin, the widow of recently deceased long time owner Abe Pollin, represented the team at the annual NBA Draft Lottery wearing her self proclaimed "lucky gold jacket." In a rare break for an ailing franchise, the Wizard's lottery ball was the last to be pulled and the team was awarded the first pick in the coming draft. I think Mrs. Pollin's reaction says it all:
For the first time in a long while, hope stirred and there was a sense of excitement about the future of the franchise.