The Washington Mystics’ season ended over one month ago, when, after starting the season 0-12, the team just missed out on the playoffs following a 6-4 finishing stretch.
On Tuesday, the leadership of Monumental Basketball decided the team’s in-season progress was not enough to secure the futures of general manager Mike Thibault or head coach Eric Thibault, as the organization announced it had “agreed to mutually part ways” with the father-son tandem.
On the decision, Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger said:
After extensive reflection and conversation, we have decided we are at a point in our competitive and evolutionary cycle to turn the team over to new leadership with a renewed vision to carve our path into the future of WNBA basketball.
He then offered words of appreciation for both Thibaults, sharing:
Coach Mike elevated the Mystics program to its proud status as a league leader in innovation, the standard bearer in player care, and a model franchise. He built and coached the Championship team, developed high performing players, and pioneered many of the processes teams use today in building rosters and organizations. His fingerprints are all over this franchise and will be for years to come. We are grateful for Mike’s commitment, passion, and leadership and wish him well. Coach Eric is a skilled coach and equally talented motivator. Our players are fortunate to have played for Eric these past two seasons, as will many other players in this league for decades ahead.
The elder Thibault had been with the organization since before the 2013 season, the start of a 10-year head coaching tenure that was highlighted by the team’s 2019 WNBA championship. Before the 2023 season, Mike stepped away from coaching, solely focusing on the general manager role he also had held. He turned over head coaching duties to Eric, who had been an assistant to his father since 2013.
The Mystics are now the fifth WNBA team without a head coach, joining the Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky, Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings. Washington’s dismissal of Eric Thibault means that every team that missed the 2024 playoffs is looking for a new head coach. The Mystics are the second team, along with the Wings, also in need of a new general manager.
