The Washington Wizards have announced the hiring of Tommy Sheppard as the team’s new general manager and the inclusion of a few new faces in a reorganized management structure.
Sashi Brown, the former executive vice president of the Cleveland Browns, will serve as chief planning and operations officer for Monumental Basketball — a group that includes the Wizards, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and the Capital City Go-Go of the G League.
Meanwhile, former Georgetown head coach John Thompson III will be in charge of a newly formed athlete development and engagement department.
In his new role, Brown will “manage efforts relating to technology, finance, communications, security, research and player engagement,” the Wizards said in a statement.
Fired during the 2017 season, the Cleveland Browns went 1-27 with Brown in charge of personnel, but his maneuvering opened the door for the team to make the moves that have turned Cleveland into a buzzworthy team heading into this NFL season.
Thompson’s family is considered D.C. hoops royalty, as his father John Thompson Jr. was a Hall of Fame coach at Georgetown. The elder Thompson led the Hoyas to the 1984 national championship and two other NCAA finals appearances. The younger Thompson did not reach the same levels of success, but went 278-151 and made one Final Four appearance in 13 seasons at Georgetown. Thompson III also has served as an ESPN analyst since his coaching tenure ended in 2017. His younger brother Ron has also covered the Wizards as a member of their broadcast team.
For Sheppard, his elevation to general manager of the Wizards comes after he held the job on an interim basis for the past three and a half months, after his longtime predecessor, Ernie Grunfeld, was fired in early April. Sheppard has been with the organization for close to two decades.
Since taking over for Grunfeld, Sheppard has made several moves to infuse the organization with youth and future assets. He drafted Gonzaga forward Rui Hachimura with the ninth overall pick in last month’s NBA draft, and made three trades that brought in multiple second-round picks — as well as several young players to begin an overhaul of Washington’s roster.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Adrian Wojnarowski contributed to this report.