VALLEJO – Like an innumerable number of other Bay Area kids watching television on May 11, 2007, 6-year-old Chance McMillian was awestruck when Warriors guard Baron Davis cocked back his right arm and threw down an iconic poster dunk through Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko.
After his beloved “We Believe” Warriors finished off the 125-105 victory to cut Utah’s second-round series lead to 2-1, McMillian sprinted out of his family’s home in east Vallejo and made a beeline to the basketball goal rooted in the driveway.
“I was trying to act like I was dunking on someone like how he did in that game,” McMillian told the Bay Area News Group.
He did his best to mimic Davis’ fearless drives and tricky handles too, doing what he thought was a perfect facsimile. That streaky Davis-like jump shot though?
McMillian’s mom remembered it needed some work.
“He knocked a couple of shingles off the roof,” Judy Bowers told the Bay Area News Group.
His long-range shooting has improved drastically in the 18 years since that day, rippling nets rather than damaging roofs and becoming the main weapon of a sharpshooter who led Texas Tech to the 2025 Elite 8.
Golden State Warriors’ Chance McMillian (25) hangs out court side on a scooter before their game against the San Antonio Spurs during the California Classic Summer League game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)McMillian, 23, had to undergo surgery on a stress fracture in his left ankle a few weeks prior to the NBA Draft, and recovery typically takes six to eight weeks.
Though confined to a boot and in need of a scooter to move around, and unable to play in Summer League, Golden State decided his smooth shot was intriguing enough to sign the East Bay native as an undrafted free agent.
“I’m a Golden State Warrior,” is what McMillian, who was still recovering from surgery in Lubbock, told his mom over the phone.
They were slightly bummed out by the knowledge that he would not be able to wear the blue and gold during the summer exhibition games at Chase Center and later Las Vegas, but McMillian has remained optimistic.
“I just see this as a little roadblock, not the end of the world,” McMillian said.
After all, this is not the first time McMillian has had to overcome less-than-ideal circumstances during his hoops journey.
His fascination with hoops began as a 5-year-old when his older siblings Joi and Justin would play in youth leagues, guzzling down Gatorade during breaks.
McMillian began to demand Gatorade too, with his mom eventually giving him a watered-down mixture, and he began to associate the sport with the ubiquitous liquid.
He grew out of his obsession with the energy drink, but McMillian’s love of basketball, and his height, only grew.
Photo of Chance McMillian (5) at a basketball camp (Photo courtesy of Judy Bowers and Willie Eashman)McMillian often attended basketball camps around the Bay Area, including one put on by a baby-faced Warriors rookie named Steph Curry in 2009, and watched as many Warriors games as he could on TV while also going to his fair share of games at Oracle.
Sprouting to 6-foot-3 as a teenager, McMillian became a two-time Tri-County Athletic League MVP at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School in Vallejo.
After transferring to the crosstown public school Bethel – and enrolling in a class at Solano Community College for good measure – McMillian was named TCAL MVP for the third time.
“Chance is a hooper now,” said Joey Fuca, who also works with Miami Heat forward Keshad Johnson. “He knows basketball, he’s a junkie.”
But even though the guard was also a standout on the AAU circuit, playing for Fuca’s LakeShow program and later the famed Oakland Soldiers, college interest was light.
It was not for lack of trying on the family’s part.
Bowers had long filmed her son’s games from the stands, often as a way for other family members in far-flung places to watch his exploits.
McMillian became an avid video editor as a teenager, cutting up his own highlights and posting them to social media as if he were a one-man BallIsLife operation.
“No one else was recording me and making basketball highlight tapes, so I made my own,” McMillian said.
Photo of Chance McMillian (middle) with sister Joi (left), brother Justin (right) and mother Judy (center) (Photo courtesy of Judy Bowers)The highlights paid off, and it has been a whirlwind ride ever since graduating from Bethel.
He spent a postgrad year at Golden State Prep, then three seasons in Arizona at Grand Canyon University. Finally, McMillian wanted to test himself against top competition, and became the starting two-guard for a pair of seasons at Texas Tech.
His time in Lubbock even saw him play the last two games of his collegiate career at Chase Center, beating Arkansas and losing to the Gators in the Warriors home arena.
McMillian established himself as one of the nation’s top shooters while simultaneously fighting off accusations of being a Dub Nation bandwagoner.
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“I for sure had a Baron Davis poster in my room, and honestly, I wore the No. 5 because of him when I was younger,” McMillian said. “Anytime that anyone would talk bad about the Warriors, I was right there to back (the team) up.”
Now wearing No. 25 – a reference to him being the second son of his grandfather’s fifth child – he has a chance to make his mark with the team … eventually.
The Vallejo native hopes to be healthy for training camp, and is itching to resume his basketball story in the place where it started.
“I want to show kids in the Bay Area that, if I can do it, then you can do it too, because anything is possible,” McMillian said.
Golden State Warriors’ Chance McMillian (25) rolls past head coach Lainn Wilson before their game against the San Antonio Spurs during the California Classic Summer League game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, July 6, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) Read More Details
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