Top Stories of the Week: Wizards draft Rui Hachimura, Mystics get hot on and off the court

Hello everyone! It was a big week last week whether you primarily support the Wizards, Mystics or in my utopian world — BOTH! So let’s get right to it!

The Wizards draft Rui Hachimura, trade for Admiral Schofield in second round

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The Wizards picked up the Gonzaga forward ninth overall in the 2019 NBA Draft. And then in the second round, they traded for the Tennessee forward, the 42nd pick in the Draft as well as Jonathon Simmons from the Philadelphia 76ers.

Check out our StoryStream for all the stories on the 2019 NBA Draft, but I in particular really liked Ben Mehic’s column from last Thursday as a nice summary of Draft night.

With Hachimura’s and Schofield’s arrivals, the Wizards now head toward free agency. It should be no surprise that Washington declined to pick up Jabari Parker’s $20 million team option.

The Mystics are winners on and off the court!

Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images

The Mystics started a two-game road trip last week which included big wins against the Los Angeles Sparks and Las Vegas Aces. Later this afternoon, they will play against the Atlanta Dream. Washington is second in the WNBA standings with a 6-3 record.

Though Elena Delle Donne has snapped back into form with a 29-point performance against the Aces to celebrate Rui Hachimura’s arrival, her work off the court is just as impressive.

Alison Starling of WJLA-TV reported on Delle Donne’s work off the court, her relationship with her older sister Lizzie and her battle with Lyme Disease in a report last Friday.

As Starling noted in her report, Delle Donne’s philanthropy off the court is just as impressive since she works with the Special Olympics, among others. And in October 2017, our own Jake Whitacre had the chance to interview the Mystics superstar on her wedding as well as her registry for charity instead of for things she can already afford.

And finally, you can see Starling take a pic with the Mystics’ superstar. Is it just me or did Starling play basketball when she was in high school? She doesn’t look THAT much shorter than EDD, who’s 6 foot five inches tall!

Delle Donne isn’t the only Mystics player in the news for her work off the court. Natasha Cloud has also used her presence on social media and in the D.C. area to speak out against gun violence which we wrote about last week. Check out this t-shirt BreakingT made for her here!

Site News

Speaking about Jake, he stepped down as site manager last Monday, June 17. Don’t worry, because I’ll be the interim site manager while we conduct a search. Beyond that, the show must go on.

While this takes place, my main goal as interim site manager is to keep things running smoothly and provide the best content out there for fans, by fans. We’ve added a weekly mailbag so you can get questions answered by our writers. The question I found most interesting was on Wizards’ female GM candidates which Lyndie Wood and Akbar Naqvi answered. That is definitely a must read.

That’s all I have for the week and I hope you are enjoying the start to a safe and enjoyable summer!