{"id":696131,"date":"2026-04-03T16:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:25:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:25:25","slug":"washington-wizards-issue-apology-for-april-fools-stunt-after-social-media-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696131\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Wizards issue apology for April Fools\u2019 stunt after social media backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-franchises \">The Wizards \u201capologized Thursday for an April Fools\u2019 joke that led to condemnation on social media,\u201d according to Liam Griffin of the WASHINGTON TIMES. The prank during Wednesday\u2019s game against the 76ers featured a blindfolded fan who tried a half-court shot for a chance to win $10,000. He missed, but the mascots on the court \u201cpretended he drained it, handing him an oversized check.\u201d The mascot then \u201ctook the check away and offered an autographed jersey and courtside tickets.\u201d Critics on social media called the prank \u201crough,\u201d \u201cbrutal\u201d and \u201cmean.\u201d The reaction was \u201cintense enough to draw the apology from the Wizards,\u201d who said that the skit \u201cwas planned and no fans were psychologically harmed\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/apr\/2\/wizards-apologize-april-fools-prank-missed-mark\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/apr\/2\/wizards-apologize-april-fools-prank-missed-mark\/\">WASHINGTON TIMES, 4\/2<\/a>). THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Josh Robbins noted a Monumental Basketball spokesperson, the company that includes the Wizards, the Capitals and the Mystics, said Thursday that \u201cthe three \u2018fans\u2019 who attempted half-court shots are friends of Monumental Sports &amp; Entertainment employees and were in on the joke.\u201d However, that \u201cwasn\u2019t clear at the time of the skit, or in the intervening hours before the team\u2019s apology\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7166953\/2026\/04\/02\/wizards-april-fools-joke-halfcourt-shot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7166953\/2026\/04\/02\/wizards-april-fools-joke-halfcourt-shot\/\">THE ATHLETIC, 4\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wizards \u201capologized Thursday for an April Fools\u2019 joke that led to condemnation on social media,\u201d according to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-696131","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\/116341710880335904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696131","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=696131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}