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COVID-19 and Sports: NBA Summer League Returning To Las Vegas In August

Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 6, 2019. Richard Brian

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

The Woodstock of professional basketball is returning to Las Vegas in the summer.

The NBA Summer League, an annual summer ritual at UNLV’s Thomas and Mack Center, was scrubbed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the NBA is bringing it back, with the dates scheduled for Aug. 8-17.

It’s a nice money-maker for UNLV, which leases out Thomas & Mack to the NBA, which uses the Summer League as a spring training-style platform where all 30 teams give their young players and draft picks a chance to show off their skills.

The Summer League is also like a convention for basketball industry networking and the NBA to try out new technologies. Scouts, agents, retired players, coaches and anyone associated with the Association make their way to Las Vegas to catch some face time at the Summer League.

 

It also allows fans to pay affordable prices to attend games and see high-profile draft picks and young players showcase their talents.

NBA Summer League’s Warren LeGarie. Photo credit: Daniel Clark/LVSportsBiz.com

The National Finals Rodeo, the Super Bowl of rodeos, is also returning to Thomas & Mack, starting their 10-day run of sold out events on the first Thursday of every December. The NFR moved to Texas in 2020 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, but it’s back at the UNLV arena this year.

 


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Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
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