The Wizards today began their celebration of the 10th anniversary of Verizon Center by volunteering to help spruce up Spingarn High School off Benning Road in Northeast.

The "Community Day Service Makeover" featured a half-dozen Wizards players as well as a busload of employees from the team and Verizon Center.

Some had landscaping duties, while others helped paint "green waves" -- the school's logo -- on the walls of the school's gymnasium.

Wizards Andray Blatche and Nick Young chose to paint, and they appeared at first to get more paint on themselves than on the walls. Blatche wrote "I am Nick" on Young's shirt, while Young retaliated with "I am a nerd." It was horseplay of the most sophisticated nature.

"I'm just keeping it professional ... you know, I'm a professional out here," Young said.

Blatche, meanwhile, apparently will not be pursuing a post-NBA career in in landscaping.

"They wanted me to cut trees, but they didn't give me no water, so I decided to come in here and paint," Blatche said. "So far, the only thing I've painted was Nick's shirt. But I'm having a good time, it's fun."

I asked Young, a rookie out of USC, when the last time he set foot in a high school gym without a basketball.

"Aw, man, it's been a long time," he said. "Like five years. I was just talking to my niece, who's in 11th grade, and she brought up homecoming. I felt really old."

The Wizards will be holding two more school-sprucing events this fall at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in Southeast. Team officials said kicking off the Verizon Center's 10th anniversary with community service was appropriate, given the arena's reputation for helping spur redevelopment of the downtown area.

"It's fitting for the Pollin family to start off the celebration with community service," Wizards Chief Marketing Office Jane Taylor said. "This is one of Mr. Pollin's passions."

Mystics guard Monique Currey, a D.C. native, also helped paint yesterday and recalled growing up in the city when the Wizards played in Maryland.

"I grew up going to games at Verizon Center and back when it was MCI Center and it's nice to know it's still there and thriving," Currey said. "So much has happened around that area and it's nice that they continue to develop it. It's just great for the city."

Ward 5 councilman Harry Thomas Jr. stopped by the high school to chat with some of the players and coach Eddie Jordan. He was smart enough to wear a nice suit, thus avoiding getting the paint treatment from Blatche and Co. According to Thomas, Spingarn High School is the only school in the nation that can boast of graduating two players named among the NBA's Greatest 50 players: Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing. (I looked this up, and Thomas is right. Although Baylor first attended Phelps Vocational.)

"To bring these younger guys in to paint this school, that's history to the NBA and to see that the NBA still cares, what more could I ask for?" Thomas said.

(Quick aside: at the front of the school, there is a sign that reads "Home of the Green Wave. Where Learning is A Priority." Imagine if the Wizards had a similar slogan: "The Washington Wizards: Scoring More Points Than the Other Team is Our Priority.")

-- Tim Lemke