The Art of Basketball: Warriors' Chase Center Embraces Artists

The brand of basketball practiced by the Golden State Warriors has often been described as a kind of artistry, and the team's new Chase Center in San Francisco seems to embrace the metaphor with a wide array of art inside and out.

The jaw-dropping focal point hanging above center court isn't technically a piece of art, but with nearly 25 million pixels and 75 million LEDs, the massive Samsung scoreboard will project artistic images and videos during Warriors' games and concerts.

Shawn Bennett, head of the Warriors' "game experience team" who held a similar gig at Madison Square Garden, called the scoreboard "the centerpiece in our elevated entertainment package."

Warriors team president Rick Welts, who presided over the media unveiling of the nearly finished arena this week, has spent the last three years or more focusing on how to maximize the team's new state-of-the-art facility. It sits on 11 acres of prime real estate that will eventually include a 5.5-acre park, some 20 restaurants and retail spaces outside the arena, two office buildings and a 10,000-square-foot Warriors store.

The team will play more than 40 regular and preseason games there each year, plus any postseason playoff games. In addition to that, a star-studded concert lineup has already been booked, including Elton John, Janet Jackson, Cher and Mumford & Sons.

The $1.4 billion Chase Center was designed by an architectural team that included people from Gensler, Manica Architecture and Kendall/Heaton Associates. Inside and out, it incorporates eye-catching art, including a hanging mobile by Alexander Calder, on loan from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which visitors will see as they pass through the west entrance off Third Street.

The bayside entrance will feature a piece titled "Seeing Spheres" by international artist Olafur Eliasson. It consists of five 15½-feet-tall steel spheres. The reflective surfaces will create the kind of images seen at Chicago's iconic "Cloud Gate" sculpture, affectionately known as "The Bean."

Also on the east side of Chase Center is a mosaic created by the Precita Eyes Muralists from San Francisco's Mission District.

It's one of dozens of pieces resulting from the Warriors' "Call for Artists" program.

Monday afternoon another artist, Guillaume Ollivier from Oakland, was lying on his stomach inside Chase Center painting his signature at the bottom of a mural he created with San Francisco artist Chad Hasegawa, a reminder that Chase Center is still something of a work in progress.

Through the upper hallways of Chase Center are iconic framed photos from Warriors teams past and present, including a mesmerizing San Francisco Chronicle photo of Stephen Curry holding the Larry O'Brien trophy during the team's 2018 NBA Championship celebration parade in Oakland.

After an injury-plagued season in which the Warriors lost to Toronto in the NBA Finals in June, fans are hoping the artistry continues on the court once the team's first season at Chase Center begins in October.