LAS VEGAS – Knowing how to play with Steph Curry and earning his trust in a hurry is every player’s easiest path to getting on the court for the Warriors. Charles Bassey immediately aced his test at the end of the 2025-26 NBA regular season.
His first game in a Golden State jersey was Curry’s first in over two months after missing 27 straight games to issues with runner’s knee. Curry in 26 minutes scored 29 points during a one-point loss against the Houston Rockets at Chase Center on April 5. Bassey played a little under 10 minutes and produced five points, four rebounds and two blocked shots.
Their second game together is when chemistry was seamlessly created.
Bassey and Curry came off the bench to lead the Warriors to a 110-105 win over the Sacramento Kings on their home court in San Francisco. Curry played 25 minutes and scored 17 points with four 3-pointers. Bassey played what then was a career-high 27 minutes and 14 seconds while forming a two-man game with Curry. He put together a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double with two steals and two blocked shots.
“We talked about it, me and him. I’m like, ‘Bro, we felt like we’ve been playing together for 10 years,’” Bassey remembered in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area on Monday. “I didn’t know what to expect. I remember the first game we got in together. My first play was a screen and roll and a dunk.
“After the game, he was like, ‘Bro, I feel like I’ve been playing with you forever.’ That’s how it feels. So it’s good, man. This season is going to be great. We’re going to keep working and it’s going to be a good year.”
The Warriors on Thursday re-signed Bassey in NBA free agency to a one-year contract. While the Warriors’ Las Vegas NBA Summer League team was practicing, Bassey on Monday was working out on a side court with assistant coach Anthony Vereen.
Warriors summer league head coach Khalid Robinson, who works as an assistant coach for Golden State, emphasized how important Bassey’s return is.
“Charles was great for us when he joined late in the season, bringing his ability to dive to the rim, put pressure on the rim, shot blocking, his presence defensively and rebounding – we love to have him back,” Robinson said. “He does a lot of the things that we need, and he does them at a pretty high level.”
As Robinson mentioned, Bassey fills a lot of the gaps that the Warriors need on their roster. He brings youth at 25 years old. He brings size at 6-foot-10 and 230 pounds. He brings athleticism, and most of all, he’s a force down low.
Bassey projects to be the Warriors’ third center behind Al Horford and Kristaps Porziņģis. Horford is 40 years old, and Porziņģis is seen as an old 30, who will turn 31 on Aug. 2. Each has their own health concerns.
That alone makes Bassey so valuable. As does his style of play. Horford and Porziņģis both are stretch big men who would rather live behind the 3-point line than throw down a dunk. Bassey’s here to rattle the rim with authority.
In just five games on the Warriors last season, Bassey slammed four dunks. That’s the same number as Horford had in his 45 regular-season games with the Warriors. Bassey in his five games on the Warriors averaged 20 minutes with 10.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
For a team that was far and away dead last in dunks last season and struggled to generate easy offense, the element Bassey provides is key over the grind of an 82-game season.
“I like physicality,” Bassey said. “I like to play down there. KP and Al, they want to shoot more, they want to be outside the paint. Me just being down there, me just being that bruiser for the team and getting rebounds offensively and defensively playing with those guys, it’s going to be a good season because we can play together.”
The addition of Porziņģis at the trade deadline allowed coach Steve Kerr to have more twin-tower lineups between Horford and Porziņģis. The two veterans can impact games in the post and beyond the arc. Bassey’s game begins close to the basket, but he does have the ability to let it fly as well.
Bassey began last season in Santa Cruz with the Warriors’ G League affiliate. He averaged a dominant 20.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 17 games. But Bassey also shot 40.5 percent on 2.2 3-point attempts per game for the Sea Dubs.
“I had a conversation with Steve and [Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy] at the end of the year, and they told me they don’t want me to stop shooting the ball,” Bassey says. “They want me to keep doing what I do best and just keep shooting it. Every workout I keep working on my shot, keep shooting them, because it’s a long season.”
Since the end of the season, Bassey remained in the Bay Area working out at Chase Center in May and June to make it clear what he wanted his future to be as an unrestricted free agent. Bassey loved how the Warriors try to make Santa Cruz and Golden State such an easy transition and had never felt more comfortable.
Once a top high school recruit in the Class of 2018, Bassey was drafted in 2021 by the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round. He has played 126 NBA games in his five-year career for five different teams. Last season alone, Bassey played for four NBA teams: Two games with the Memphis Grizzlies, one with the 76ers, five with the Boston Celtics and another five with the Warriors to finish the year.
Back on the Warriors now and the hopeful foreseeable future is where Bassey badly wanted to be.
“Of course, man,” Bassey says. “I was here the whole time last year and then it was going to different places and starting over. Why not just be with these guys who I’ve already been with, working with them the whole summer.
“Let’s go do some good this year.”
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