{"id":694606,"date":"2026-04-02T20:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694606\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:56:15","slug":"sorry-wizards-say-blindfold-prank-was-a-bit-shortsighted-field-level-media-professional-sports-content-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694606\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorry: Wizards say blindfold prank was a bit shortsighted – Field Level Media – Professional sports content solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

No joke.<\/p>\n

The Washington Wizards have apologized for an April Fool\u2019s Day gag on Wednesday that, as it turned out, attempted to spoof the entire arena.<\/p>\n

In what appeared to be a prank on a participant in a half-court shot promotion, the team has now revealed that the contestant was in on the misdirection that left some fans rolling their eyes.<\/p>\n

The long-shot contestant was blindfolded and left to launch a half-court shot for $10,000 that ended up well wide of the backboard. That is when the prank unfolded as mascots and on-court personnel pretended that the shot went in the hoop as the contestant was handed an oversized check for $10K.<\/p>\n

It apparently was all just performance art, and the long-distance shooter was aware of the shenanigans all along. The crowd of 17,956 was actually being misled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologize for last night\u2019s April Fool\u2019s joke that left many wondering if we had misled a fan,\u201d The Wizards said in a statement Thursday. \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

It was a bold move for a franchise that has gone an NBA-worst 17-59 this season, including just 11 victories in 38 home games.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fans are our priority, and we continue to be committed to providing a positive experience to all who attend our games,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n

\u2013Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No joke. The Washington Wizards have apologized for an April Fool\u2019s Day gag on Wednesday that, as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-694606","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\/116337114202825937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694606","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=694606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}