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The first round of the draft drew real, genuine fans of the Wizards, who have won 15 games. I can’t say if they were people who just love the free cooling of indoors on a 90-degree day, or if they had actually heard the name “Alexandre Sarr” before Wednesday night. But the Wizards have a loyal community willing to fill about 80 percent of the arena’s lower seating area and sit at every round table in the room. They stay loyal to this team because they hear the truth.

General managers and executives of professional teams can use the Wizards as a case study after 2023. They may Build and maintain enthusiasm among your fans by adhering to the simple principle of truthfulness. If the franchise’s flagship player is making a quarter of a billion dollars, but the franchise itself is living in the gutter, make the hard (but actually easy) decision and sell him. If you have to tear the whole thing down, do it in a way that makes the season historically miserable. And if you have to fill the roster with teenagers, then the coaches better know Gen-Z slang and how to properly use “rizz” in a sentence.

Also, let everyone know that you are doing this, especially paying customers.

The magicians do not have to explain directly: “We’re going to be miserable!“But the brain trust, which begins with President Michael Winger and General Manager Will Dawkins, is not confusing fans with the illusion of fighting for the ninth play-in spot. Previously, this seemed to be the upper limit with Bradley Beal as the star, Tommy Sheppard as the longtime general manager and Ted Leonsis as the owner who is too busy expanding his sports empire to really care about the basketball product.

But since restructuring the executive team after the 2022-23 season, Leonsis has given his new basketball decision-makers something he should have told them years ago: permission to tell the truth. Since taking over last summer, there have been moments when the new Wizards executives would have tried the status quo and blocked out reality (“I know if I close my eyes and imagine a late September roster … I see Brad on that team,” Winger told me last June, days before trading that same Brad to the Phoenix Suns). Washington executives have kept things honest with their actions, though. They have signaled a long and patient rebuild: They fired veteran Delon Wright, traded starting center Daniel Gafford for a first-round pick, stripped Brian Keefe of the interim title and gave him power as coach with a focus on player development.

On Wednesday night, Keefe, like any father who looks forward to draft parties, snapped a few photos of his daughter near the tables filled with fans. He was not hassled or even approached. During these formative years, the players will still be inexperienced and the coach will remain relatively anonymous.

But fans are not clueless. They can accept the truth that their favorite team needs to get younger – and automatically lose a lot of games. Losing on purpose is a much better option than being held back season after season with no hope of a long, exciting playoff run in sight.

Although such a date seems a long way off, that didn’t stop Baltimore’s Peter Susko from attending the draft party. Susko and his friend Tom Linder-Pacheco were seated in section 113. Susko wore one of those team giveaways from last season and Linder-Pacheco, busy checking his stock ahead of the ninth pick, wore a gray shirt with “Washington Wizards” written in Hebrew. (He learned that the Wizards had given up Deni Avdija, the inspiration for that shirt, while riding the Metro to Cap One.)

As Susko told me how “ecstatic” he was about selecting Sarr, there was an audible gasp around him when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced Purdue big man Zach Edey as the ninth pick.

“This is crazy,” Susko said after a pause. Then he went on to talk about his excitement for the Wizards. No, not so much because of the upcoming year, but because of more tanking. Nothing crazy about it. He’s just being honest.

“Oh, I want Cooper Flagg next year,” Susko said of the projected first-rounder in the 2025 draft. “I want Sarr, I want (Bilal) Coulibaly to do well, and then I just want to keep building. I see that in the future because I grew up outside of Cleveland before LeBron, so I’ve seen the games before and I know what it’s all worth. So I’m very, very patient.”

The same goes for AJ Lea, a 26-year-old who stood and applauded when the Wizards selected Bub. Carrington with the 14th pick. Lea is originally from New Jersey, but secured a Wizards season ticket when he moved to downtown DC last year. He spent a lot of money watching the Wizards endure their worst season in franchise history, and yet Lea didn’t mind.

“We are definitely on the way up, so I’m not a follower,” said Lea. “We’re starting at the bottom.”

The basement doesn’t have to be so bad, especially if everyone in the building understands they’ll be there for a while. As long as Wizards leadership relays that truth, Wizards fans will keep coming. For draft parties in June, meaningless games in January, and hopefully long-term when that sacrifice finally pays off.