The G League Ignite, a NBA minor league basketball team that had trained in Walnut Creek for the first two years of its existence, announced Friday that the team is moving to Nevada.
The team, which was created in 2020 as an alternative to college basketball for top prospects coming out of high school, has had players such as Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga and other recent high draft picks on its roster over the first two seasons and played games in Las Vegas this past season while training at the Ultimate Fieldhouse gym in Walnut Creek.
In a news conference Friday, G League Ignite officials said that all operations for the team will move to Henderson, Nevada, where they will play home games as the Dollar Loan Center arena starting in the 2022-23 season.
Since the team didn’t play its home games in Walnut Creek, many residents may not have known that future NBA stars were training in the East Bay suburb.
NBA G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim said at the news conference that the team started looking for a new location and “the number one priority was a place where the team could feel at home, where the team could be a part of the community.”
The Ignite team will still return to California for road games since the Warriors’ G League team is in Santa Cruz and the Sacramento Kings’ team is in Stockton, while the Los Angeles Lakers’ and Los Angeles Clippers’ G League teams are in Southern California.
9 comments
Wow, sorry to hear. They want community we got it! Why wasn’t the community made aware they were here? LV is great, but The Bay Area has so much more.
Yes the Bay Area has a lot more crime, homeless, gangs, and criminals running the streets knowing if they get caught they will released immediately in the name of racial inequality.
Leaving The Bay Area has never made more sense. Even Gavin goes out of state to have a vacation.
TraumaRx
Obviously you haven’t been to Vegas in the past 20 years. It’s a complete crap hole that only a small section is kept “nice” for tourist to come spend billions of dollars a year. The Strip is loaded with crime, gangs, drugs and prostitutes as are the outlying neighborhoods. It’s Meth-O-Rama in Vegas with a tich of heroin & Fentanyl thrown in for good measure. And contrary to Claycord beliefs it’s not cheap to live there either.
Yeah Vegas is soooo much better than the bay area
Yes even Heather Farms is now “Little Oakland “ on the weekends with drug sellers, drug buyers, fights, rap music blaring from cars with blacked out windows.
If true, the NBA G League should feel at home in Walnut Creek. I mean, that’s their community, right?
Yeah like Vegas is prize. It is the “ghetto fabulous” city of NV. Reno got smart after the last recession and has diversified away from gaming being the main economic driver. Next recession Vegas will crash and burn while little old Reno survives
Tony,
You’re not wrong. I know a number of lifeguards and two managers at the Heather Farm pool which many families and summer programs/camps come use.
Just within the past couple years there’s been a marked increase in “certain” groups coming there, right along with an obvious disdain for and hostility towards staff, made even worse with the inflatable “obstacle course” they now have for kids.
I’ll let you guess which group is the ones who don’t like to follow the rules, who talk back, and even parents who instead of disciplining their kid will get in the face of staff for even DARING to correct/warn their brats.
Heather Farm visitors from Da Hood is like the current viral video of barefoot 3-yr olds swearing and attacking ATF officers in MN, making fun of their race and calling them “oreos”. Bad parenting and an ugly failed rap culture whose focus is on violence, rape, stealing, and drug use (95% imbibe in “substances”) is all important over anything good. They violate rules of Christian, Buddhist, and Muslim beliefs, and common sense. 90% are not employed and collect free welfare checks that’s paid by hard working Americans.
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