Wizards owner commits to D.C. youth, will give basketballs to 29,000 kids

Yesterday at 03:02 PM

Washington Wizards Owner Ted Leonsis is one of many people throughout history who was overjoyed when he got a new basketball for Christmas as a kid. Now, the Monumental Sports and Entertainment CEO will pay it forward by giving one to every elementary public school student in Washington, D.C., via Monumental Sports.

“Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) Founder & CEO Ted Leonsis today announced the launch of the signature initiative, ‘District Dribble,’ as part of the company's larger, ongoing ‘District of Play’ effort,” the company announced on Tuesday. “District Dribble will deliver 29,000 basketballs to 80 public schools throughout the District, providing every student in pre-kindergarten through 5th grade a basketball and t-shirt. This event is part of Monumental Sports' larger ‘District of Play’ initiative, a transformative multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment in expanding access to youth sports and building healthy, vibrant communities in Washington, D.C.”

Leonsis, who grew up in Brooklyn, mentioned in the press release that “a ball can change a life,” which he experienced firsthand as a youngster when playing at local courts. The sense of teamwork, community, and discipline that youth sports creates helped shape him as a person, and now he wants each elementary school kid in Washington to have the same experience, regardless of background.

This initiative is just the latest chapter among many Wizards community-building efforts under Leonsis’ leadership. For example, forwards Justin Champagnie and Saddiq Bey recently read to students at Savoy Elementary School in the city’s Southeast quadrant, via D.C. Public Schools (DCPS).

A few friends from the @WashWizards , Justin and Saddiq, stopped by Savoy Elementary School for a surprise story time , and to make sure students love reading as much as they do. Thanks to our partners at @MSEFndn and @EverybodyWinsDC for making this special day happen! pic.twitter.com/3lkOrVyLCE

— DC Public Schools (@dcpublicschools) March 18, 2025

Monumental will host “Basketball Inflation Day” at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, where volunteers will help prepare the 29,000 balls for delivery. Then, it’ll host the “District Dribble Tip-Off” on Thursday at Browne Education Campus in the Northeast quadrant, which will kick off the initiative. Attendees will include Leonsis, Mayor Muriel Bowser, DCPS Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee, Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker, Wizards guard Jaylen Martin, Wizards forward JT Thor, Washington Mystics forward Aaliyah Edwards, Mystics guard Brittney Sykes, and Capital City Go-Go [Wizards’ G League] forwards Leaky Black and Mo Gueye.

Leonsis spoke to ClutchPoints on Monday about District Dribble.

Q&A with Wizards’ Ted Leonsis

Q: Could you tell us what went into the selection of those players for Thursday’s event?

A: “It’s just that the Wizards are out west and I think they literally arrive back at five in the morning that that day. I wouldn’t be surprised if we still have a couple of players that say, this is really important and they show up, but it was just the schedule. You know, the Go-Go are here and they love being a part of the community and obviously the Mystics are a very, very important and big presence. Everyone will be involved.”

“I mean, the rollout of this will be ongoing within the District. The play is a long-term commitment by us. And as I said, this is just the first of many, many things that we’ll be doing and will continue to do. 
It just has high visibility because it’s something tangible and it’s really at scale. When we first talked to the manufacturer about, ‘Hey, we want to order some basketballs for the students,’ and we said it’s 30,000, they had never had an order of that scale and size from one organization. Then you had to personalize it and ask ‘how do they ship it, it costs more to ship it. You know, inflated versus not inflated, and now we have to do the logistics around it. I joked, you know, 
’How many balls can you can you, uh inflate per hour?’ We happened to have our employees volunteer to come and do that.”

“It’s a real community thing because when you say ‘We’re giving every kid a basketball,’ and everyone closes their eyes and just remembers when you got for Christmas, a new baseball glove or a football or a basketball, just that feeling, and it certainly was what motivated me. You know, I said earlier, I just remember laying in my bed shooting the ball straight up, right? And then falling asleep and the ball being next to me and, you know, I think this is a a movement, if you will. Let’s arm every kid with a basketball that all of our players, our coaches, everyone gets behind very quickly.”

“But the reason is the Wizards aren’t more involved on Thursdays is they don’t arrive from the West Coast trip until early that morning.”

Q:You said that it’s a long-term vision. How long do you think this process will be playing out just over the course of the year, handing out all these basketballs to all these kids?

A: “We’ll be able to deliver that. I think it’ll be six truckloads, you know, we’ll bring them to schools and then break it up for the schools, but it should take probably a month for this program to get to everyone. I’m sure we will deliver thousands and thousands of walls and someone will write or put on social media, ‘They’re fibbing my son or daughter didn’t get the balls yet.’ We all guarantee and promise that we’ll have all of the balls and they’ll get to the people, and it’ll be, you know, it’ll have been a month, six weeks at the outside. But, you know, that’s our commitment.”

“But the longer commitment, we want to do lots and lots of things using our players, using our resources, partnering with the schools, partnering with the principals, partnering with Lewis, partnering with the mayor to make sports not just about sports itself. Not all these kids are going to be basketball players. You know, I went to Georgetown and when you went into Coach [John] Thompson’s office, he had a deflated basketball and it was deflated because he would say ‘Everyone thinks they’re gonna be a pro ball player, no, get your education, right? We we wanna have people have the right perspective about sports, more about teamwork, more about coachability, more about discipline, more about their physical health, more about their mental health when they can be in pursuit of a higher calling, a group victory, a ‘We instead of me or I’ mentality.'”

“This basketball giveaway is really just the initiation of it, but we want to do a lot of work on the infrastructure, on the public courts and we build a lot of playgrounds, we build a lot of courts. We have to, and we should be doing more. The baseball team [Washington Nationals], they’re very focused on fields, the football team [Washington Commanders] I’m sure will be doing as much or much more around that. We all have to. You know, many hands make light work to help make Washington, D.C. the greatest city on the planet. \

“We’ve got to focus on the young kids, and they can really relate to this. They’re gonna count on us to meet what we say, and what we’re saying right now is we’re gonna give away 30,000 basketballs. We think it’ll be a a very unique deliverable and that the kids will remember this and feel very positive about it.”

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