Professional basketball is taking a step forward in Columbus.

It won’t be the NBA, and it won’t be the NBA’s G-League, either. When the Columbus Wizards open the 2026 season on Otterbein’s campus, it will once again give the city a team in The Basketball League, the third tier of professional basketball in the United States. The Wizards will take the place of the Condors, who folded in 2011, and take a step up on the ladder that is professional basketball in the United States after spending the past three seasons in the American Basketball Association.

The task of getting into the league had plenty of challenges. The biggest one still lies ahead, though: Can the team prove itself as a viable, long-term entity in the Columbus sport landscape?

“We want to legitimize ourselves and build a solid base so this isn’t a fly-by-night, year or two thing, and the team folds,” Wizards chief operating officer Randy Dineen said.

That process started years ago when the Wizards began playing in the ABA for the 2023 season. The team came together when the league reached out to Columbus resident Casey Gillespie, a Briggs graduate who had previously been president of the Ohio Bruins in the ABA. That team eventually folded and Gillespie was out of the minor league basketball world for about four months before partnering with high school friend Jared Smith, who ran a training business called Wizard Workouts.

Smith had played for the Bruins, and Gillespie said he wanted to try and create new opportunities for his former players to continue playing. When the ABA contacted Gillespie about starting a new team in Columbus, they opted to keep the Wizards name and pursue the opportunity.

This time, Gillespie said, he knew the missing element that had held back the Bruins and the Condors before.

“Watching them and having aspirations to play at the (TBL) level they were playing at, I always identified that missing piece, which was the community,” Gillespie said. “We take a lot of pride in making sure we have things good across the board operationally. The basketball is going to take care of itself.”

After playing two years in the ABA, the Wizards had to check a few boxes to gain entrance to the TBL. There was an undisclosed entry fee, Dineen said, and a process of proving to the league that the organization was structured to be a successful market both on and off the court. That means giving back to the community and connecting with schools are expectations for the organization, which Gillespie said has already entered into partnerships to varying degrees with the Special Olympics, Huckleberry House, the Ronald McDonald house and the Dublin Learning Academy.

All of that led to an accepted invitation to join the 34-team TBL for the 2026 season, which will begin in March and run through June. The Wizards have a three-year agreement to play their home games at the Rike Center at Otterbein but have been working on securing a consistent practice space, offering to run camps for kids during the day for access to a recreation center in the evenings.

“We want to put a family-friendly, fan-first, affordable product out there,” Dineen said. “It will not break the bank to come to a Wizards game and we want to make sure if you come to a Wizards game, you’ll have fun.”

More work remains. The Wizards have held multiple rounds of tryouts and are in the process of assembling their inaugural TBL roster. Both Dineen and Gillespie said that their tryouts have drawn candidates from across the country and that they have also made overtures to former Ohio State players residing in the area. Like the team’s staff, players will play for the Wizards in addition to holding down full-time jobs.

The team will be coached by Ray Corbett, who in 2023 retired from coaching boys basketball at Grandview after 36 years.

“It is legitimate basketball,” Dineen said. “Sometimes when people hear minor league basketball, what kind of basketball is it? Can I go watch 10 guys play at the YMCA and it’s not going to be any different? This is legitimate, high-level basketball.”

The hope is that it will stick. Gillespie and Dineen repeatedly emphasized that this is a passion project borne from a desire to create something to benefit the community and also allow more basketball players to further their careers. Nearly 150 TBL players have also played international professional basketball and at least two have moved up from the league into the NBA: Lindy Waters III (San Antonio Spurs) and Kylor Kelley (Los Angeles Lakers).

Now, it’s Columbus’ turn to try and make something happen.

“The one message I would love to be able to express to the world about this process is this is a dream, not only for the players who are coming aboard but for the leadership group,” Gillespie said. “We understand it’s far-fetched, a lot of what we aspire to do. We’re just good-hearted, humble people. We don’t try to be anything more than we are.”

Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.