Rick's Wizarding World

by Jill Cousins

For years, Todd Davis, president and CEO of the legendary Harlem Wizards barnstorming basketball team, tried to convince his nephew, Orlando’s Rick Schreiber, to join the family business. Todd’s father and Rick’s grandfather Howie Davis founded the team back in 1962 with the idea of combining basketball and entertainment in a way that could rival the Harlem Globetrotters.

For more than half a century, the Wizards have traveled the world – including several trips to Israel – showcasing their basketball wizardry (pun intended!) and using their unique brand of entertainment to put smiles on countless faces and help schools and nonprofits host successful fundraising events. The Wizards are also a hot commodity on the bar-mitzvah circuit.

“My brother Al – the Jewish know-it-all – would say to me, ‘There’s no way you can ever get Rick to join the Wizards. It’s a pipe dream. Give it up,’” Todd says. “But I never stopped trying. I had something to prove.”

Todd has worked with the Wizards since 1982, right out of college, and he took over the organization after his dad passed away in 1992. He always got along well with Rick, who moved to Central Florida in 2003 to take over as publisher of Orlando Weekly magazine, and had hoped the two could work together.

“Todd always wanted me to work for the Wizards,” says Rick, who lives in Baldwin Park with wife Lisa and sons Adam, 11, and Evan, 9. “But I was apprehensive to do it because I was really happy in my career.”

Rick finally changed his tune in 2012 when his kids were little and the publishing industry was in a state of flux.  He even moved Lisa and the boys back to his hometown of Baltimore for a few months to be closer to his family. But they quickly realized just how much they missed Orlando and came back.

“As soon as Todd heard I was thinking of leaving Orlando Weekly, he started recruiting me,” Rick says. “He made me an offer that I could work remotely from Orlando, and I said, ‘Alright! Now you’re talking!’”

Rick became the Wizards’ vice president in charge of sales and also assists Todd – who is based in New Jersey – in running the business. Even though he enjoyed his career working in publishing, Rick is relishing his new role in the unique family enterprise.

“It’s an amazing legacy,” Rick says. “Unfortunately, my grandfather wasn’t around to see me working for the Wizards, but he’d be really proud of Todd, because he elevated the company, and now I’m the third generation. My kids are the fourth generation, and they love the Harlem Wizards. So there’s definitely a sense of pride.”

Rick admits there was also a personal, sentimental reason why he embraced his current job with the Wizards. As a boy growing up in Baltimore, he adored his Grandpa Howie and has special memories of accompanying him to Wizards games. Now Rick can do the same thing with his own kids.

“My earliest memory is of my grandfather coming to visit [from New York] and doing a lot of fun things with me and taking me to Harlem Wizards games,” Rick says. “He’d always try to schedule games near where I lived so he could do a road trip and see me and my brother and his daughter (my mom). He was like Santa Claus to me. He always did fun things with us. We’d play miniature golf, go to batting cages, he’d take us to Dunkin’ Donuts, and we’d go to Harlem Wizards games.

“Just like my grandfather did for me,” Rick adds, “I wanted to book games so my kids could see the Wizards. So, my kids have been to a bunch of games over the years.”

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Harlem Wizards have not been able to showcase their inimitable Trick Hoops & Alley Oops! style of play at high-school gymnasiums and bar mitzvahs this past year. The Wizards, which have grown from one team to four since Rick got on board, had about 500 games scheduled for last season (September 2019 to April 2020), mostly in the New York/New Jersey area, but had to cancel about one-third of them.

In recent years, the Wizards have performed at a handful of local schools including Winter Park High, Oviedo High, Glenridge Middle, and University High. Their most recent area game was scheduled for May 2020 at West Orange High, but then the pandemic hit.

The games, which generally pit the Harlem Wizards against hapless teams of local high-school and middle-school teachers, have been indefinitely postponed. But Rick, Todd, and the Wizards’ staff came up with some brilliant ideas to keep the business going in these uncertain times. They started with complimentary online physical education classes taught by Wizard stars Dwayne “Swoop” Simpson and Eric “Broadway” Jones. For three months, three times a week, Swoop and Broadway led kids in a 30-minute interactive P.E. class that combined music, dancing, and basketball tricks with lessons about character.

Then, to help the Wizards get back to helping others and putting smiles on kids’ faces, Rick helped launch the WizFit Challenge – a virtual kids’ experience and fundraiser. The initiative includes a virtual kickoff and live celebration at the end (all via Zoom), where participants can interact with the players. So far, it’s been a huge success.

“When the pandemic happened, it was a shock for all of us,” Rick says. “Can we survive this? That remains to be seen, but we’re pretty confident. There’s just so much loyalty to the Wizards. We have so many people who appreciate what we do – helping them achieve their goals and bringing happiness to schools and families. That’s what I’m most proud of.”