LOVERRO: Rooting for the Wizards boils down to cheering for a pingpong ball

OPINION:

They had a Washington Wizards Fan Appreciation Night on April 9 — the last home game of the season — at Capital One Arena. They had the Ying Yang Twins, a pregame block party, free T-shirts and other prizes and promotions.

That’s not all. They offered a 40% discount on Wizards merchandise for sale — you know, blindfolds and other Wizards fan survival gear.

But there was no mention of any apology to the fans from owner Transparent Ted Leonsis for an 18-win season.

Granted, that was the goal — just like it was last year when the Wizards won 15 games. 

I know more than four decades of futility — with nearly a third of that now the responsibility of Leonsis — has brought the franchise to this: a celebration of losing. Losing as a goal, with the prize being an opportunity to win a franchise-changing lottery pick.

But losing on this scale, this consistently, for this many years, should by all accounts come with an apology from the owner. Maybe even a personal “I’m sorry” to each fan. 

Apologies don’t come easy for Leonsis. He’s never publicly apologized for his aborted move to Northern Virginia, gleefully abandoning, albeit briefly, the District.

He did offer an apology of sorts before the start of last season in an interview on his Monumental Sports Network. “To be honest, I feel like I failed the fan base for the last three, four years,” he said.

But that was 33-131 ago. Wizards fans are long overdue for another one.

Asking for forgiveness should be a regular post-game occurrence, not just on Fan Appreciation Night. 

Instead, Leonsis says you should be happy to watch this product. 

When my podcast partner, Kevin Sheehan, mentioned to Leonsis that it is tough for Wizards fans to go through this process of welcomed losing — even if it may be the only way to change the direction of the franchise — Leonsis interrupted him, responding, “I’m going to take exception to that it is tough to watch because young players who have upside and they are appreciative of the opportunity and they want to accomplish something together.”

So those people who are paying NBA ticket prices to watch basketball camp should be enjoying this.

Leonsis wasn’t done. “It feels much better just to watch these kids be coachable and to take advantage of the opportunity, I’ve enjoyed that,” he said. “What pains me all the time is having highly compensated players who don’t look like they care much.”

He just described much of the NBA there.

So, what have we been watching with these Wizards?

The rookie trio of Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and Carlton “Bub” Carrington have all received some positive reviews at various points this year. But just one, Sarr, was named by The Athletic to their all-rookie team, and that was second team. He was the second overall pick in the 2024 draft. He should be in the top 10 rookies of the year. Anything else would have been a draft failure.

As I’ve written before, there is one list the young Wizards dominate — the worst plus-minus in the league. Carrington had the worst rating, minus 798, followed by second-year player Bilal Coulibaly, Jordan Poole and Sarr. George had the sixth-worst mark.

Plus-minus is a measure of player stats that attempts to calculate what happens on the scoreboard while that player is in the game. It is simply an analytics tool, and it has critics.

But it shows how dangerous it can be to make judgments and projections about players on a losing team — like the departed Kyle Kuzma, who averaged 22.4 points per game last season in Washington and was seen as a valuable presence on the roster.

Kuzma was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks — a winning team with varsity players. and he has been a disaster there.

The Wizards’ new brass — President Michael  Winger and general manager Will Dawkins — have carried out the mission, acquiring numerous draft picks with the hope that they’ll land someone along the way to change this organization. 

Many believe Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg is that game-changer and will likely be the first pick in the upcoming draft. Washington, along with Utah and Charlotte, has the best chance of landing that top spot in the draft lottery — 14%.

That’s what it comes down to for a franchise that hasn’t won 50 games or been to a conference final in 46 years — pingpong balls. I guess Wizards fans should be appreciative of the opportunity.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.