Washington Wizards guard Jordan Poole holds youth basketball clinic for Washington-area children

WASHINGTON — A child is waving his hands and shaking his head at Washington Wizards guard Jordan Poole while waiting in line.

In the middle of Poole’s free basketball clinic at the team’s practice facility in southeast Washington, the very small child — barely 3 feet tall — is clearly talking trash to the former NBA champion. While I sit a few hundred feet away, I can make out that the child is boasting about what he’s about to do in the upcoming drill, which is focused on off-ball movement and finishing.

When it’s finally the camper’s turn to go, he quickly drops the trash talk, sprints from his spot on the baseline towards the top left of the key, stutter steps and turns his body as he shifts to a spot beyond the 3-point line, where he receives a pass from a counselor.

As the camper beelines toward the basket, another counselor is waiting to contest the basket. The camper — in a white T-shirt, all-white Nike shorts with a giant black swoosh across the front, white and orange Nike sneakers and a faded haircut that mirror’s Poole’s — quickly pivots his body for a Euro step, perhaps taking one extra step, contorts his small body in the air and releases. The ball hits front rim and slides through the net.

“He definitely traveled,” Poole said later. “He for sure traveled.”

A few feet away, Poole and other campers go crazy, cheering for the little boy, giving him dap, slapping his head and back. As it turns out, this little baller who looks and moves just like Poole is actually Poole’s 8-year-old nephew, Kendall. 

When Poole turns away from the aftermath of Kendall’s basket, he’s flashing a megawatt smile.

Poole, headed into his second season with the Wizards after being traded from the Golden State Warriors in 2023, has always wanted to put on a basketball camp, but he wanted to wait until his mind was clear and the right timing before doing it.

On July 20, he hosted a couple of two-hour sessions of basketball drills and techniques for more than 200 local children, ages 6 to 14, at the Entertainment and Sports Arena (ESA), where the Wizards practice and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics play home games. 

Free clinics are part of Poole’s basketball journey to the NBA, so he understands the importance of providing resources for young children, whether they’re interested in playing sports or not.

When Poole was growing up in Milwaukee, attending basketball camps helped shape who he is both as a player and a person. “That’s just where a lot of my time as a youngin was spent,” Poole said. “A lot of my learning, especially a lot of my summertime [learning], [was] at camps; a lot of my social interactions [was] at camps.”

He understands how money can be a barrier for many families when it comes to basketball education, so he made this camp free-of-charge to all those who attended. While Poole may do paid camps in the future, he wanted this clinic to be tailored toward those who can’t afford expensive basketball clinics. A Wizards spokesperson said they reached out first to families that live near the ESA which is located in the district’s Ward 8, a predominantly Black and underserved community.

“This is really for the kids,” Poole said. “It’s not really about the money right now.”

Poole’s former Golden State teammate Stephen Curry imparted to him that no matter how locked in on your job you are, no matter what level of fame you reach, don’t forget to be there for all the children who look up to you.

“You can never be too busy for the fans,” Poole said. “Especially the younger kids because it’s wholesome energy, it’s natural, it’s genuine, it’s authentic, and they’re just being themselves. 

“They watch me on TV, they’ll come to the games … but being able to personally interact, talk to them, ask them questions: What do they like? Favorite team? Favorite food? Stuff like that goes way further than basketball.”

Every camper was provided with an all-white shirt that read “Jordan Poole Academy” on the chest and asked to wear it during the clinic. But special privileges were given to campers in Poole jerseys, of which there were at least three. Another camper had on a University of Michigan T-shirt, where Poole played for two seasons from 2017 to 2019.

The clinic took the campers through a variety of exercises and drills to better prepare them for the next levels of basketball. They learned breathing techniques from Poole’s mental performance coach Joey Hewitt, and were put through a circuit of drills by the Wizards’ director of youth basketball Shannon Clancy.

The campers were broken up into smaller groups to be taught footwork, shooting techniques, off-ball movement, off-hand and crossover dribbling, passing skills and finishing layups. At one point, Poole acted as a rim protector at the layup station, throwing his 6-foot-4, 194-pound frame into the campers as they attempted a shot; most of them took Poole head on. The skill level of the campers runs the spectrum: some appear to have never picked up a basketball before while others can pull off Euro step dribbles or convert reverse layups. Either way, they all seem to be having a ball, particularly when Poole walks by.

At other stations, Poole stands among the kids, encouraging them and dapping each of them up as he walks by; one female camper prefers a hug to a dap. Poole, wearing a pair of Nike Zoom Kobe 4 Protro “Philly” sneakers, takes time to admire the gray Nikes of one camper.

The children look at Poole in awe as he speaks, smiling and being attentive. Despite only starting in just over 50% of the games he’s appeared in in his five-year career, Poole is one of the most popular players in the league. At the end of the 2022-23 season, his final year in Golden State, Pooled ranked 15th in player jersey sales, according to the National Basketball Players Association.

One camper playfully argued with Poole that he made a basket during a shooting drill, and another flexed his muscles as he bumped Poole’s chest – well, as much as a kid barely 4 feet tall can bump chests with someone Poole’s size. They all crowd him to sign their T-shirts, mini basketballs and sneakers once the session comes to a conclusion.

Of all the techniques the campers learn in the two hours, Poole said he hopes their biggest takeaway was the breathing techniques. Learning to dribble and shoot are important, of course, but learning how to control your breathing is just as important in a sport like basketball where it’s nonstop running for minutes at a time.

“I know at a young age some things resonate more than others and some things stay with you more than others,” Poole said. “So if there is any kid who took a little bit or a little piece of that breathing to incorporate when they’re at school or at recess or in class or at AAU, that’s all I care about.”

The camp was the rare public appearance Poole has made since the Wizards’ season ended in April. He joked that he’s not used to having such free time in April and May: In his final two seasons with the Warriors, the team won the Finals and made it to the second round of the playoffs.

“A long ass f—–g offseason,” he said. “I ain’t used to that.”

He spent a month in Europe after the end of the season, visiting London, Amsterdam and Paris, where he linked up with French teammate Bilal Coulibaly, the Wizards’ first-round draft pick from 2023. Coulibaly was Poole’s rookie this past season, and the two have grown close since then. While in Paris, they attended a Paris Saint-Germain F.C. soccer match together, which was documented on Instagram.

“Me and Bilal talk all the time. We’re texting, FaceTiming,” Poole said. “I don’t talk to many people in general, but Bilal is my guy.”

Washington has spent its offseason taking steps to improve a roster that finished with the second-worst record (15-67) in the NBA last year, at one point losing 16 games in a row. Interim head coach Brian Keefe, who replaced former head coach Wes Unseld Jr. in late January, was given the official job in May. Last month, the Wizards drafted Frenchman Alexandre Sarr (No. 2 overall), former Pittsburgh guard Bub Carrington (No. 14) and former Miami forward Kyshawn George (No. 24) all in the first round of the NBA draft. Poole traveled to Las Vegas last week to see the three draft picks play in summer league.

“Really excited about our young players,” he said. “Credit to our front office again because we got a guard, we got somebody who can play the 2-3 stretch, and then we got a big man in Alex.

“Good people, great attitudes, great personalities.Want to learn, want to get into the gym, want to get better. That’s really all you can ask for, especially coming into the league.”

In order to draft Carrington, who will likely take on ball-handling duties with Poole, the Wizards had to trade veteran guard Deni Avdija. The 23-year-old Israeli national was drafted ninth overall by the Wizards in the 2020 draft and transformed into one of the team’s better players in his four seasons, bumping up his scoring average from 6.3 points per game his rookie season to 14.7 points per game this past season.

Poole was surprised by the trade, but he understands that the NBA is a business, and longevity with a franchise is not a guarantee. Poole himself was traded from the Warriors in 2023 after four seasons and after helping the franchise win its fourth championship in 2022. It’s tough to lose a great guy like Avdija, Poole said, but Avdija can stand to benefit from his new team as well. 

“I think in the situation that we’re in, the beta process that we’re in, people get traded all the time,” Poole said.

Poole has the same feeling about a slightly more pivotal trade that happened with another former teammate this offseason. After 13 seasons with the Warriors, guard Klay Thompson was traded to the Dallas Mavericks when Thompson and the Warriors could not come to an agreement on a new contract. Thompson is one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, his tandem with Stephen Curry playing a pivotal part in those four championships and other record-breaking moments. But when it came to business, the relationship ended. 

Poole wasn’t shocked by the breakup.

“There was an opportunity that Golden State had to make a very elite franchise transition, which is rare,” he said. “I think it’s rare because obviously it must be really hard to do that with the older guys transitioning to the younger guys, but it just didn’t pan out that way. Luckily we were able to get a ring a couple of years ago, making it their fourth, but all good things come to an end at some point.”

He believes Thompson, who he said is “obviously a Hall of Famer,” will benefit from the gravity of Mavericks guards Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic, which will allow Thompson to flourish as a knockdown 3-point shooter.

“It [the Warriors] could’ve continued to be a dynasty powerhouse but they’ve done so much, and he’s put so much time in, it’s probably just time for him to get a change of scenery, go play some competitive basketball. And he’s going to a really good situation, especially with the style that they play.”

---

Despite all the ups and downs of last season and all the new changes to the roster and coaching staff this offseason, Poole is optimistic about the coming season, saying that he’s in a “really good space.” He believes the team is headed in the right direction with Keefe, general manager Will Dawkins and team president Michael Winger all having a shared vision.

“I think we have more of a sense of direction, a sense of style and identity going into this season. Which will be extremely helpful when you’re playing at the highest level,” Poole said. “Knowing what we’re doing; what our cadence is, in and out; what people are playing what position. It’s not so much in the air, up for interpretation, a figuring-it-out type of thing.

“We have more balance, more structure, know what we’re going to go into, know what plays we’re running, know what offense we’re running, know what guys are going to be paired with what guys, what coverages we have going into the new season, and I think that will be extremely helpful.”