Another edition of the NBA’s Summer League has come and gone in Las Vegas, and five Gonzaga University men’s basketball alumni took the court to try and earn permanent contracts. From championship hardware to posterizing dunks, here is how each of them fared.
The Golden State Warriors took home this season’s Summer League championship, but they likely could not have done it without former GU star Graham Ike’s contributions. After going undrafted, Ike got his shot with the Warriors and quickly established himself as the team’s first-choice center. Ike got a starting nod in all six of the Warriors’ games, where he averaged 10 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game on 46.7% shooting from the field. This included a 16-point, 11-rebound performance against Los Angeles that helped the Warriors advance to the Summer League championship game.
It remains to be seen whether Ike will be able to claim Golden State’s lone two-way roster spot, but given his performance in Vegas and the Warriors’ outstanding need for frontcourt depth, he’s likely put himself in strong contention for NBA minutes next season.
His ex-teammate Ryan Nembhard is the only Zag that participated in Summer League with a permanent NBA contract, and he looked the part in his two games with Dallas. GU’s all-time assist leader opened his tournament on July 9 with a 15-point, 11-assist showing at point guard against Ike and the Warriors before submitting 12 points and five assists against Los Angeles two days later.
Nembhard didn’t know it at the time, but those would be his final minutes in a Mavericks uniform. Eight days after he concluded his time in Summer League, Dallas dealt Nembhard to Atlanta in a three-team trade with Oklahoma City that also involved former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher and Luguentz Dort. Nembhard will have a tougher path to consistent playing time with the Hawks, as CJ McCollum and Kingston Flemings both figure to take the lion’s share of minutes at point guard next season.
While Nembhard and Ike both starred for their respective squads, Lakers forward Anton Watson had two of the most memorable moments of any Zag participating in the tournament. In the third quarter of Los Angeles’ tourney opener against Miami, Watson produced a viral clip by dunking on 7-foot-2 center Vladislav Goldin mere seconds after Goldin blocked an Adou Thiero dunk attempt. Later on in overtime, Watson followed up a missed shot attempt by scoring the game-winning tip-in.
Watson was a major contributor to a Lakers squad that went 4-1 and made the semifinals before falling to Golden State. Like Ike, Watson started all six games for his team, and he averaged 7.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg and two assists per game in 20.7 minutes per game. Those splits included a 12-point, 10-rebound showing against Miami and a 15-point performance against Oklahoma City. Watson has had multiple cups of coffee at the NBA level, so it remains to be seen whether he will get another shot after spending all of the 2025-26 season in the G-League.
Tyon Grant-Foster and Jalen Warley also participated for San Antonio and Indiana, respectively, albeit in much smaller roles than their fellow alumni. Both players were healthy scratches for their teams’ first two games of the tournament before appearing off the bench in the final three. Warley earned a bit more playing time than Grant-Foster at 13.7 mpg, where he averaged 2.0 ppg and 2.7 rpg. Grant-Foster appeared sparingly for the Spurs, averaging just 3.0 mpg and scoring two total points.
Brooks Coleman is a staff writer.