The Capital City Go-Go are one of the NBA G League's newest teams. They're the Washington Wizards'…read moreG League affiliate and their first season was 2018-19. The Go-Go are named after go-go music, similar to funk, that originated in Washington, DC in the late 70s. The team is unique because they were the first, and are still currently the only, G League team to play in the same city as their NBA affiliate. The Motor City Cruise (soon-to-be former Northern Arizona Suns), the Detroit Pistons' G League affiliate, will become the G League's second team to play in the same city as their NBA affiliate beginning next year (2021).
The Go-Go's first season was concurrent with the opening of, at the time (2018), the brand new Entertainment and Sports Arena in Southeast Washington. The ESA is home to not only the Go-Go, but the WNBA's Washington Mystics. Also, it serves as the Wizards' practice facility. For Go-Go and Mystics games, the ESA seats 4,111 fans (max capacity: 4,200). On one hand, the opening of the arena was timely because it coincided with the Mystics' first WNBA championship. Three WNBA Finals games were held at the ESA. On the other hand, the opening was untimely because the COVID-19 pandemic moved the Mystics away from the ESA and into the IMG Academy bubble in Bradenton, Florida. It also suspended and eventually canceled the remainder of the 2019-20 G League season and playoffs. To date, the last game the Go-Go played at home at the ESA was on March 2, 2020 against the Delaware Blue Coats.
For an expansion team with such a short history, the Go-Go haven't done bad. Two years in a row, they've finished second in the league's Southeast division with no worse than a .500 record: 25-25 in 2018-19 and 22-21 in 2019-20. The team is managed by basketball veteran Pops Mensah-Bonsu who I happen know for two reasons: (1) As a Georgia Tech alumni/fan, I remember Mensah-Bonsu playing for George Washington in their first round matchup against Tech in the 2005 NCAA tournament. (2) As a San Antonio Spurs and NBA fan, I remember Mensah-Bonsu playing, for a short time, for the Spurs and bouncing around other teams in the NBA.
Some name players, at least on the college level, have made their way through Capital City. A handful of notables include Temple's Lavoy Allen (who played seven years in the NBA), Notre Dame's Jerian Grant (four years NBA), Vanderbilt's John Jenkins (six years NBA), Tennessee's Jordan McRae (four years NBA including a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016), Virginia's London Perrantes, and Tennessee's Admiral Schofield. I saw some of these guys up close and in person when they played against Georgia Tech at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta.