Former Wildcat Joseph Blair unveils new basketball courts on Tucson's east side

Then he went big.

Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham, saying Blair had jokingly asked him years ago about getting a court of his own to support, only had to mention the overhaul of Tucson’s Palo Verde Park before Blair dove in.

“When the park was being refitted, I said, 'You know, we could cover this basketball court and redo it,'" Cunningham said. "Joseph said, 'That's great. How much should I raise?' I said, 'I don't know. Corey raised $15,000, so maybe 30 or 40, depending on what kind of court you want to build?'

“He goes, 'I want to build the best court there is.' So we went out and raised 125,000 bucks.”

The end result was visible Saturday at Palo Verde Park, near Broadway and Kolb Road, when Blair unveiled the Judith “Mama” Blair Basketball Courts, an area of former tennis courts turned into top-end basketball courts that are part of the city’s overhaul of the park. They are named for Blair's mother, Judith, a longtime supporter of the UA men’s and women’s basketball programs who died in 2019.

“It's a legacy building thing for me to be able to honor my mother and her legacy,” Blair said. “I began playing basketball because of my mom. She was my first-ever basketball coach, and I know that if it wasn't for basketball, I could have won a lot of different ways in my youth. So it’s just being able to honor her in this way.”

Both Blair and Williams have been longtime supporters of Tucson youth basketball, with Williams turning the Tucson Summer Pro League into an annual summertime league for youth, and Blair running tuition-free basketball camps in Tucson for years even as he played professionally overseas and kept ties to his native Houston.

“We’ve been a little bit of everywhere,” Blair said of his camps. “The city's been really good about some of the city parks, basketball courts, as well. So we go anywhere and everywhere we can. The goal is to try to reach as many kids as we can and bring something to them.”

It helped that Blair and Williams had a bond with Cunningham, who enrolled as a UA freshman just as the two were beginning to play for Lute Olson in the mid-1990s. Cunningham said he was an acquaintance of Blair’s in college and that the two became good friends after Blair began a 13-year pro career that included becoming the Euroleague MVP in 2013.

Spending the 2025-26 season as the head coach of the G League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Blair started his coaching career as a graduate assistant for then-UA coach Sean Miller in 2013-14. He was a Vipers assistant when he returned to Tucson in 2017 to see Williams' $10,000 initial fundraising effort pay off in a dedication for a revitalized Jesse Owens Park in 2017.

Williams raised another $5,000 for work done last year, Cunningham said, for a total of $15,000 toward Jesse Owens court improvements.

“I honestly have to give a lot of props to Corey,” Blair said. “Once I saw him do that, I reached out to council member Cunningham and said, 'Hey, if there's ever something available like this, that I could do to honor my mom, I'd love to do it.'

"So when this came up, it was just a great opportunity, and I really just want to make it a great court."

Cunningham said there has long been speculation that the revitalization of Jesse Owens Park helped lead to the passage of Proposition 407, a $225 million bond package approved by voters in 2018. The bond measure assigned $930,000 to Palo Verde renovations that included repaving the parking lot, replacing irrigation, adding lights to a softball field and resurfacing the tennis and basketball courts.

Cunningham said Blair’s fundraising efforts, and about $100,000 of surplus office money, allowed the conversion of the tennis courts into three pickleball courts, an additional basketball court and a shaded cover. Specifically, he said Blair made the NBA-length courts, a scoreboard and a cover possible; without Blair's efforts, there would only be one smaller, uncovered basketball court.

Along with the scoreboard, high-quality backboards and baskets were also added, while the courts have 3-point lines for high school, college and the NBA, an unusual feature for a city park basketball court.

“The only benefit from the tennis courts was the space they actually held. We had to repave everything,” Blair said. “It’s probably — I dare say, and debatably — the best outdoor court in the state of Arizona.”

In the final count, Cunningham said, Blair will have raised over $130,000, enough to cover the basketball upgrades in part because some costs came in lower than expected (the initial fundraising goal was $250,000). Donations are still being accepted at judithblaircourts.com.

The Tucson Conquistadors and Kyle Kuzma Foundation were also major contributors, Cunningham said. Blair was an assistant coach with Washington from 2021-24 when Kuzma played for the Wizards.

“It’s a great project,” Cunningham said. “It totally helps the basketball culture on the east side, which has been really successful. If you build the right stuff, you can definitely build a culture in a neighborhood.”