San Francisco Pro-Am Basketball League

The San Francisco Pro-Am (short for Professional-Amateur) Basketball League is a summer basketball league for high school, college, and professional players. For young players entering or already in college, it can be an important venue to be discovered by talent scouts. For professional players in the NBA or foreign leagues, the league provides an opportunity to practice during the off season. The games, which are Monday-Thursday and run from mid-June to mid-August, are free to the public and take place at the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. Recently, the official name of the league was changed to SF Bay Area Pro-city.

The league began in 1979 and has been in existence since then, acting as a great place not only for players to stay ACTIVE, but for fans of the game to see some professional caliber play for no cost. The games are officiated and announced over a loudspeaker. Teams have an open roster policy, and it is common for players come back every year to participate.

List of Teams

Current

San Francisco

Bay City

Dream Team

East Bay

Oakland

Bay Raiders

South Bay

Bay Pride

Past Champions

1979 High Hopes

1980 San Francisco

1981 Parker’s Nike

1982 Budweiser

1983 San Francisco

1984 Graduate Bar

1985 Blazers

1986 Thomas Tycoons

1987 San Francisco

1988 San Francisco

1989 San Francisco

1990 San Francisco

1991 Bay Raiders

1992 Bay Pride

1993 Bay Raiders

1994 San Francisco

1995 Bay Pride

1996 Bay Pride

1997 S.F. City

1998 Dream Team

1999 East Bay

2000 San Mateo

2001 Bay Pride

2002 SF City

2003 SF City

2004 East Bay

2005 East Bay

NBA players in the League

Some of the NBA players to play in the league are as follows:

Tim Hardaway

Gary Payton

Jason Kidd

Steve Nash

Cliff Robinson

Michael Olowokandi

Brent Barry

Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Jalen Rose

Antonio Davis

Adonal Foyle

Hook Mitchell

Vonteego Cummings

Jason Richardson

Leon Powe

Sean Lampley

Gilbert Arenas

Other Legendary Players/Coaches Nick Harper(The King of the Flop) "Snake" Jones

Doc Holiday

Eddie Joe Chavez

Bucky Chavez

Raymond "Circus" King

Edward "Topper" Allen

"Cell Phone" Merv

2006 Season

The 2006 regular season ended on August 3rd. Three teams ended the season with a record of 6-1. These teams were San Francisco, Bay City, and Dream Team. Because San Francisco had the best record against the other first place teams, they were granted a bye and advanced to the finals automatically.

In the end, Bay City was the championship team, beating San Francisco in the final series two games to zero.

The MVP of the 2006 season was Luke Whitehead, a graduate from Saint Ignasius High School. He recently finished his college career at Louisville and is trying out for the NBA.