The Washington Wizards are a professional basketball team that is based in Washington, D.C. They play in the national Basketball Association, also known as the NBA. In the 1961-1962 season, the team now known as the Wizards began to play as the Chicago Packers. In their nest season, they changed their names to the Zephyrs. In 1963, the franchise moved to Baltimore Maryland where they became known as the Baltimore Bullets. In their first season in Baltimore, The Baltimore Bullets finished fourth in a five team Western Division. In the 1965 NBA playoffs, the Bullets shocked the St. Louis Hawks, 3-1 where they then advanced to the western Conference finals. The Bullets managed to split the first four games with the Los Angeles Lakers before they lost the series 4-2.
They remained the Bullets until 1995 when the owner Abe Pollin announced that the franchise was to be renamed. The Bullets reputation carried violent overtones which he wanted to repudiate. A contest was held to decide the new names,the list was narrowed down to the Dragons, Sea Dogs, Express, Stallions or Wizards. In 1997, The Bullets officially became known as the Washington Wizards. A new logo was revealed and their colors changed from red, white and blue to blue, black and bronze. The team continued to decline in the 1990's.
After retiring from the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordon became the Wizards' president of basketball operations, as well as a minority
owner in 2000. In 2001, Michael Jordon, who was 38, came out of retirement to play for the Washington Wizards. In 2007-08, the wizards began their season with a 0-5, but they rebounded to win 6 straight games. The Wizards managed win 43-39 games in the regular season. That made then 5th place in the Eastern Conference.
