Jeremy Pargo was on a layover in Denver when he received a call from Santa Cruz Warriors general manager Ryan Atkinson.

“Don’t board that flight to Sioux Falls,” Atkinson said, referencing Santa Cruz’s game the next night against the Sioux Falls Skyforce. “Golden State just signed you to a 10-day contract.”

Pargo was stunned. Well past his prime by basketball standards, he long ago had stopped hoping for a midseason NBA call-up. In November, when Pargo joined Santa Cruz — the Warriors’ G League affiliate — for the second time in less than two years, he harbored modest goals: enjoy being stateside, mentor younger teammates and prepare for a post-playing career in coaching.

But after a chaotic trade deadline left Golden State with only nine players on its 15-man roster, it needed to add five bodies quickly to meet the league’s minimum requirement. Pargo, whose 11-year professional career has spanned four NBA teams and eight overseas clubs, offered the Warriors a savvy point guard to help bring along rookies Ky Bowman and Jordan Poole.

Though Pargo probably doesn’t figure into Golden State’s long-term plans, he is proving that he belongs at this level. In Wednesday’s 112-106 loss to the Suns, Pargo flashed the crossover dribble and leaping ability that made him an open-gym legend in his native Chicago, coming off the bench to score 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting (3-for-5 from 3-point range).

“You watch him play, and he fits,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s an NBA player. It’s good to see him out there, and I’m glad we’re able to give him this opportunity because he’s earned it.”

The 10-day contract comes with plenty of stakes and few guarantees. If a player lasts all 10 days, he can be released or signed for another 10. Once that second 10-day contract ends, the player can be released or signed for the rest of the season to a prorated minimum contract.

Per a league source, the Warriors are likely to let Pargo finish the season. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. For salary-cap reasons, the Warriors might want to give their last couple of roster spots next season to second-round picks or undrafted rookies.

Unlike many players on 10-day contracts, Pargo doesn’t necessarily view this deal as a springboard to a sustained opportunity in the NBA. A decade-plus on pro basketball’s fringes has made him a realist. Asked what he wants to get out of his time with Golden State, Pargo said, “Just enjoy the moment, and hopefully build off what’s happening now. Help where I can.”

Pargo has appeared in only 86 NBA games, but Poole, Bowman and rookie center Alen Smailagic — all of whom have played with Pargo in Santa Cruz — see him as a respected elder statesman. At 33, Pargo is two years older than the Warriors’ next-oldest player, the injured Stephen Curry, and four years older than the team’s next-oldest available player, forward Draymond Green.

Pargo’s Feb. 8 Golden State debut against the Lakers marked his first NBA game in six years, 316 days — the sixth-longest gap between appearances in league history. During that span, he led the Chinese Basketball Association in assists in 2016, won Israeli League titles in 2018 and 2019, played in too many smoke-filled gymnasiums to count, and ran off a court in Istanbul when angry fans pelted him with lighters and batteries after he hit a game-winning shot.

In winter 2018, toward the end of his fifth consecutive season abroad, Pargo started to get homesick. His older brother, Jannero — an assistant with the G League’s Windy City Bulls at the time — told Pargo that, if possible, Windy City would love to have him.

Before the Bulls could sign him, Santa Cruz picked up Pargo on the G League’s in-season waiver wire. The prorated $35,000 contract it offered was a far cry from the seven-figure deal he’d recently signed in China. But after a half-decade of communicating with family and friends only on FaceTime and WhatsApp for 10 months a year, Pargo had no qualms taking a massive pay cut.

“I wasn’t thinking about money,” Pargo said. “I was just thinking about being happy.”

The highlight of that month-long stint with Santa Cruz came when Pargo’s aunt, who to that point had seen him play only one game professionally, watched him put up 19 points and 11 assists in a win over the Memphis Hustle. Pargo later signed big contracts in Lebanon and Israel, but he couldn’t shake how good it felt to play in front of a loved one again.

This past fall, after a back injury and a coaching change derailed his season with Maccabi Tel Aviv, Pargo called Santa Cruz head coach Kris Weems to see if the Warriors would have him back. In 31 games, Pargo was a steadying force as he averaged 17.2 points, 5.8 assists and 3.7 rebounds.

What most impressed Golden State’s front office, however, was how he helped teach Poole and Bowman the nuances of the point-guard position. By the time those two returned to the NBA, they were better at reading defenses and kicking out to open shooters.

Pargo plans to play professionally deep into his 30s, but he already has started reaching out to contacts about someday following Jannero — now an assistant with the Trail Blazers — to an NBA bench.

“The biggest thing for me is that guys like Jordan and Ky, they really listen to what I have to say,” said Pargo, who’s living in a team-provided hotel room near Chase Center. “They don’t go, ‘Oh, you’re not this or that.’ They listen, and that means a lot.”

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron