Basketball Jones
The San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons have Wednesday off, and the And1 Mixtape tour has come and gone. San Francisco basketball fans, though, have long needed to seek a June hoops fix someplace besides the NBA, and this week our ship comes in: the SF Bay Area ProCity Summer Basketball League tips off its 26th season at 8 p.m. tonight in Kezar Pavilion at Stanyan and Waller. They'll play most nights between now and the league championships August 8-12 (full schedule here), and everyone in the building should have a great time.
The ProCity is a pro-am league, which means vacationing NBA ballplayers play with and against pros from European leagues, major and minor college players, and more than a few talented high school kids. Over the years, SFist, your own pro-am news source, has had the chance to see two surefire basketball Hall of Famers and one kid we knew in elementary school play in Kezar.
It's not quite like the league's glory days any more. In 1995 and 1996, the Bay Pride team featured Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Brian Shaw, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and (extra points for recognizing this name) Raymond "Circus" King, who will be on the Bay Pride roster again this summer. The 2005 season is pretty impressive in its own right, nonetheless; league rosters include Warriors Jason Richardson and Baron Davis, former Warrior Gilbert Arenas, Cleveland Cavalier Drew Gooden, and Portland Trail Blazer Darius Miles. They won't play all their team's games, of course, because neither would you if you were a 24-year-old multimillionaire with four months' vacation, but when they do show up they will score lots of points and have lots of fun.
All SFBAPCSBL games are free. As in, free. (Thank the corporate sponsor whose logo appears at the top of the post.) We recommend arriving at Kezar early, with a burrito, and we recommend asking the person sitting next to you if he or she knows anyone playing in the game. The parent, girlfriend or homeboy of a high-school kid about to take the court against an NBA All-Star? A coach or teacher who believes the same kid just needs this one opportunity to get in front of college and pro scouts? Good conversation.
Finally, what with a certain holiday falling this weekend, SFist may as well abuse the editorial (reportorial? citizen-journalistical?) we in order to thank the guy who, among other things, took us to our very first ProCity Summer Basketball League game, at the Potrero Hill Rec Center in 1990. Happy Father's Day. This summer, your tickets are on us.