WASHINGTON – The Washington Wizards hired Brian Keefe as their coach on Wednesday, sticking with the man who led the team on an interim basis from late January until the end of the season.

Keefe was in his first season as an assistant coach for the Wizards when he was promoted to interim head coach on Jan. 25, replacing Wes Unseld Jr. Washington was 7-36 at the time of the change and went 8-31 the rest of the way.

“We are excited for Brian to become our next head coach. Brian is a proven motivator and connector of people,” Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said in a statement. “As a leader in the organization, he will continue to positively grow and invest into the development of our players. His wealth of experience will help move our team forward as we build for long-term sustained success.”

Keefe was an assistant for Oklahoma City when the Thunder reached the NBA Finals in 2012. Keefe joined the Wizards after a couple of seasons with Brooklyn.

“I look forward to continuing to work with our players and helping them grow and develop,” Keefe said. “As a team, we are committed to a collaborative approach to build an environment of accountability and hard work that allows us to improve every day.”

The Wizards broke up their core — one that wasn’t accomplishing much — last offseason when they traded Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis. The result was predictable: Washington finished with a franchise-record 67 losses.

The Wizards have the second pick in the June 26-27 draft, but it’s unclear if there’s a generational talent available who can expedite Washington’s rebuild. So Keefe’s return isn’t particularly huge news around the league — at least not compared to when the Lakers and Cavaliers eventually fill their coach openings.

Washington hasn’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 1979. Kyle Kuzma led the Wizards with 22.2 points per game last season, and Jordan Poole can provide occasional scoring bursts. Washington took Bilal Coulibaly with the No. 7 pick in last year’s draft.

Now Keefe will have a chance to prepare for a full season in charge instead of being thrust into a head coaching role near the midway point.

“BK did a tremendous job,” Poole said shortly after the end of the season. “Credit to him for rallying our guys together through a long season, playing players to their strengths all across our team and keeping guys together. He did a really good job of allowing me to play my true position and play more on ball. So he did a really good job. Credit to him — it was a tough move right away, being in the middle of the season.”

Although Washington’s record spoke for itself, there were some positive comments about the team’s internal culture when players did exit interviews with the media.

“I’ve never felt closer with a group of guys than I do with these guys,” guard Landry Shamet said. “Winning can mask a lot of stuff that’s going on in a lot of other organizations. I think it was encouraging to see that there’s a real vested interest in building a foundation of community and connectedness here, and that definitely was noticed.”

Giant pandas have been one of the biggest attractions at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., ever since the first pair arrived in 1972 — a historic token of friendship from communist China.

Now, National Zoo officials say D.C. will get two new adolescent pandas by the end of the year. The last bears departed in November, bound for China on a FedEx cargo plane, with no agreement in place to secure a new pair.

“We’re beyond thrilled,” says Brandie Smith, director of the National Zoo. “The first time I walked through the panda house after the pandas had left, that was a really sad moment. But then we immediately turned our eyes toward the future.”

China has a monopoly on one of the cutest creatures in the animal kingdom — the native range of giant pandas is entirely within the country’s borders. Today, there are roughly 2,000 of the animals lumbering around the bamboo-filled mountains of south central China.

For decades, the Chinese government has gifted or loaned pandas to zoos around the world. It’s a practice that’s been called “panda diplomacy,” and it often coincides with trade deals or other diplomatic events. But as relations have soured in recent years between China and the U.S., China stopped renewing panda loans to U.S. zoos. Atlanta is currently the last zoo in the country to have giant pandas, and they are set to return to China.

Asked whether international relations were at play in the D.C. panda negotiations, Smith said she couldn’t comment. “That’s not really my area of expertise,” she says.

The San Diego Zoo is also set to get a new pair of pandas sometime soon, but no date has been announced.

The 2-year-old bears heading to D.C. are named Bao Li and Qing Bao. Both were born at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan. Bao Li has D.C. roots, though: His mother, Bao Bao, was born at the National Zoo in 2013 and was a local celebrity before being sent to China in 2017. Bao Li’s grandparents, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, lived at the National Zoo for 23 years before being returned to China last year.

“We need that panda!”

Mariel Lally, one of the zoo’s panda keepers, traveled with the bears in the FedEx cargo plane last year on their flight back to China. While there, she happened to see Bao Li and immediately noted a resemblance with his grandfather, Tian Tian.

“We were just falling on the floor, we just couldn’t believe how adorable he was. We just kept saying, we need that panda, we need him,” Lally says. “We had no idea it would come to pass.”

At age 2, pandas are considered “sub-adults,” Lally says, comparable to the teenage years in a human lifespan.

“They’re going to be a little cub-like, still really playful, and want to spend a lot of time in the trees playing with toys,” Lally says.

The new panda loan comes with terms similar to previous agreements. The loan has a term of 10 years, though previous loans have often been extended. Any cubs born to the pair will belong to China and must be sent back upon turning 4 years old. The National Zoo will pay $1 million a year to the China Wildlife and Conservation Association in exchange for the pandas, funds that are intended to support research and conservation efforts.

After decades of international efforts to breed pandas and restore habitat, the animals are no longer considered endangered. Giant pandas are now listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Chinese environmental officials.

At the National Zoo, federal funding covers basic expenses like food and medicine for animals, but it doesn’t pay for the panda loan fee or cover the full cost of the panda program. The program has an annual budget of $2.8 million, including the fee. About three-quarters of that budget is funded by donations, zoo memberships and other sales.

About 2 million people visit the National Zoo annually, and for many, the giant pandas have been the first and favorite stop. Smith says there hasn’t been a noticeable decline in visitors since the last pandas departed, but it’s hard to tell because the zoo’s busy season is just now ramping up. And, she says, there are plenty of other animals to see.

“We know our visitors might come for the pandas, but they stay here for everything else,” Smith says.

While the panda habitat has been empty, the zoo has taken the opportunity to upgrade the building and outdoor space. Crews are currently at work building new fences, larger indoor and outdoor platforms, and ponds.

“We want to make sure whatever we put in is going to be sturdy, especially with two young mischievous pandas that are probably going to try to take the whole place apart,” Lally says.

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