NBA Is Here In Las Vegas! The Summer League, Not A Team (Yet)
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The Woodstock of pro hoops is back in Las Vegas until July 20.
The National Basketball Association has set up shop at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center for 11 days, the epicenter for everyone from aspiring NBA stars and just-drafted rookies to agents and scouts to retired pros and fans hungry for more NBA action.
The Las Vegas NBA Summer League has a relaxed, loosey-goosey baseball spring training feel to it as event leaders Warren LeGarie and Albert Hall mark another year of putting on a summer event that has become a mid-year staple for the NBA.
For 50 bucks you get admission to as many as eight games a day, four at Thomas & Mack Center and four at Cox Pavilion, which is connected to the TMC arena.
The NBA got off to a good start Thursday when the Association reported a sellout of 17,500 for the Summer League’s opening day. The NBA reported attendance for Friday at 15,121 while Saturday was a sellout at 17,500.
It’s much more than hardwood hoops.
Summer League hosts basketball business sessions and even a tech expo July 15. The NBA team owners also meet and there will be inevitable chatter about Las Vegas getting an Association franchise.
In previous years, the NBA has used the Summer League in Las Vegas to try out new camera technologies and invite companies to show off basketball-related tech products in a launchpad setting.
It’s tradition for everyone to speculate about when Silver will announce that Las Vegas and Seattle will get expansion teams. It’s not like anything has been officially approved, but both Las Vegas and Seattle have WNBA teams and even casual observers believe it’s inevitable the NBA will place teams in these two markets to bounce the number of teams from 30 to 32.
An easy quote is to ask LeBron James about his hopes of owning a piece of an NBA team in Las Vegas and Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, who owns 15 percent of T-Mobile Arena just off the Strip, has said he’s willing to invest $300 million to upgrade the VGK home into an NBA venue. Las Vegas was a bigtime basketball town thanks to UNLV hoops and it’s ironic that the NHL (2017), NFL (2020) and MLB (2028) are here with teams with the NBA saying the Summer League is kind of like having a team in this market.
Overall number 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg has already played his first game on the NBA Summer League for the Dallas Mavericks, while he chatted on the court with Bronny James of the Lakers Thursday.
Not only do young players like Flagg and James yearn to make their mark at the Summer League so do young men and women seeking to carve out a career in the NBA with teams or even the league as interns and young workers.
Everyone comes to Summer League in Las Vegas with dreams.
PSA
