The Washington Mystics have finally chosen new leadership for their next chapter. The team announced in a press release on Monday that Jamila Wideman will be joining the team as general manager and Sydney Johnson will step into the head coach position.
The previous head coach, general manager, and father-son duo Eric and Mike Thibault parted ways with the team in late October. The two-month search for new leadership was led by Monumental Sports alongside a professional search firm, which considered nearly 40 individuals for each position.
General Manager Jamila Wideman was one of the league’s original players, recording the first-ever WNBA assist in the Los Angeles Sparks and WNBA’s 1997 debut. Since her playing days, she attended law school at New York University and served as a civil rights lawyer for over a decade. In 2018, the NBA league office hired Wideman as Senior Vice President of Player Development, where she has worked since.
This will be Wideman’s first time working in a team’s front office.
Head Coach Sydney Johnson, like Wideman, totes a storied basketball background. He was a standout player for the Princeton Tigers in the late 1990s, winning Ivy League Player of the Year following Princeton’s undefeated 1996-1997 season. He continued his playing career professionally, spending five seasons in the Italian second division and two in the Spanish second division.
With open arms, D.C. welcomes you, Sydney Johnson, as the new Head Coach of the Washington Mystics.
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) December 23, 2024
We’re eager to tip off the New Year with a new journey on and off the court. pic.twitter.com/qdDNjlqxWQ
Following his departure from the professional scene, Johnson joined Georgetown’s men’s basketball team as an assistant. He was hired as Princeton’s head coach in 2007, where he stayed until taking the lead position at Fairfield in 2011. Johnson remained at Fairfield until 2019. Most recently, Johnson has coached Team USA 3×3 basketball and was an assistant for the Chicago Sky last season.
As the current coach of Team USA Women’s 3×3 basketball, Johnson coached Mystics star Brittney Sykes at the FIBA AmeriCup. This will be Johnson’s first time as a head coach of a (non-3×3) women’s basketball team and only his second season in the WNBA.
Like recent league hires like Atlanta’s Karl Smesko, Johnson has a deep analytical background. He has worked for the analytics company HD Intelligence since 2022 and led communication between the company and the Team USA Men’s and Women’s basketball teams during the 2024 Paris Olympics. He advised the Women’s team on relevant performance data, shaping attitudes towards lineup changes, practice preparation, and player development focuses.
The Mystics have yet to announce a press conference for the new hires but stated that they will introduce Wideman and Johnson to the media and the DMV in the coming weeks.
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