Nearly three months after last playing at the Chase Center in San Francisco, it looks like Bethel High and Texas Tech graduate Chance McMillian will get more opportunities to play in front of his hometown fans.
Moments after the NBA draft concluded on Thursday evening, the Golden State Warriors signed McMillian to an Exhibition 10 contract. With the deal made, McMillian will become a member of the Warriors’ G-League affiliate team, the Santa Cruz Warriors, and compete in the NBA 2K26 Summer League. Fans can get a glimpse at McMillian when he is scheduled to play in the California Classic Summer League at the San Francisco venue on July 5, 6 and 8.
McMillian will be playing to possibly get a standard league minimum deal with the Warriors.
The Bethel graduate, who also played for St. Patrick-St. Vincent, couldn’t be reached by press time with the Times-Herald but he took to X, formerly Twitter, to say, “It’s a dream come true to suit up for the squad I’ve always looked up to. It’s crazy to think I’m a part of Dub Nation now.”
Two months ago McMillian played at Chase Center with his Texas Tech squad during March Madness. Although he was injured and couldn’t play in the Sweet 16 win over Arkansas, the former Jaguar scored 14 points in the Elite 8 for the Red Raiders in a loss two days later to Florida, who would end up winning the national championship.
In 2021, McMillian became the first player coached by both Dwayne Jones (ex-Bethel and Hogan) and Derek Walker (St. Pat’s) to compete in March Madness.
Former Vallejo High and current Elite High head coach Duke Brown said in 2021 that he believed McMillian to be the first men’s player from Vallejo to be on a team in the men’s tournament since DeMarcus Nelson played in games for Duke from 2005 through 2008. Nelson, who is in the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame, played for Vallejo before transferring to Sheldon of Sacramento. He later saw time in the NBA including a stint with the Golden State Warriors.
Bethel’s Chance McMillian elevates to the hoop for two of his 32 points in the Jaguars’ 78-71 win over Rodriguez in 2019 .(Chris Riley–Times-Herald File)
In a 2021 first-round loss to Iowa McMillian didn’t see much action, but had two rebounds and an assist. He appeared to have scored a basket near the end of the first half, but the shot didn’t beat the 30-second shot clock by about half a second.
In 2023 McMillian was back in the tournament with Grand Canyon and had a bigger role, although in another first-round loss, this time to Gonzaga. He played 38 minutes and scored 16 points and added four rebounds, four assists and one steal.
The next season McMillian transferred to Texas Tech. McMillian said that year he felt he’s was learning to play with more force.
“I am a lot more physical now,” McMillian said in 2024. “I had to adapt to that especially playing in the Big 12. I feel that is the one area I improved my game on for than any.”
However, the end result his junior year was another first-round loss. McMillian came off the bench but played the fourth-most minutes on the team with 31. He scored eight points on 4-for-9 shooting and added two rebounds and two steals.
During McMillian’s senior year, his role grew again. He played in 32 games and averaged over 14.2 points a game, third overall on the Red Raiders. He’s also grabbed four rebounds and 1.8 assists and 0.7 steals a game.
Originally Published: June 27, 2025 at 2:11 PM PDT