Former Wildcat Joseph Blair, aka the 'Vegan Coach,' returning to Tucson for teen basketball camp

When he hosts about 100 underserved middle and high school students for a vegan lunch break during his Mama Blair Basketball Camp next weekend, former Arizona standout and NBA coach Joseph Blair could use the opportunity to lecture about health benefits or animal welfare.

But the guy known as the “Vegan Coach” says he won’t go there entirely. These are mostly high school kids, who will be served vegan fare from The Monica but are mostly there to play basketball.

“It’ll come up a little bit,” Blair said. “I definitely want to make sure that they understand that what they just ate was a plant-based meal, and I’ll give them a quick rundown on how good it is for their body.

“I’m not saying everyone has to change, but I just want to open their minds and hearts to possibility of a different outlook on what veganism is.”

In various forms, Blair has taken a more outspoken view of veganism since converting fully about 10 years ago. Blair said he became a vegetarian during his final season at Arizona in 1995-96, and continued with it for about nine years as he played professionally around the world — and then became a pescatarian for the final three years of his playing career.

After he stopped playing, Blair said he “started eating everything again” for about three years before shifting to a vegan diet nearly a decade ago.

Since then, he’s noticed plenty of change. Not just increased energy and lower cholesterol but also the explosion of choices.

“The rise of veganism has been astronomical, and … as the vegan population grows, the demand grows, and so does the supply,” Blair said. “I think the food industry as a whole has understood the marketability of veganism. If you look back when I was vegetarian, and you were trying to get a veggie burger, it was kind of difficult. A handful of restaurants had a black bean burger, but they really weren’t vegan burgers or vegetarian burgers.

“Now you have Impossible burgers, Beyond burgers. Every chain has their own type of burgers. You can go on and on about hot dogs, sausages, everything, all these plant-based alternatives now exist that did not exist 10 years ago when I first started this journey. I always say there’s no excuse because anything that you want of meat, there is a plant-based alternative.”

Blair says he enjoys making his own vegan burgers, infusing them soy-based bacon, or something with a Mexican twist, such as chickpea ceviche or tacos with alternative ground beef.

On a recent night, “I made some charro beans with some rice and a kale salad on the side,” Blair says. “Then I had a beef steak tomato, and I drizzled some olive oil and balsamic on there with a little bit of pesto. There’s tons of ways.”

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During coaching stints with the Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards, the team he left after last season, Blair had access to each team’s dietician, who would provide vegan meals. He also could check out a number of top vegan-friendly restaurants in those three cities and around the league.

But even in Tucson, Blair said vegan options excel. He said he prefers The Monica, Charro Vida, Lovin’ Spoonfuls, Saffron Indiana and Zeman’s Ethiopian restaurants, among others. He even took then-Wizards forward Rui Hachimura to Charro Vida in 2022 when the then-Wizards player was visiting UA coach Tommy Lloyd, who had worked with him at Gonzaga.

“We had another one of our player development coaches from Washington there, and another one of Rui’s friends, and they loved it,” Blair said. “We went for dinner and they went back the next day for lunch. I’m always super excited to impress upon people the unbelievable n culinary scene in Tucson. I think it’s underappreciated.

“I’m by no means slighting any of the cities in which I’ve lived, but I will tell you this: I have lived in D.C. for three years. I was in Philadelphia. (As a player) I lived in Milan. I lived in France. I’ve lived in Greece. I’ve lived in Turkey. I lived all over the world, and I want to say that Tucson can compete with any of those places I’ve ever been when it comes to the food scene.”

Having left the Wizards after last season and mostly spending the summer in his hometown of Houston while seeking his next move, Blair will get a chance to sample Tucson cuisine again while running the camp.

Run in collaboration with Easterseals Blake Foundation, a Tucson-based organization that provides services for people with disabilities, the Mama Blair Basketball Camp will run Friday and Saturday (July 26-27) at Desert View High School. While it was originally supposed to welcome 70 campers, the total participation number will end up closer to 100.

Already having run youth camps in Tucson during previous offseasons, Blair said this year’s camp is named after his mother, Judith, a strong supporter of women’s and men’s basketball at UA before she died in 2019. Joseph Blair has also shared via his social media channels that efforts are underway to renovate the basketball courts City of Tucson’s Palo Verde Park, 425 S. Mann Ave., in honor of his mother. The “Judith Blair Courts“ would include new playing surfaces, pro-style backboards and rims, an electronic scoreboard and a shade canopy with built-in lighting.

Blair said he’s bringing along four former NBA or G League coaches to assist with the camp this week, and that he intends to make it an annual affair.

“I’m bringing some high-level coaches to work with these kids as well and give them feedback on their playing,” Blair said. “The camp is about basketball. We are basically developing players and also developing people. That’s part of what the camp’s about, bringing in all different classes and people together under one roof to create community.”

And if those campers happen to enjoy lunch along the way, that’ll be part of the education, too.

“I’m excited, especially with younger people that aren’t exposed to what vegan food truly is,” Blair said. “It can be delicious, and it’s not just salads and tofu. It can be real food that’s hearty, filling and delicious.”