During Year’s Slowest Sports Week, NBA Summer League Corners Sports Market In Las Vegas

By Alan Snel

LVSportsBiz.com

 

There was a time when the NBA Summer League was known as the Las Vegas Summer League and NBA teams used to run out their young players in other “summer leagues” in places like Orlando.

 

But Summer League co-organizers Warren LeGarie, an agent for coaches who partners with the NBA on the Summer League, and Albert Hall, of HallPass Media, a sports marketing outfit, kept at it in Las Vegas and cornered the Summer League market, turning glorified scrimmages in 2,450-seat Cox Pavilion in the early days into the Burning Man of professional basketball at Thomas & Mack Center and Cox after 15 years on the UNLV campus.

 

 

You won’t find more basketball-based reunions than the ones you see along the Thomas & Mack Center concourse or the space behind the media tables near the player tunnel during these 11 days of roundball.

 

In the middle of July, it’s the place to be seen in Las Vegas — plus it occurs during one of the slowest sports weeks on the calendar.

 

All 30 NBA teams are here rolling out their young players who don’t see much action during the regular season, while big-name hoopsters and sports stars like Kobe Bryant, Larry Fitzgerald, Floyd “Money” Mayweather and LeBron James stroll through the Thomas & Mack tunnel or grab a courtside seat. Even Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver schmoozed it up Sunday in courtside seats.

 

NBA Summer League even featured an earthquake, which took place during the Knicks-Pelicans game on Day 1 Friday when expectations were sky-high for the debut of New Orleans first-round and overall number one pick Zion Williamson.

 

Las Vegas Events President Pat Christenson, whose non-profit tourism and events organization sponsors the NBA Summer League to the tune of about $100,000 in 2019, quipped that the Summer League crowd “shook the house” Friday.

 

Wednesday is Day 6 — hump day of the 11-day Woodstock of Hoops that ends July 15 — and the Summer League is on course to break its attendance record of 139,972 set in 2018.

 

Opening Day Friday was a sellout and so was Saturday on Day 2 — the first time the Summer League has sold out 17,500 strong on its first two days. Attendance was 14,263 Sunday, 13,866 Monday and 11,803 Tuesday.

 

Some players at Summer League become cult favorites — like the Celtics’ seven-foot, seven-inch Tacko Fall who prompts Celtics fans this year to go crazy at Thomas & Mack every time the former University of Central Florida player steps on the hardwood.

 

 

Long gone are the days when LeGarie and Hall held a media appreciation night in Cox Pavilion, where reporters played basketball and ate pizza.

 

Thomas & Mack and Cox are now crawling with media, 1,100 members from not only across the U.S. but also from countries like China, Japan, Croatia and France.

 

No more media appreciation night and free pizza. Too many media folks in the house.

 

The all-day ticket price is $35 — a fraction of the NBA game ticket cost during the regular season. It allows fans who otherwise would not get a first-hand glimpse of an NBA player a chance to see a hoopster in person.

 

There are 83 games in two gyms in 11 days and the hoops forum has fostered related events like a sports business program that gives aspiring salary “capologists” a chance to learn the craft. NBA alumni also hold programs for former players in nearby hotels on the Strip.

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