Wizards can clinch 1st division title in 38 years

With a Washington Wizards win Tuesday night or an Atlanta Hawks loss, Washington will clinch the Southeast Division - the club's first division title since the 1978-79 season.

That's not just the longest division-title drought in the NBA, it's the longest such streak of any team in major North American professional sports.

When the Wizards last managed the feat, the team had a different name, played in a different division, and was based in a different community: The 1979 Washington Bullets won the Atlantic Division playing their home games in suburban Landover, Md.

The team won its lone NBA championship the previous season, and went on to lose the 1979 Finals to the Seattle SuperSonics.

From the 1979-80 season on, Washington's earned one of the worst winning percentages in the NBA, and while the club has made the postseason 14 times in that span, it hasn't gotten past the second round of the playoffs.