{"id":694326,"date":"2026-04-02T17:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694326\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:51:15","slug":"washington-wizards-apologize-after-10k-april-fools-prank-draws-backlash-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694326\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Wizards apologize after $10k April Fools\u2019 prank draws backlash | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/washington-wizards\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Wizards<\/a> apologized on Thursday after an April Fools\u2019 Day in-game promotion during their loss to the Philadelphia 76ers prompted criticism on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">During Wednesday night\u2019s game at Capital One Arena, a fan was brought on to the court for a blindfolded half-court shot promoted as being worth $10,000. The shot missed, but arena staff and performers reacted as if it had gone in and briefly presented the fan with a ceremonial check as part of what later was revealed to a scripted skit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Video of the sequence circulated online and led to questions about whether the fan had been misled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cTo do this to a fan that chose to come see a 17-win team is unhinged,\u201d Jemele Hill, a contributing reporter for the Atlantic, wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThis is so on-brand for the Wizards season,\u201d former NFL executive turned analyst Andrew Brandt added. \u201cFinding new ways to offend their (few) fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">As the backlash mounted Thursday morning, the Wizards said in a statement that the segment was pre-planned and that all participants were aware of the joke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe apologize for last night\u2019s April Fools\u2019 joke that left many wondering if we had misled a fan,\u201d the team said <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WashWizards\/status\/2039736242384847249\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">in a statement posted to X<\/a>. \u201cThe skit involving our mascot and other members of our performance team was scripted and intended to celebrate the day. All participants were in on the joke, but we missed the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The team added that it remains \u201ccommitted to providing a positive experience to all who attend our games\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Washington lost the game 153-131 and are 17-59 this season, dead last in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards apologized on Thursday after an April Fools\u2019 Day in-game promotion during their loss to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-694326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-washington","11":"tag-washington-wizards","12":"tag-washingtonwizards","13":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116336386665473620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}