![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tos-l-magic-read-and-roll0411.jpg\")
Students dance during the annual Pick, Read and Roll event hosted by the Orlando Magic and Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), at Kia Center, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\nThe Orlando Magic basketball season tips off Wednesday night, but Kia Center was already filled with thousands of cheering, screaming fans Monday morning as Orange County Public Schools students packed into the team\u2019s arena for a reading event hosted by the team\u2019s players.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay in school. Continue to read so y\u2019all can reach y\u2019all\u2019s dreams,\u201d Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. said to the fourth and fifth\u00a0graders in attendance.<\/p>\n
About 3,400 students from nearly 50 OCPS elementary schools serving low-income communities attended the event. The younger students watched as older ones \u2014 the most-improved readers from the previous year \u2014 participated in games such as rock paper scissors and relay races with Magic players to celebrate their achievements.<\/p>\n
More than 150 fifth graders wearing shirts featuring team mascot Stuff the Magic Dragon circled the court as Magic players raced to make free throws.\u00a0The players and students were split into two teams, and each shot made by Magic players earned their team a letter as they raced to spell \u201cGo Magic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The students also competed in a rock paper scissors tournament against the players. A fifth-grader named Roderick emerged victorious, defeating the entire Magic roster. He high-fived Magic forward Franz Wagner and a few classmates before heading back to his seat.<\/p>\n
Students dance during the annual Pick, Read and Roll event hosted by the Orlando Magic and Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), at Kia Center, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
The schools\u2019 teachers also participated in a competition where students cheered loudest for the best dancer \u2014 pushing the decibel level inside Kia Center to levels only heard\u00a0during Magic playoff games.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys ready to go back to school yet?\u201d said DJ D-Strong, the event\u2019s master of ceremonies.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo!\u201d they screamed back.<\/p>\n
The \u201cPick, Read and Roll\u201d event, which dates back to 2019, serves as an annual incentive for fourth-grade students to improve their reading skills.<\/p>\n
Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Maria Vazquez said reading scores rose 30% more among schools that attended the event compared to those that didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
At the event, Vazquez said the students always tell her how much they look up to the players, and how they make them want to read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact the Magic players have in the lives of our children, I mean, they\u2019re their heroes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tos-l-magic-read-and-roll1203.jpg\")
Jonathan Isaac plays rock paper scissors with a student during the annual Pick, Read and Roll event hosted by the Orlando Magic and Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), at Kia Center, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
All 14 players on the Magic roster participated in the games with students.<\/p>\n
Carter said the event underscores the importance of education and the fact that kids look up to NBA players, adding that his mother always said you never make it in life until you help someone move up as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it. These kids will remember this for the rest of their lives,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Magic basketball season tips off Wednesday night, but Kia Center was already filled with thousands of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,114,266,115,139,141,140,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-12760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}