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WASHINGTON -- After more than two weeks of negotiations, the Washington Wizards on Wednesday finally named Leonard
Hamilton as their new coach.
Terms were not disclosed, but Hamilton, who coached at the
University of Miami for the last 10 seasons and turned a
struggling program into a consistent winner, reportedly received
a five-year contract worth about $10 million.
|  | | Leonard Hamilton took the 'Canes to three straight NCAA Tournaments. |
"I think Leonard Hamilton's record is impeccable as far as going
into programs and turning it around," said Wizards director of
basketball operations Michael Jordan at an afternoon news
conference. "That's what we expect here. What he did at the
University of Miami is what we're trying to build around."
Jordan turned his attention toward Hamilton after failing in his
attempt to hire St. John's coach Mike Jarvis. The deal with
Jarvis apparently fell through late last month when the sides
could not agree to financial terms.
Jordan had no such problems with Hamilton, but the process was
delayed since Hamilton needed to negotiate a buyout of his
contract with Miami. He had signed a seven-year contract
extension worth more than $5 million in April after leading the
Hurricanes to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and a share of
the Big East regular season title.
"Obviously, I'm extremely excited about being part of a new
beginning," Hamilton said. "It didn't take long for me to
realize with Michael's competitiveness that he wants to build
this into a winning basketball program. I just felt a tremendous
positive feeling about the direction of the program and I wanted
to be a part of it."
Hamilton, 51, becomes the Wizards' fifth coach in three seasons
and the second appointed by Jordan. In January, Jordan fired
Gar Heard and named Darrell Walker interim coach. In the
lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, Bernie Bickerstaff was fired
and replaced by interim coach Jim Brovelli.
Hamilton has never coached on the NBA level and takes over a
franchise that has made just one playoff appearance in the last
12 years, a first-round sweep to the Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in
1997. Amazingly, the franchise has not won a playoff series
since 1981-82.
To make matters worse, the Wizards have salary cap problems with
veterans Juwan Howard, Rod Strickland and Mitch Richmond signed
to huge contracts and they also do not own a first-round pick.
Washington finished last in the Atlantic Division with a 29-53
record last season.
"I'm going to try to bring a tremendous work ethic to this
organization," Hamilton said. "I'm sure over a period of time,
I'll earn the respect (of the players)."
At Miami, Hamilton took on the challenge of building a program
in 1990. After compiling a 34-80 record in his first four
seasons, Hamilton started to flourish with his recruits and
recorded a 110-67 mark over the next six seasons.
"It's hard to leave a program in which you put 10 years into
it," Hamilton said. "But I was not rassling with the decision
because I had some doubt we would be successful here. My
anxiety was because I worked so hard to build a winning program
at Miami and it was difficult to make that decision about
leaving them when it appears we are close to being very, very
special."
In 14 years of coaching at the college level, Hamilton has a
200-210 record. He previously coached for four years at Oklahoma
State.
Wes Unseld is the Wizards general manager, but the hiring of the
coach was handled solely by Jordan, who interviewed Lenny
Wilkens, the winningest coach in NBA history, and former Chicago
Bulls teammate John Paxson for the Wizards job after the season
ended.
ESPN's David Aldridge reported Sunday that Hamilton is expected to name former Bulls assistant John Bach as his top assistant with the Wizards. Bach also was the Warriors head coach in the early 1980s.
Meanwhile, a flurry of candidates have emerged for the vacant Miami job. Sources have told ESPN.com's Andy Katz that some of the most
legitimate are South Florida's Seth Greenberg, Delaware's Mike Brey, Hofstra's Jay Wright, Tulane's Perry Clark, Old Dominion's Jeff Capel and Massachusetts coach
Bruiser Flint.
Information from ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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