Week 169: The San Diego Sharks

Week 169: March 29th - April 4th, 2026

With both NCAA March Madness and the regular season of the NBA, you'd think I'd be all basketball-ed out. However, my boyfriend and I went to a San Diego Sharks basketball game and had a great time.

The San Diego Sharks are a "fans-first" and family friendly professional basketball team here in San Diego. Created in 2022 by Tyler Sickmeyer, the Sharks are a founding team in the relaunch of the United States Basketball League (USBL). I'd never heard of the USBL until now, but apparently it was a minor professional league from 1985 to 2008 and was rebooted March 2026. I'm not sure if the Sharks are still in the USBL, or if they are participating in something else.

In my limited online research, I did find something odd. The "About" section on the Sharks website mentions the USBL, but the USBL does not currently list the San Diego Sharks as an active team. There is one San Diego team on the USBL site, but its called the San Diego Surf. I wonder if they are the Sharks' enemies. Anyway, the Sharks' Instagram does mention the "94x50 League", so maybe that is their current situation. Its a little unclear online. Not sure how @94x50league differs from the USBL, but it seems that they are both up and coming minor professional leagues.

The home games are all held at Canyon Crest Academy, a very bougie-looking high school in Pacific Highlands Ranch. They even had a giant inflatable shark mouth at the entrance to the basketball courts.

As we walked in, we were greeted by a friendly woman at the merch tent. I noticed there were a lot of families with small children enjoying the free popcorn and watching the game, which made sense because if you book your tickets online ahead of time, they're free. It seems like a great weekend activity for people trying to get out of the house and get their kids off screens.

Team founder Tyler Sickmeyer was decked out in a Sharks t-shirt and was the MC for the game. He successfully led a few good chants of "DEFENSE!" *stomp feet x2* "DEFENSE!" *stomp feet x2* when the Reading Rebels attacked the rim and said "Aiiiiirrrbaaaaaallllll!" a couple times when they missed the basket entirely. During each timeout, he would announce a very brief competition to keep the kids engaged. One of my favorites was a bubble match between two very differently-sized 10-year-old kids, overseen by the Sharks' mascot, Crunch.

Crunch, the Sharks mascot, kept the bubble match fair and square.

Watching the game, it was very clear who the "good" players were, and who was just there for the vibes. It seems like the average age of the players is about 25 or older. It seems like these minor professional leagues may get the "washed up players," the ones that didn't make it to the NBA, or the ones looking for a more competitive atmosphere than the local rec center scrimmages. Apparently, these leagues also are accepting players who have been banned from the NBA (see this Complex article about Jontay Porter returning to USBL after his betting scandal).

The players on the court

During halftime, it was chaos on the court with tons of kids playing and balls flying everywhere.

We didn't stay past the beginning of the fourth quarter because I was getting hangry (angry + hungry, for anyone who didn't know), but according to the Sharks Instagram page, they went to overtime and won 106-100 over the PA Reading Rebels.

You can actually watch the entire game here on this YouTube video if you'd like. I saw myself a few times in the bleachers.

I still think the G-League is going to continue to be the main feeder league for the NBA, but I just know the sports betting world is going to love more leagues to bet on. I found multiple articles like this one on Vegas 411 announcing the USBL relaunch. I wonder if people are betting on the USBL and the 94x50 league as much as the NBA. Probably not.

The San Diego Sharks seem like a nice organization, and I appreciate that they put a focus on local sponsors and family-friendly fun. It was fun to get out of the house, even if we did feel very poor seeing Canyon Crest Academy and the tax bracket of Pacific Highlands Ranch. If the Sharks are going to be charging anyone for tickets, it should be those people.

See you next week.