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Introducing the "Unveiling the Wizard" series: highlighting our fans in D.C. and worldwide

The Wizards fan base runs deep, whether in Washington or elsewhere in the world. We chronicle their stories here.

By Albert Lee Updated
Stewart W. Small

When people think of NBA fanatics outside the U.S., it's stories like a couple Italian Kobe Bryant fans who quit their jobs to see some games in his farewell tour:

As you can see, the Italian Kobe fans went to extremes. Also, the Lakers are a marquee NBA franchise historically, even though their record is putrid. The Wizards aren't such a franchise, at least not yet.

While stories like the Italian Kobe fans create a lot of buzz, I think every fan of every team has his or her own unique story to tell. I don't think extremes are necessary in order highlight a fan.

To that end, we want to spotlight our fans and their stories on what makes their Wizards fandom special. We never thought of a name for this series, but TerpsDMV3 had a perfect one, so we're rolling with it.

Unveiling the Wizard it is!

So what are you doing with "Unveiling the Wizard?"

This series will focus on an individual Wizards fan and will occur at least monthly or even semi-monthly. You can expect that most of the fans we will highlight will live outside the Washington area, including outside the United States, but we will also add features on fans from around the nation's capital as well.

Previous fan spotlight pieces

We have spotlighted some fans in the past, which we will consider as part of our "Unveiling the Wizard" series as well.

Here are a couple of pieces we have done in the past year where we've talked to fans just like you and learned about what makes your Wizards fandom special.

Fan Spotlight Hometown Where he/she is now (if different) Story
Jules
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Brussels, Belgium		 After an internship in D.C. a decade ago, Jules waited nine years to return to D.C. to watch a Wizards playoff game.
Douglas
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Washington, D.C., USA		 Still rep's Washington, D.C. Douglas was the first winner of Marcin Gortat's 2016 Polish Heritage Night ticket giveaway.

With this series, we will be talking to even more people throughout the U.S. -- and the world -- on their Wizards fandom and we hope you enjoy their stories.

I have an interesting story to tell about my fandom and want to get in touch!

Great! Our application can be found here.

We already have received a good number of applications in a few days. Due to the number of responses, only people we are interested in reaching out to for a fan spotlight within the next month will be contacted.

Though we may not be able to share everyone's story right away, we appreciate the responses.

When will you have another "Unveiling the Wizard" piece?

We will definitely have one up within the next week. Most of these features will be handled by Arthur Reinaltt, but all of us will chip in on these as well.

That's all I got! We hope you enjoy the pieces from this series.