Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, known for sparking “Linsanity” back in 2012, is taking on a new role as mentor to young Asian American college athletes at his newly launched JLIN NextGen Basketball Camp in his hometown of Palo Alto.

As the Bay Area News Group reports, the inaugural camp, a two-day program of high-intensity training and drills, kicked off over the weekend. Lin, 35, was born and raised in Palo Alto and rose to global fame during the 2011–2012 season with the New York Knicks, becoming a symbol of inspiration for a generation of Asian American athletes.

His rise was so meteoric that, as SFist reported at the time, Kim Kardashian was rumored to have set her sights on him—though Lin reportedly said he “wasn’t the type.” He also famously bonded with Tim Tebow over their shared Christian faith.

As the Chronicle reports, while Lin’s NBA career quieted after his 2019 championship win with the Toronto Raptors, his impact has grown through activism, mentorship, and media projects like the HBO documentary 38 at the Garden, which explores how his rise reshaped what felt possible for Asian Americans in sports and beyond.

Lin’s “Linsanity” run in 2012 not only made him a global sensation but also a lasting symbol of hope and representation for Asian American athletes, who rarely saw themselves represented in pro basketball. Back then, Lin was the NBA’s only Asian American playing in the current season, as well as the first Taiwanese American player in NBA history.

“When he spoke about his journey, when he spoke about his upbringing, I was like, ‘Wow, this is literally me. This is like exactly what I had to go through,” Pranav Iyer of Cupertino told the Chronicle. “That is the biggest impact that could be had is that you can see yourself in these people.”

Iyer, who created AMAZN (amazingly Asian) HQ, spotlighting Asian American athletes across the country, continued, “I think everyone was able to find that inspiration and was able to say, ‘Maybe I should push myself harder. I think I can do these things that I was forever told wasn’t possible.’”

Now playing in Taiwan, Lin recently led the New Taipei Kings to their second straight title, earning Finals MVP after a grueling seven-game series — calling it the toughest championship of his career, even compared to his NBA win, as NextShark reports.

Lin told the Bay Area News Group he’s still figuring out exactly how he’ll be involved in the JLIN NextGen camp long-term, but sees it as part of his transition from player to coach. “I will for sure be pouring into the next generation and sharing my thoughts. Hopefully, I can import some wisdom,” he said.

“This opened up my eyes to see the world from a pro’s perspective,” said Annika Shah, a Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo point guard and Palo Alto High alum, in an interview with the Bay Area News Group. “It was cool to just understand that I can learn from anyone. He even said he could learn from us. And so I think him saying he could learn from kids at his own camp, I think that humbles us to be willing to learn from anyone that we’re around.”

Over time, Lin has become more reflective about his role in shaping perceptions of Asian American athletes. While he’s not particularly nostalgic about his own moment in the spotlight, he recognizes that the legacy of “Linsanity” still matters to a lot of people.

“Every time I hear about it, I’m like, ‘Don’t tell me how old you were when it happened,’” he told the Bay Area News Group. “It’s still very relevant. A lot of people still care about it. Seeing people tell me they were in middle school or elementary school when it happened—it’s crazy seeing time fly.”

Image: Jeremy Lin/Facebook

Oakley teen Jaren Barajas stole the show at Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, winning a half-court shooting contest against NBA star Damian Lillard, and earning himself a $100,000 prize in the process.

If you watched Sunday night’s frankly quite boring NBA All-Star Game played at the Chase Center, you are aware that there were many painfully long time-killers during the broadcast in between the actual basketball game components. But one of those time-killers turned out to be quite entertaining, and not just because we didn’t have to hear Kevin Hart during the segment.

There was a little contest sponsored by YouTube star MrBeast, called the MrBeast $100,000 Challenge. The challenge involved some random audience member going up against Milwaukee Bucks star and Oakland native Damian Lillard, and trying to shoot one successful basket from the half-court logo in the time that it took Lillard to make three such shots.    

The audience member selected was 18-year-old Oakley teen Jaren Barajas. And the Chronicle reports that Barajas did indeed hit the half court shot, and won the $100,000.

“I got surprised with these tickets yesterday, so I didn’t even know I was coming to the game, so to have this experience it’s so surreal,” Barajas told the Associated Press. “I’m so thankful.”

The full six-minute segment is above. (You’ll have to forgive MrBeast for his greeting, “How’s it going , San Fran?”) Lillard had made two of the half-court shots, and was on the verge of hitting the third that would have defeated Barajas. But the young Barajas hit the half-court shot on his eighth attempt, right as the buzzer sounded to wrap up this lengthy segment and break for a commercial.

“It was dramatic, he made it as the clock was going off,” Lillard told the AP. “I love being part of stuff like that where you can impact somebody else.”

Barajas didn’t even have good seats for the game, telling the Chronicle that he and his father’s seats were “pretty much as high as you can go.” Yet he still managed to get selected to go on court for a contest, and certainly made the most of his opportunity.

According to KTVU, Barajas is a freshman studying business at Pittsburg’s Los Medanos College, and did play high school basketball last year at Freedom High School in Oakley.

Related: Steph Curry Wins MVP Trophy In Otherwise Extremely Humdrum NBA All-Star Game [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: Jaren Barajas celebrates after making a half court shot during the 74th NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center on February 16, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

While San Francisco did pretty well hosting the NBA All-Star Game this weekend, the game itself was an absolute snooze, though Steph Curry made a wild half-court shot and took the MVP honors.

San Francisco certainly did its job well in hosting the NBA All-Star Game this weekend, by which we mean no one torched a Waymo, there were no smash-and-grabs in Union Square, and our city avoided any major embarrassments during a smooth weekend of high-profile tourist events.  And there was genuine excitement downtown in the lead-up to the game. But that excitement quickly came to an end when the All-Star Game itself tipped off, though as the Chronicle notes, it wasn’t really even a game, but instead a three-game mini-tournament in a new format that failed to liven up the proceedings.

The anti-climatic climax of the evening featured Steph Curry's team (called “Shaq’s OGs”) winning the third and final game in a incredibly uncompetitive 41-25 contest. Yes, a team scored just 25 points in an NBA All-Star Game, a far cry from last year’s All-Star game when the two teams scored a combined 397 points. But under this strange new format, the games are over once one team hits 40 points.

Curry was at least cooking, and his halfcourt shot at the beginning of the above highlight reel was really one of the only memorable moments of the whole night. And frankly, there wasn’t even that much basketball in this affair. As CBS Sports points out. “Sunday's All-Star Game ‘presentation’ ran for almost three hours and had about 30 minutes of actual basketball.”

A tribute to the network TNT, who were broadcasting their final NBA All-Star Game, went 18 minutes long. That was longer than any of these mini-"games."

The three-game mini-tournament format failed to provide more competitive juices. Draymond Green flat-out said on the air "it sucks," as ESPN notes, adding that he ranked the new format as a "zero" on a scale of one to ten. The first game was a matchup of actual All-Stars and what they call the “Rising Stars,” that is, players in their first or second year. Draymond said dismissively, “Now we get the treat of watching the Olympic team vs a U19 team,” meaning, it was like the Olympics 'Dream Team' against an ‘Under 19’ team.

And while notorious San Francisco hater Charles Barkley did not hurl any insults at our city,  he had harsh words for Draymond Green's take. “I'm going to disagree with Draymond a lot,” Barkley said in response, then effectively blamed Green’s generation of players for making the All-Star Game so uncompetitive. “They messed the game up, that’s why we’re trying this kamikaze stuff. His generation messed the game up.”

Steph Curry winning the game’s MVP Award in front of the hometown fans was at least a nice storybook finish (though in these abbreviated games, Curry’s 12 points were all it took to win MVP, and he scored eight points in the first mini-game). And it was fun having San Francisco in the national spotlight for the weekend. But otherwise, there was not much else memorable about the 2025 NBA All-Star Game.

Related: Sotheby’s Is Auctioning Off the NBA All-Star Game Players’ Game-Worn Jerseys, Including Steph Curry’s [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors and Shaq's OGs poses with the 2025 KIA Kobe Bryant MVP trophy during the 74th NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center on February 16, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Should you be willing to spend several thousand dollars on the exact jersey that Steph Curry or LeBron James will be wearing in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, Sotheby’s is selling them, and right now the bidding for Steph’s jersey is at $13,000.

There is plenty of excitement building over Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game being played right here in San Francisco. And that excitement is great, because the game itself is generally so boring and non-competitive. The NBA is hoping to change that this year by making the game a four-team tournament that is actually three games, and in each game, the first team to score 40 points wins.  

But here’s a unique twist to this year’s NBA All-Star Game at the Chase Center. The sports collectibles site Clict Media reports that Sotheby’s is auctioning off the very jerseys the players will wear in Sunday’s game, and the auction is already live and taking bids.

You can check out the Sotheby’s All-Star Game jersey auction here. As of press time for this post, Steph Curry’s jersey is going for $13,000. LeBron James’s jersey is currently $15,000, and Victor Wembanyama’s tops the bidding at $22,000.

On the other end of the spectrum, several less notable players’ jerseys are still stuck at a $300 bidding price.  

This year’s NBA All-Star Game jerseys (seen above) are not as dreadfully ugly as they've been in some years, but not quite as sweet as those silver ones they wore in 2022 when Curry won the game’s MVP trophy. But give me the good old days when players would actually wore their normal team’s jersey, and nobody’s jersey matched.

Of course, you could just buy a normal NBA All-Star jersey for $150, one that no one famous ever wore. They probably have them at the Nike store in Union Square, because it’s Michael Jordan’s company that designed this year's jerseys.

Related: A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Parlor Pops Up, and More Excitement On Powell Street For All-Star Game Weekend [SFist]

Image: CLEVELAND, OHIO - FEBRUARY 20: Stephen Curry #30 of Team LeBron reacts after scoring in the second half against Team Durant during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on February 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Despite NBA television personality Charles Barkley’s claim that he was “not going to that rat-infested place out in San Francisco” for the NBA All-Star Game, he is very much here, and was quickly booed on-air Thursday as he gleefully antagonized local fans.

One of the sillier subplots to this weekend’s NBA All-Star Game happening right here in San Francisco is the ongoing rivalry between TNT’s Inside the NBA personality Charles Barkley and the city of San Francisco. Barkley has had some sort of joking beef with our fair city dating back to at least 2007. And in the lead-up to the All-Star Game last month, Barkley declared on-air that he would refuse to come to San Francisco for the game, saying “I’m not going to that rat-infested place out in San Francisco.”

This was of course bluster, as Inside the NBA is a sort of yuk-yuk “Morning Zoo” kind of program whose formula is based on the hosts joking around a lot. And under the new four-team All-Star Game format, one of the teams is literally named after Barkley (“Team Chuck”), so he was always going to be here for the game.

And now Barkley is already here, as last night’s postgame show was broadcast from the Chase Center. And Barkley wasted no time in annoying San Francisco fans and getting booed.

“You know what? I actually like San Francisco, I really do,” Berkeley declared in Thursday's broadcast. “Honestly, hey listen. We’ve got to do something about the homeless. They need their help. We’ve got to clean it up a little bit.”

At which point the crowd started booing him lustily. Barkley responded, “I said help the homeless,’ and some of these people are so stupid, they booed.”

Now clearly they booed because he had just ripped on San Francisco, and fans were waiting for any chance to boo Charles Barkley. This is, after all the same Charles Barkley who also said there were "a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco,” and once yelled at San Francisco fans, “I’m going to come to your house and fuck your mama!”

None of this is serious. Barkley simply picks these meaningless fights with individual cities for attention and social media engagement. Consider his above long-running feud with San Antonio over “them big-ass women in San Antonio.”

The tenor of Inside the NBA is so unserious that Barkley’s co-panelist Shaquille O’Neal said to host Ernie Johnson during Thursday night's broadcast, “We’re getting fired anyway, Ernie. Fuck it!” Yet just this morning, we learn that O’Neal signed a $15 million-per-year contract extension with TNT.

So you can expect more slapstick antagonism all weekend long from the Inside the NBA crew. It will resume at 6 pm Friday night for the Rising Stars Challenge, at 5 pm on Saturday for the Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Shooting Contest, and 5 pm Sunday for the All-Star Game itself, all on TNT.

Related: Charles Barkley Claims He Will Refuse to Attend NBA All-Star Game Because It’s in SF, Though He Absolutely Will Be Here [SFist]

Image: GLENDALE, ARIZONA - APRIL 08: Basketball analyst Charles Barkley on air before the National Championship game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Connecticut Huskies at State Farm Stadium on April 08, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

SFist is doing a contest, everyone. You can win two free tickets to the NBA All Star Concert Series, happening down the street from the Chase Center on Pier 48 February 14 to 16.

As we told you last month, the NBA All Star Game is bringing more than just basketball stars to San Francisco for the mid-February festivities. There are three days of all-ages concerts happening near the Chase Center, four blocks north on Pier 48, featuring headlining acts Zedd (Friday 2/14), Noah Kahan (Saturday 2/15), and The Chainsmokers (Sunday 2/16).

Flo Rida and 2 Chainz are also performing, as are DJs Ryan Lucero and Shabazz.

SFist readers can get 10% off tickets for the All Star Concert Series, or a specific night, using the promo code MUSIC25 at checkout.

And, we are giving away two free general admission tickets (an $800 value) for anyone who follows us on both Bluesky and Instagram. If you already follow us on Instagram, follow us on Bluesky — we will DM the winner on Bluesky. One lucky winner will be randomly selected from our Bluesky followers on Friday, February 7 at 12 pm PT.

Note: Concert tickets do not include admission to the Chase Center for the All Star Game or other festivities.

Good luck! And thanks for reading.

Last year’s NBA All-Star Weekend had a huge hit with Steph Curry participating in a “man vs woman” three-point shooting contest. The NBA wants Caitlin Clark in a similar competition this year in SF, but Clark’s not feeling it.

NBA fans will recall that last year’s All-Star Game Weekend proceedings in Indianapolis featured a Steph Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu three-point shooting contest, which was riveting television, as the WNBA star (and Walnut Creek native!) Ionescu came within a hair of actually beating Steph. So with this year’s All-Star Game in San Francisco, the NBA would like to trot out another similar “man vs. woman” contest, or rather, a “men vs women” contest.

And the NBA would of course love to include the WNBA’s runaway blockbuster superstar Caitlin Clark. The idea would reportedly be another three-point shooting contest, but in pairs; Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu on the women’s side, and Curry plus our dearly departed friend Klay Thompson on the other. The contest is so exciting to league officials that they apparently planned to make it part of Sunday’s marquee All-Star Game, instead of being part of the normal Saturday night Three-Point Shooting Contest and Slam Dunk Contest.

But Sports Business Journal reports that Clark has declined to participate. And it’s not because she’s afraid to face the Splash Brothers, but rather, she doesn’t like the format, where the competitors grab basketballs off a rack.

Per Sports Business Journal, “Sources said Clark is not interested in shooting 3-pointers off of a ball rack — considering her practice regimen consists only of catch-and-shoot 3-pointers or shots off the dribble.”

Fair enough, though that seems fixable. Maybe they could just have a ballboy or ballgirl throw her passes. And tellingly, sources in Clark’s camp say she might reconsider.

“I wouldn’t say it’s over until the thing happens,’’ that source told Sports Business Journal. “A lot of this stuff comes together very, very late.’’

So maybe Caitlin Clark is pulling sort of a Charles Barkley move, by claiming to not want to go to San Francisco for the All-Star Game, but inevitably showing up anyway.  

Related: Brace Yourselves: SF’s NBA All-Star Game and Chinese New Year Parade Are on the Same Weekend In Mid-February

Image: UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT - SEPTEMBER 25: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever looks on during a press conference after losing 81-87 to the Connecticut Sun in Game Two of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs first round at Mohegan Sun Arena on September 25, 2024 in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)

The latest SF provocation from TNT jokester-analyst Charles Barkley was him claiming Thursday night that “I’m not going to that rat-infested place out in San Francisco” for the All-Star Game, though he has contractual obligations to attend and he surely will.

If you’ve been watching the very funny halftime and postgame shows of TNT’s Inside the NBA this year, you know that witty analyst Charles Barkley has been getting away with being completely out of line. “We goin’ home early,” Barkley often declares at halftime of uncompetitive games, voicing his desire to not stay for the second half, often adding “Ain’t nobody watching!”

Any other broadcaster would be fired in a hot minute for expressing on-air their desire to not work the remainder of the night, or to acknowledge that the broadcast might be losing viewers. But Barkley is allowed to do this, because it is hilarious, and the show’s chemistry thrives on his insult humor.

On Thursday night’s postgame highlights, Barkley continued his jokes about San Francisco, which now date back at least 17 years. And Barkley claimed he might not be attending next month’s NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco calling it a “rat-infested place.”

This is being interpreted as a legitimate boycott threat by some easily duped media outlets, but that’s misinterpreting what Barkley said. He was giving praise during a highlight segment to Detroit Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham, and said “If he don’t make the All-Star team, I’m not going. I’m not going to that rat-infested place out in San Francisco.”

“Y’all are not gonna make me like San Francisco,” Barkley added. “No. Nope, nope, nope.”

The Chronicle too is covering this like Barkley might not come, though Barkley will be here with certainty, unless Charles Barkley or San Francisco gets hit by a meteor within the next month. He is contractually obligated to be here, and his name is even part of the promotions.

This year’s game has a new format where TNT analysts Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Candace Parker will choose the players, and those teams then compete in a four-team tournament. The teams will be called Team Charles, Team Shaq, Team Kenny and Team Candace. Barkley is literally part of the show, of course he will be there. And he attends the All-Star game every single year, as seen below in footage below from last year’s game.

And he got some dings in at San Francisco in that one too, knowing the game would be here the following year. After Draymond Green complained about the cold weather at last year's host site Indianapolis (and this starts at the 1:59 mark), Barkley says, “If you had your choice of being cold, or being around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco. What would you do?” He added, “You can’t even walk around down there.”

“Yes you can walk around!” Draymond replies.

“Yeah, with a bulletproof vest,” Barkley shoots back.

Green points out, “You live in Philadelphia, Chuck!”

This is all standard-fare Charles Barkley trolling of individual cities, and should not be seen as a legitimate rivalry. It’s just the typical morning zoo-style antics of Inside the NBA. Consider the video above, which highlights Barkley’s pointless and wholly invented beef with San Antonio, Texas, and his gripes about those “big ol’ women in San Antonio.”

Related: TNT’s Charles Barkley Escalates Beef With SF, Tells Warriors Fans He’ll ‘F*** Your Mama’ [SFist]

Image: GLENDALE, ARIZONA - APRIL 08: Basketball analyst Charles Barkley on air before the National Championship game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Connecticut Huskies at State Farm Stadium on April 08, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

Get set for ramped-up security, surge pricing, price-gouging, and throngs of crowds, as both the Lunar New Year Parade and the NBA All-Star Game are happening in SF the same weekend, February 14-16, and will double-team SF for perhaps the biggest tourism weekend in years.

Valentine's Day of February 14 falls on a Friday this year, so certainly that’s nice for restaurants and wine bars that hope for a lucrative winter-season evening. But the rest of that weekend is going to be an 800-pound gorilla of San Francisco tourism, with sidewalks, restaurants and bars absolutely packed. The NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco and the 2025 SF Chinese New Year Parade are both converging on the city for the weekend of February 14-16.

Chinatown and Mission Bay will be separately overflowing with mobs of tourists, while Uber, Lyft, and Waymo will probably be in surge-pricing mode all over town. And many neighborhoods will not be able to escape the din of fireworks, in what may be San Francisco’s biggest tourism weekend since before the pandemic.

This recalls that era some ten years ago when Fleet Week, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Dreamforce all happened at the same time. We are probably looking at tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of additional tourists in SF that weekend, but we won’t know until that mid-February mega-event weekend happens. And since many of the NBA All-Star Weekend events are happening at the Oakland Arena, one would expect that BART will be pretty packed as well.

So how many people are we expecting that weekend? The SF Lunar New Year Parade website cites the figure “over three million spectators and television viewers,” but that’s counting the television audience too.  Last year's KPIX Chinese New Year Parade preview anticipated “tens of thousands” of attendees (though there are events all weekend long, not just Saturday’s parade), while the NBA claims that last year’s All-Star Game festivities in Indianapolis drew “more than 190,000 fans.”

We asked the SFPD and Mayor Lurie’s office how they’re preparing logistically for this double-dribble of tourist hordes, and we will update this post with any response. But Lunar New Year Parade officials tell us they’re welcoming the basketball fans to their event with open arms.

“We are aware of the NBA All-Star game being on the same weekend as the parade, and are working with local city planning and law enforcement agencies to safely plan for the eventful weekend,” Chinese New Year Parade spokesperson William Gee told SFist, noting that the parade is on Saturday, while the All-Star Game is on Sunday. “We don't anticipate any disruptions between our two events and welcome everyone to come out to San Francisco to enjoy both events.”

Indeed, looking at the schedule, the Chinese New Year Parade is Saturday night (Feb. 15) and the All-Star Game is Sunday night (Feb. 16). But both events offer a jam-packed weekend of supporting events.

Friday night kicks off the NBA Rising Stars Tournament at the Chase Center, followed by the All-Star Concert series at Pier 48, which is about a ten-minute walk from the Chase Center. Zedd is playing Friday night, the Chainsmokers play there after the game Sunday night, and they haven't yet announced Saturday night’s performer. The lowest GA tickets are $150, but supposedly Saturday night’s show will require a three-day pass.  

Simultaneous to the Zedd show, the Miss Chinatown USA Pageant is happening at the  Westin Saint Francis.

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The 2025 Lunar New Year Parade is Saturday, Feb. 15 at 5:15 pm. And that will definitely overlap with the Slam Dunk Contest and Three-Point Contest at the Chase Center. They have not yet announced whether Steph Curry will participate in the three-point contest, nor whether he will take on another WNBA star for a classic “man vs woman” matchup. Either way, those Saturday tickets are all sold out on Ticketmaster.

So for the rest of us, the Lunar New Year Parade is where it’s at. The parade goes from Market and Second streets to Geary Street, up Powell Street, East on Post Street and then up Kearny Street to Columbus Avenue.

The above street closures are from a previous year, as the SFMTA has not yet announced street closures for either event yet, as are we are still currently a month away from this tourist-pacolypse. And will Muni be free again this year on the night of the parade? Again, we'll have to wait and see.

And then on Sunday there is the Chinatown Street Fair (9am-5pm, same as it is on Saturday), but of course also the NBA All-Star Game at 8 pm at the Chase Center. They have changed the format this year so it’s actually four teams playing three separate games in a “mini-tournament” format in hopes of making the game less dreadfully boring than it has been in years past. TNT’s resident jokers Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Candace Parker will choose the players, and their teams will then duke it out on national TV.

This should all go better for the Warriors than the last time they hosted the All-Star Game in the Year 2000 (in Oakland), when the Warriors sucked and did not have any All-Star players on the team, and then-owner Chris Cohan was booed off the floor. But this weekend might not go as well for San Francisco, if someone, say, sets a Waymo on fire in Chinatown at Lunar New Year like they did last year. And if something like that happens, Charles Barkley’s jokes about San Francisco will be the least of our worries.

Related: It’s Official: SF Is Getting the 2025 NBA All-Star Game at the Chase Center [SFist]

Images: (Left) ​INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - FEBRUARY 18: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors and Western Conference All-Stars dribbles the ball against the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the fourth quarter during the 2024 NBA All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on February 18, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

(Right) Alaska Airlines Chinese New Year Festival & Parade

In a season where the All-Star Game will be played right here in San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors’ hopes to be contenders again probably depend on whether they actually have more than one all-star on this team.

Your Golden State Warriors open the 2024-25 NBA season Wednesday night, in what is essentially their first game of the post-Splash Brothers era. Klay Thompson of course left for the Dallas Mavericks in free agency over the summer, ending his prolific 13-year Warriors career as a charming fan favorite.

And with the Warriors hosting this year’s All-Star Game at the Chase Center (Sunday, February 16, 2025), this leaves us with the possibility that the only Warriors’ all-star player will be Wardell Stephen Curry.

Yet the 36-year-old Curry has found himself increasingly injured in recent years, and that tends to not reverse itself the older a player gets. Curry could theoretically find himself sidelined for the All-Star Game, as Scott Ostler points out in the Chronicle, which would leave the Warriors with no all-stars when they host the All-Star Game.

Unless one of the younger players can step up, or if there’s some sort of mega-deal right before the February 8 trade deadline?

We will begin to get those answers tonight, when the Warriors open their season against the Portland Trailblazers Wednesday night at 7 pm. In a sign that they are generally no longer considered title contenders, the game is only being carried on NBC Sports Bay Area. Same goes for their home opener Sunday night against the LA Clippers.

The Warriors will not have a nationally televised game until this coming Tuesday night, a 7:30 pm home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Simply put, they are no longer the belles of the NBA ball.

But you cannot count out a team with Steph Curry, as he showed with his dazzling performances at the Olympics this summer. Nor can you count out a team coached by Steve Kerr, who has nine championships over his playing and coaching career. Things are a little less consistently solid with the other remaining dynasty pillar Draymond Green, whose antics last season made him the butt of jokes on Saturday Night Live.  

So if the Warriors can exceed last season’s early play-in game exit, they will need contributions from “The Others.” That may be a lot to expect from Andrew Wiggins, who needs to stop missing stretches of games without explanation. But emerging star Moses Moody was just awarded a $39 million contract extension, while also-emerging Jonathan Kuminga did not get the big-bucks deal he wanted. I’m just saying, that means Kuminga is likely a free agent at season’s end, which might make him trade bait at the deadline.    

Still, there are very high hopes for the sophomore seasons of center Trayce Jackson-Davis, and “the pride of Santa Clara University” Brandin Podziemski (pronounced "puh-JEM-ski", naturally).

But big-picture here, the juiciest plotline of the NBA this season is what is going to happen to TV personality and famed Warriors antagonist Charles Barkley. Barkley is known for his wit and insults on the TNT pre-game and post-game show Inside the NBA, though TNT lost out on the rights to NBA games next year to NBC, Amazon, and current rights holder ABC/ESPN.

TNT (owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) has since sued over losing that bidding war. It’s pretty unprecedented that a network sues over a sports bidding war, so I won’t even try to speculate on how this all ends.

The TNT crew, which also includes Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith, has brought up the possibility that they might still keep the band together and just do scores and highlights shows, without games, and probably Law & Order re-runs between the pre-game and post-game.  

But you can expect that Barkley, the only truly irreplaceable member of this panel, will get the Brink's trucks rolled up to him by NBC, ESPN, or Jeff Bezos’s Amazon. Or rather, an even larger Brink’s truck than Barkley is used to. So Charles Barkley drama is a likely a constant undercurrent to the coming NBA season.

And it would be a real shame to see Barkley go to NBC. After all, that network probably won't let him shout “I’m going to come to your house and fuck your mama!” on live television.

Related: Steph Curry Posts Emotional Instagram Story After Klay Thompson Departure Announcement [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 11: Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, from left, Stephen Curry #30 and Draymond Green #23 pose for photos during an Olympic Gold Medal recognition ceremony before their preseason game against the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center on October 11, 2024 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Tuesday morning’s unveiling of San Francisco's WNBA expansion team name and logo did not disappoint, as we learn that the team will be the Golden State Valkyries, with a kick-ass Bay Bridge-inspired purple logo.

When the news broke in October that the increasingly popular women’s basketball league, the WNBA, would be awarding San Francisco an expansion franchise in 2025, it was immediately confirmed that they would also be referred to as “Golden State,” just like the men’s team. That indicated that the still-unnamed team would sort of replicate the men’s Warriors team in terms of naming convention and color scheme, a typical WNBA formula also employed by Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, and Seattle Storm, whose logo is a reboot of that of the old Seattle Supersonics.    

But they went in a different direction, and in quite the artful way. NBC News reports that our WNBA team will be the Golden State Valkyries, a reference to the female warriors of Norse mythology, and with a very well-designed Bay Bridge inspired logo.

Can you take a wild guess what the Valkyries’ entrance music is going to be? Smells like victory, baby!

ESPN quotes a Tuesday morning press release from the new team that says the name is a homage to “warrior women who are fearless and unwavering — flying through air and sea alike." The release adds, "This brand is Golden State's modern interpretation of Valkyries: strong, bold, and fierce."

Sports logos are often very stupid (ahem, 1997/98 Golden State Warriors), but this one’s terrific and full of Bay Area and WNBA inside references. We have Bay Bridge cables and towers, and a visual reference to the Valkyries being the 13th WNBA team (a 14th team will also begin play in 2025, though the host city has not been named yet). The team colors anr black and "Valkyrie Violet," a bold but well-executed departure from the Warriors’ color scheme.

“Valkyries are this bad-ass group of women making change happen, making the impossible possible,” new Valkyries President Jess Smith told the New York Times. “These are legends to be made.”

The Times adds that the team was actually also considering “Golden Girls,” which is hilarious, but would probably have been too glib. Other names being considered were the Sea Lions, the Fog, and the Pioneers.

The Chronicle notes there will be a block party outside Chase Center this Saturday from 2 pm to 6 pm to celebrate the new team and name. E-40 is scheduled to perform, along with Goapele and several other Bay Area artists.

We have to say, the new team has absolutely knocked it out of the park with this excellent name, logo, and color scheme. Yes, pro sports expansion teams generally suck for their first season or two, but there is absolutely fan momentum here. Even before today’s logo announcement, the team had already secured 7,500 season ticket deposits.

For perspective, Chase Center has a capacity of 18,000. If all of those deposits lead to actual season ticket sales, effectively, the Chase Center is already 42% sold for all of the Valkyries’ home games, despite no games even being scheduled yet and a team that only exists on paper.

“We haven’t done anything yet!” Smith told the Times. “We don’t have players!”

Yet the Chronicle is already speculating that the Valkyries may sign free-agent-to-be WNBA star and Walnut Creek native Sabrina Ionescu, who famously almost beat Steph Curry in a three-point shooting contest.

The WNBA's 2024 season kicks off today, with the seasons running from May to September. And the big headline for this season is the entrance of college star Caitlin Clark playing for the pros for the first time, playing for the Indiana Fever in a game against the Connecticut Sun. Tip off is at 4:30 pm PT.

Related: It’s Official: San Francisco Is Getting a WNBA Team, Starting In 2025 [SFist]

Image: @wnbagoldenstate via Twitter

The 2025 NBA All-Star Game will be played here in San Francisco at the Chase Center, as the league announced today, and we can’t wait to hear TNT analyst Charles Barkley complain again that he has to come back to the city that loves to hate him.

When word leaked in late September that San Francisco might get the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, it was just days after when we also learned that SF might get a WNBA team. And we figured the two would go hand-in-hand; that is, if SF was awarded the WNBA team to start playing in May 2025, then that February 2025 All-Star Game would essentially be an extended commercial for that upcoming new women’s basketball team. And sure enough, it was confirmed that SF would get a WNBA team with an early October announcement.

And so it followed Monday, that NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced the 2025 All-Star Game would be in San Francisco, according to the Bay Area News Group. Silver was flanked by SF Mayor London Breed, who said at a Monday press conference that the event would bring 135,000 visitors to the city.

“It’s not just about the economy but the excitement,” Breed said at the press conference.

Breed is understandably gloating it up (though honestly, there is no guarantee she will still be mayor when this February 2025 game comes to town.) But Steph Curry and Draymond Green should both still be in their current employment situations, as both have Warriors contracts that run through that season. Klay Thompson, meanwhile is currently on the final year of his Warriors contract, so we'll see if he gets that contract extension. And of course, we can't predict who will make the roster of an All-Star Game that won’t be played until more than 15 months from now.

But sorry, Charles Barkley! The NBA All-Star game will still be televised on TNT in 2025, which means TNT analyst and vocal SF hater Charles Barkley will be forced to come back to San Francisco. You’ll recall that fans pelted Barkley with debris on live television during the 2022 Western Conference Finals, following Barkley taunting Warriors fans just days before with the shout, “I’m going to come to your house and fuck your mama!”

The Bay Area has not hosted the NBA  All-Star Game since the year 2000, when they still played in Oakland back during the Warriors’ awful Mookie Blaylock-Antawn Jamison era. That game did not represent them well. There were no Warriors on the All-Star team that year, and then-owner Chris Cohan was booed off the floor.

Related: SF Reportedly on the Verge of Getting the 2025 NBA All-Star Game at the Chase Center [SFist]

Image: CLEVELAND, OHIO - FEBRUARY 20: Stephen Curry #30 of Team LeBron looks on against Team Durant during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on February 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

It’s not official, but plenty of sportswriters with “sources” say that the NBA will soon announce that the 2025 All-Star Game will be played at the Chase Center, which means haha, Charles Barkley will be forced to come back here and get heckled again.

Hot on the heels of this week’s news that San Francisco may very well be getting a WNBA team starting in 2025, on Thursday we get more exciting news that the Chase Center looks likely to get the 2025 NBA All-Star game, according to the Bay Area News Group.

The Golden State Warriors’ arena has not hosted the NBA All-Star Game since the year 2000 (ugh, the  Mookie Blaylock-Antawn Jamison era, when coach P. J. Carlesimo was fired barely a month into the season), a time when Oracle Arena was still known as Oakland Arena. Back in 2017, before the Chase Center was even finished, the Warriors put in a bid for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game, but that game went to Atlanta, who already had, you know, a functioning basketball arena.

The news was first reported by The Athletic's Shams Charania, who tweeted Thursday morning that “The NBA is nearing plans for the Golden State Warriors (Chase Center) to host 2025 All-Star Weekend, sources tell @TheAthletic.”

State Assemblymember Matt Haney seems to think it’s a done deal, though I’m not sure Haney has strong infomation from the NBA league office. But the Bay Area News Group says that “League sources said a deal to have the Golden State host the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco is close to being completed.”

The 2025 NBA All-Star game would be part of the 2024-25 NBA season, as the game is traditionally played in February, near mid-season. Steph Curry would still be under contract with the Warriors at that point, as would be Draymond Green, though Klay Thomson is not guaranteed to be on the team, with a contract ending after this coming season.

But the cable TV network TNT has the NBA All-Star Game through the year 2025, so the game would be carried on that network.

And you know what that means, Warriors fans… TNT on-air personality Charles MF Barkley. The wise-ass Barkley has been beefing with the Bay Area on TNT for more than 15 years, declaring in 2007 that "I would rather stay on Alcatraz than San Francisco or Oakland.'' And who can forget Barkley’s May 2022 taunt to Chase Center fans “​​I’m going to come to your house and fuck your mama!,” which led to fans pelting Barkley with debris on live television the following week.

But on the serious side, if the NBA does give SF a WNBA team in 2025, the SF All-Star Game would basically be a shoo-in. The NBA loves cross-promotion (they call it “synergy”). The NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center in 2025 would be a constant promotion for the WNBA at the Chase Center in 2025.

The NBA and the Chase Center are both all about money, and the smart money would be on  the WNBA, and the All-Star Game, coming to Chase Center in about a year and a half.  

Related: SF and the Warriors Could Be Getting a WNBA Team, Possibly as Soon as 2025 [SFist]

Top image: Stephen Curry #30 of Team LeBron holds the Kobe Bryant Trophy during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on February 20, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

The WNBA is looking to add expansion teams as the popularity of women's basketball grows, and SF could be the next city up as the league hopes to add two more teams by 2025.

The Bay Area is a better-than-most market for women’s basketball, as the perennial powerhouse Stanford women’s basketball team has pre-built a fandom for the women’s game around these parts. So as the increasingly popular WNBA looks to expand its league (and revenue), the Bay Area seems a logical choice.

As such, KTVU reports the WNBA is considering the Bay Area a finalist in their expansion plans, citing a report from The Athletic saying the Golden State Warriors organization would run the WNBA team, should it be awarded to the region.

Th Athletic says the Warriors are “finalizing” an agreement, which sounds like talks are indeed advanced.

"[We] look forward to the possibility of being part of the league’s expansion plans," KTVU says the Warriors organization wrote in an email. "However, it would be premature to assume any potential agreement has been finalized."

The WNBA has already indicated it wants to expand the 12-team league to 14 teams by its 2025 season. (The WNBA season generally starts in May of a given year.)

KTVU adds that “Bringing a professional sports team to the Bay Area would be a boon, especially since the Raiders football team left for Las Vegas, and the A's baseball team are threatening to do the same.” Yeah, but. The proposed team would not play in Oakland, it would play at the Chase Center. So it’s just speculation that the East Bay would go wild for a team that plays in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, that developer group that's hoping to redevelop the Oakland Coliseum property, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, was hoping to lure a WNBA team there, but that might have to wait until the league's next expansion.

This proposed WNBA team would be affiliated with the Warriors, and likely have a similar naming convention and team colors, as we see with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, and Phoenix Mercury. Other WNBA teams are not at all affiliated with NBA counterparts (Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm, and Washington Mystics).

If you want to hop on this WNBA bandwagon and get a crash course, the WNBA playoffs are currently down to the final four teams. The New York Liberty play the Connecticut Sun in the Eastern Conference Finals Friday at 4:30 p.m. PT in a series currently tied 1-1, and the Las Vegas Aces play the Dallas Wings Friday at 9:30 p.m. PT in a series that the Aces lead 2-0.

Related: Brittney Griner Is Free [SFist]

Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 07: Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty plays against the Los Angeles Sparks at the Barclays Center on September 07, 2023 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Yet another sport may see yet another inconvenient but prudent safety measure get in the way of gameplay, as we're hearing a report that the NBA is considering a one- to two-week pause in the season due to COVID-19 infections.

Officially, the NBA said on Sunday there were no plans to take a pause, despite mounting COVID cases among players, and contact tracing processes that were making it difficult for teams to find enough eligible players to play in games.

The Boston Celtics' All-NBA Star Jayson Tatum is currently on the injured list for 10 to 14 days due to apparent COVID exposure — and the team played without three other player on Friday as well, as Yahoo Sports reports.

As KRON4's Jason Dumas now reports, there is a discussion about a 7- to 14-day pause in the season, after a couple of Monday's and Tuesday's games have already been postponed. A matchup between the Mavericks and Pelicans tonight is postponed, and so is a game between the Bulls and Celtics set for Tuesday. A game between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics was already postponed on Sunday.

The NBA is reportedly hoping to avoid any pause, but pressure may mount if more COVID cases appear.

"We anticipated that there would be game postponements this season and planned the schedule accordingly," NBA spokesman Mike Bass told ESPN in a statement on Sunday. "There are no plans to pause the season, and we will continue to be guided by our medical experts and health and safety protocols."

It's unclear at this point just how many NBA players have been infected or potentially exposed to the virus. (In Tatum's case, the team hasn't even said whether he tested positive, or someone close to him had.) As CBS Sports reports, "dozens" have been put on injured lists, and at least one team, the Philadelphia 76ers, had to suit up an injured player in order to have enough eligible players to go forward with a Saturday game against the Denver Nuggets.

The Golden State Warriors have not had a positive COVID case since before the season opener, when two players (including Draymond Green), tested positive on December 1 and delayed the team's training camp.

Photo: Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics makes a pass against the Washington Wizards at TD Garden on January 8, 2021 in Boston. Following this game, Tatum was sidelined for possible COVID exposure and so was at least one of the Wizards. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)