Leonsis asked about Brooks' contract future originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Chairman of Monumental Sports and Entertainment Ted Leonsis held a press conference on Friday ahead of his Capitals beginning their Stanley Cup Playoff series, the Wizards hoping to qualify for the NBA Play-In Tournament and the Mystics getting set to tip-off the 2021 WNBA Season. Naturally, the subject of contract extensions came up.
Caps fans are wondering about the future of Alex Ovechkin, while Wizards fans want to know what the team will do this offseason once head coach Scott Brooks' five-year contract expires.
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For both questions, Leonsis shifted focus to the remaining games his teams are scheduled to play. Basically, fans will have to wait a little while longer.
"Totally the same answer. We have such an important game tonight [against the Cavs]," Leonsis said.
"We want to win out; we want to win tonight and we want to win on Sunday. We’ll then get into the play-in and then we’ll see what happens going into our season. But our focus is to try to continue this upswing. We took a step back with the injury to Brad [Beal], but everyone in the organization is pleased that we’ve gotten this far. All of the focus is on just getting into that play-in."
Leonsis then veered into an explanation for why he loves the play-in tournament as a concept. It happens to have benefitted the Wizards to a great degree by giving them a chance to turn their season around after injuries, Covid-19 and inconsistent play led to a rock bottom of 15 games under .500.
Related: NBA Play-In Tournament explained with rules, dates
Leonsis did, though, drop a line later in his press conference that could be applied to the Wizards and their situation with Brooks. When discussing the challenges of the 2020-21 season amid a pandemic, and how the coronavirus affected the Wizards, he said this:
"We start every season with every one of our teams as we have to make the playoffs. If we can make the playoffs, then you can aspire to winning a championship," Leonsis said.
Brooks, 55, has the Wizards in position to make the play-in tournament, with a magic number of just one. They could clinch on Friday night with a win over the Cavs.
Would making the play-in tournament be enough to earn a new deal? You will have to wait and see.
