Summer basketball is nearly here!
This is the last year that there won’t be constant professional basketball in the Bay Area through the summer. When the summer of 2025 rolls around, we’ll all get to watch the Golden State Valkyries, who will play in their inaugural WNBA season through the warmest San Francisco months, giving us professional basketball to root for all year long.
Until that happens, the only summer basketball we get is Summer League. But damn … Summer League sure can be fun, right?
Las Vegas is the star of Summer League, but before that action begins, we get the first dose of Summer League hoops: the California Classic. On Monday, the Warriors announced the schedule for the California Classic games that will be played at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
The first games are on Saturday, July 6, when the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers play at 1:30 p.m. PT, followed by the Warriors and Miami Heat at 3:30 p.m. PT. On Sunday, July 7, it will be the Kings vs. the Heat at 1:30 p.m. PT and the Warriors vs. the Lakers at 3:30 p.m. PT. And finally, on Wednesday, July 10, the Heat and Lakers will play at 4:00 p.m. PT followed by the Warriors and Kings at 7:00 p.m. PT. You can purchase tickets for these games on the Warriors website.
The other California Classic games will take place at Golden 1 Center, home of the Kings. Those games will feature the Kings, Charlotte Hornets, San Antonio Spurs, and the Chinese National Team.
While the Warriors won’t unveil their Summer League roster until July — after they’ve had chance to draft new players and sign some youngsters — it’s been reported that reigning rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis will partake in the Summer League festivities, even after earning roles on the Warriors by the end of the 2023-24 season.