Yahoo Sports Washington Mystics hire Sydney Johnson as next head coach, Jamila Wideman as next GM
Sydney Johnson most recently worked as an assistant with the Chicago Sky, and Jamila Wideman spent the last six seasons with the NBA
The Washington Mystics finally have their next head coach and general manager.
The Mystics hired former Chicago Sky assistant and USA Basketball coach Sydney Johnson as their next head coach Monday afternoon. They also announced that NBA senior vice president Jamila Wideman will take over as the team's next general manager.
With open arms, D.C. welcomes you, Sydney Johnson, as the new Head Coach of the Washington Mystics.
We’re eager to tip off the New Year with a new journey on and off the court. pic.twitter.com/qdDNjlqxWQ— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) December 23, 2024
The duo will take over for Eric Thibault and Mike Thibault, who were both fired in October. Mike led the team to a WNBA title in 2019 while in both roles, and then his son, Eric, was promoted to head coach in 2023 when Mike stepped away from coaching. Eric had also been an assistant coach with the team.
Washington went just 14-26 last season and finished ninth in the league while missing the playoffs for the first time since 2021. The Mystics started the season 0-12, too. The team made it to the playoffs in the first two seasons of Eric's run as head coach, but failed to win a playoff game under him.
Johnson, who played at Princeton, spent four seasons as the Tigers' head coach after a four-year run as an assistant coach at Georgetown. He then led Fairfield for eight seasons. He worked last season as an assistant coach with the Chicago Sky, and he's coached in various roles with USA Basketball since 2020.
Wideman spent the last six seasons in the NBA's league office. The former Los Angeles Sparks guard, who was the No. 3 overall pick in the first WNBA Draft, actually recorded the first assist in league history. She has focused on player development with the league, though she's never worked for a team front office.
“Sydney’s well-roundedness and his history of building teams and being able to wrap his arms around those teams — I think that bodes really, really well for the Mystics,” Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger said, via The Washington Post. “And then you tack on Jamila’s ability to just, like, lift people. We’re obviously leaning way into human development and less sort of the run-of-the-mill-managerial-operator type of thinking.
“That’s how we feel like we’re going to rocket through the next era of the ‘W’ and pass a lot of teams that are doing it the way that most teams do. And we just didn’t want to do it the way most teams do.”
The Mystics were the second team in the league to hire a new head coach on Monday, after the Dallas Wings hired former USC assistant Chris Koclanes to replace Latricia Trammell. Washington was the last of seven teams to hire a new coach this offseason. The Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces are still looking for new general managers.
Washington will have the Nos. 4 and 6 overall picks in the WNBA Draft in April. The team will then kick off the season against the Atlanta Dream on May 16.
