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Summer League 2017: What happens in Vegas, stays in the G League
The presence of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball at Summer League turned the annual event from a sleepy affair to a sold-out event.  Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Summer League 2017: What happens in Vegas, stays in the G League

This weekend, I made a pilgrimage to Las Vegas for NBA Summer League. For years, Vegas has been the place where people come hoping to hit the jackpot. For some, that’s robbing a casino with their ten friends. Or becoming a superstar by mind-freaking audiences with your rock n’ roll magic. Or striking it rich counting cards at blackjack with your autistic savant brother, Raymond. Or by dunking on your opponents so hard you get a non-guaranteed contract and training camp invite from an NBA team.

Summer League basketball came to the UNLV campus back in 2004. It started small, but now 24 NBA teams play a schedule of games, culminating in a championship tournament, all at the Thomas & Mack Center and the connected Cox Pavilion. On any given day, this means you’ll have up to eight games and 16 teams facing off. This year, eight of the top ten picks from the 2017 draft are playing, as well as 31 of the top 34 picks from 2016 (Though Ben Simmons was in attendance, and a rehabbing Jamal Murray still dressed and warmed up with the Nuggets). Team rosters are a mix of draft picks, second-year players, guys from their developmental league affiliates (now known as the Gatorade “G League”), and then older free agents who are going to end up in Europe or China.

The first person who spoke to me in Las Vegas was wearing a shirt that said "CAN'T TELL ME S---" I assume he was the mayor. I got to the arena just in time to see Edy Tavares and the Cavs ruin Rashad Vaughn’s homecoming with the Bucks. Vaughn is a third-year Summer League player – fun for Vegas fans, but a bad sign for his future.

Most years, Summer League is a pretty sparse event – you can sit really close, wander from game to game, and there's plenty of all-day general admission tickets. But most years, Lonzo Ball isn't making his debut. The Lakers are effectively the home team in Vegas, they're packed with talent, and so are the Celtics. They were facing off on Saturday, and for the first time in Summer League history, tickets sold out. And did so a full day in advance.

So when the Lakers faced the Clippers on Friday, the atmosphere was electric. I figured fans of both teams might make the drive, but I saw more fans in Kobe Bryant’s high school jersey than fans in Clippers gear of any kind. Poor Austin Rivers was loudly booed just for sitting in the stands. The game began with an alley-oop dunk from Lonzo and 50 people in the stands immediately ordered ZO2s. Very quickly, there was another Summer League classic: back-to-back goaltending violations.


LaVar ball looks on prior to the game between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers at Thomas & Mack Arena on July 8, 2017. Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Brandon Ingram looked great and so did Lonzo’s passing. His shooting and defense? Not so much. He couldn't guard journeyman Kendall Marshall, and he shot 2-15 from the field. It got so bad that the Jumbotron started cutting to LaVar Ball after each bad miss, like an NFL coach after a false start flag. Overall it was highly enjoyable, especially the shooting contest where LaMelo Ball defeated self-appointed human mascot “Clipper Darrell” who cheated, lost, and the reportedly screamed at Houston’s Summer League team and demanded they return Chris Paul. (Hopefully he was then taken to prison for crimes against basketball.)

The only disappointment was that we didn't get to experience sudden-death overtime. In double OT, the first team to score wins, and it's just as frantic as you'd expect. Sadly, the Clippers rode Brice Johnson’s inside play and Lonzo’s outside bricking to a single-OT victory.

Friday night ended with the Suns battling the Kings, two teams full of young, talented prospects. And also Buddy Hield. Given their recent moves, these two could be Summer League powerhouses for years!

Last year’s No. 8 pick, Marquese Chriss of the Suns is a feast or famine player, but those terms aren’t extreme enough. He’ll throw down a rim-rattling dunk, and thirty seconds later, fire a full-court baseball pass to no one. He’ll spin past his defender on the baseline and then step out of bounds for no reason. He made one of the most athletic blocked shots of the weekend, swatting it into the stands, but it was three seconds after the whistle. He dove face-first into a chair chasing a loose ball that was clearly already out of bounds. Chriss tried to fight Kings big man Georgios Papagiannis, and the next game got into a dustup with Mavs little man Yogi Ferrell. Against the Kings, he had 19 points and nine rebounds, along with eight turnovers and nine fouls. He’s the perfect Summer League player! He turned 20 last week and I think he’s my new favorite NBA player.

Dragan Bender went No. 4 last year, and he racked up eight fouls (the limit is 10). Papa Gian picked up eight himself, since he's pretty raw defensively, and roughly the size of a barge. Meanwhile De’Aaron Fox showed strong defense, particularly when he blocked Josh Jackson and when he forced David “Son of John” Stockton off the court by stealing the ball from him every possession. Take that, nepotism! The game was very choppy, the Suns won, and a guy in our section seems to have deep regrets about buying a Buddy Hield jersey.

I retired to the casinos of Fremont Street later, where I had an Antoine Walker-caliber losing streak at blackjack. Afterward, James Dolan called to offer me the Knicks GM job, since he likes people who blow money for no reason. It was worth it because I saw a guy playing blackjack wearing a Doug Collins Team USA jersey. He was losing and not taking it well. I assume he refused to accept his free drinks and didn't let anyone else at the table drink theirs either.


Los Angeles Lakers forward Brandon Ingram shoots during an NBA Summer League game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Thomas & Mack Center on July 7, 2017. Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Thanks to a miracle ticket from a UNLV pal – I apologize for all the cruel things I've said about Anthony Bennett! – I got to the arena just in time to see the end of the Mavericks’ blowout win over the Bulls. Summer League results don’t really matter, but it was troubling that Chicago’s team included three of next year’s starters and still got trounced. But Zach LaVine was wearing a Motörhead vest, so Bulls fans have that going for them. The crowd fell in love with reigning Chinese Basketball Association MVP Ding Yanyuhang, auditioning for the Mavs Summer team. He has moves, he got buckets, and “Ding” is an extremely enjoyable name to yell.

The subsequent Wolves-Raptors game felt like we were stalling for Lakers-Celtics, despite featuring some fun Toronto sophomores. Pascal Siakam played well, Fred Van Vleet will get minutes next year, and Jakob Poeltl didn't kill a single puppy by petting it too hard. By the 4th quarter, they were showing Boston fans on the Jumbotron just to make the crowd boo.

Brandon Ingram sat out the Boston game with “cramps,” but realistically, he was deemed too good for Summer League. Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown had to start at point guard, which may be why the Lakers got out to a 10-0 lead. Lonzo was much better in this game, the crowd was screaming, and only Jayson Tatum’s Paul Piercian ball fakes and hesitation moves kept Boston in it. That and defensive end-sized Semi Ojeleye hitting five three-pointers.

The crowd lost energy after a while, which is what happens during foul-heavy summer ball, when any run can be immediately derailed by a backcourt violation and a rookie stepping out of bounds for no reason. Still, the crowd exploded when Lonzo Ball finished his triple-double with an emphatic dunk. Who cares if he can’t hit a jumper?


Philadelphia 76ers guard Markelle Fultz is helped off the court after an injury during the second half against the Golden State Warriors at Thomas & Mack Arena on July 8, 2017. Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

In the nightcap, the Warriors faced off against the Sixers and No.1 pick Markelle Fultz. Proving he’s a true Sixer, Fultz sprained his ankle halfway through the game, and has been ruled out for the rest of Vegas. One fan was loudly complaining about Ben Simmons skipping Summer League as the Jumbotron showed a wheelchair heading to Fultz.

At this point, the Sixers should stop sending prospects to Summer League at all. Might we suggest:

  • Bowling with Andrew Bynum
  • Playing that game where you stab a knife between your fingers but with feet
  • Dirt bike camp with Madison Bumgarner, Monta Ellis and Jeff Kent
  • Letting Kathy Bates hit them in the ankles with a sledgehammer
  • Putting them in a large wooden barrel full of sharp stones and rolling them down a hill

Also notable for this game was a dominant performance from Patrick McCaw, who wore a giant t-shirt under his jersey, probably to disguise his lack of muscles. You wear a t-shirt in the pool if you’re fat; in the NBA, you wear a t-shirt under your jersey if you’re skinny.

Sunday the crowds died down, as the Lakers weren’t playing, and many fans were feeling the effects of a Friday and Saturday night. Or they blew their money gambling on Summer League games, which is a totally insane thing you can legally do, if you enjoy sweating out Furkan Korkmaz free throws. It’s almost as crazy as baby races, which are also something they have at Summer League.

I watched the Mavs-Suns game to start things off, also known as the start of Dennis Smith Jr’s NBA revenge tour. The No. 9 pick was unstoppable, getting to the hoop at will and drilling jumpers, but went out of his way to go after the No. 4 pick Josh Jackson at every opportunity. I assume he recites the name of every played picked ahead of him before bed every night, like Arya Stark. Marquese Chriss stayed on brand by throwing down a thunderous dunk – three seconds after the final buzzer sounded. My top highlight was when Jackson aggressively rebounded a free throw miss before sheepishly realizing the guy had another shot.

Bucks-Nets was notable for D.J. Wilson’s shorts, which were a good six inches shorter than any other player, or really, any NBA player I’ve seen the first Bush administration. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson wore tights, long sleeves, a face mask and a man bun. That’s one elbow pad away from going Full Hinrich. And midway through the second quarter, Rashad Vaughn was on pace for 49 points and nine fouls. He’d still need to botch a windmill dunk and slap a ref to lock up his Summer League All-Star spot.

Next, Boston faced off against Portland, who tried to steal the loyalty of Celtics fans by starting three white players, but to no avail. That Blazers team has a Jordan, a Josh, a Jake, a Caleb, two Pats and a Zach. There's no Gatorade on the bench, just cold brew. No. 10 pick Zach Collins took 16 minutes to score his first points, but in fairness, he had to keep subbing out to check on his batch of kombucha. They played “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” to start the game, but did not play Elliott Smith for equal time, because that would be even more depressing than Portland’s offense.

I closed out my Summer League experience with Kings-Grizzlies in Cox Pavilion. The announcer at Cox is head and shoulders above the guy in Thomas & Mack. He calls every substitution, credits every basket, gets excited about dunks ,and even learned the names of the kid team who played at halftime. Meanwhile the guy at T&M didn’t even wait until halftime before Sindarius Thornwell's name became "Darius, Clippers."

Wade Baldwin IV of the Grizzlies continued Acie Law's legacy by wearing Roman numerals on the back of his jersey and also kinda sucking at basketball. Frank Mason III seemed to take this Roman numeral thing personally and kept going right at Baldwin. After the game, their grandfathers probably fought in the parking lot.

My favorite player, and the symbol of everything great about Summer League, was Kings power forward Jack Cooley. He’s 26, a Notre Dame alum, and built like a powerful refrigerator. Your young guys try to show off things like “dribbling” and “dunking” while Jack Cooley does two things: get rebounds and hit guys. Every time he came in the game, the Kings did great things. By the second half, sustained chants of “Cooley! Cooley! Cooley!” had broken out, one led by a fan in a De’Aaron Fox jersey, a velvet robe and a king’s crown. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive was there, looking Lilliputian next to Vlade Divac, and occasionally a fan would yell “Sign him, Vivek!”

The Grizzlies may have won this game, but the true winner was Jack Cooley, who will presumably go on to dominate the boards in a German professional league again. But I will always remember him, and in his honor, I enjoyed a $10 prime rib dinner. Just like Cooley, it was beefy, it was cheap, and it delivered. God bless Jack Cooley, and God bless Vegas Summer League.

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