NBA Summer League has become so much more than a basketball tournament

Around 500 young and aspiring professional basketball players are in town to compete in the latest iteration of the NBA Summer League.

They’re only outnumbered by their peers who are simultaneously trying to break into the basketball industry in their own way. Las Vegas Summer League co-founder/event organizer Albert Hall said more than 600 young adults are part of the 11-day festival of hoops through either various internships or participation in the Sports Business Classroom program.

Some of them work directly under his supervision, which must feel like the equivalent of being taken in the first round of the NBA Draft for those eyeing a career in the front office or business side. Hall has built a family tree of sorts since first helping bring Summer League to life here in 2004.      

Just this offseason, the Denver Nuggets named one of Hall’s first Summer League interns (Ben Tenzer) as its new de facto general manager, officially titled as executive vice president of basketball operations.  

Another one of Hall’s favorite intern success stories came nine years later. At the 2014 Summer League, Giannis Antetokounmp, the 15th overall pick in the 2013 draaft, turned heads on the court for the Milwaukee Bucks by flashing the potential that he would later translate into two Most Valuable Player awards and an NBA championship.    

Away from the Summer League games, Antetokounmpo was hitting it off with a member of Hall’s staff — just-graduated Rice volleyball player Mariah Riddlesprigger. The couple later married and now have four children with Mariah lauded for her philanthropic work particularly in the Milwaukee community.   

“Those are stories that we love,” Hall said. “Summer League has just got such a great vibe. Everybody finds their niche here, and it helps accentuate what they’re good at.”

Day Three of this year’s Summer League kicks off at 12:30 this afternoon with the Bucks facing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first of eight games scheduled between the conjoining Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion.

Tickets start at $67 for general admission and include access to all games set for a given day.  

The NBA reports that the event has attracted attendance of more than 130,000 people across the full 76-game schedule in each of the last two years with an estimated economic impact of $250 million in 2024.  

It’s easy to see why Summer League continues to be such a draw. The chance to see the future of professional basketball up close offers major appeal.

Yes, that's the future of professional basketball — not just the NBA.

The dream of all the players filling the summer rosters for all 30 teams is surely to stick in the NBA, but it’s not the reality for most of them.

Few can be considered generational talents like this year’s No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, who struggled in his debut Thursday night but contributed a timely late-game block and assist to help his Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 87-85.

Ditto for No. 2 overall pick Dylan Harper, who premieres at 1 p.m. today when his San Antonio Spurs face the Mavericks, and No. 3 overall pick V.J. Edgecombe, whose Philadelphia 76ers play the Charlotte Hornets at 3:30.    

A lot of the players surrounding the top prospects will wind up playing overseas, and the international franchises might just discover them in Las Vegas.

Hall said Summer League had made major leaps in that department with now virtually all the other biggest leagues in the world sending representatives to town.

“That becomes a really relevant factor from the business aspect,” Hall said. “I think the players take it a little more serious now. Guys really train and have a little bit of a runway. When we first started, we did it right up against the draft and they were kind of out of shape. You’ve been on a draft tour and celebrating with your family, but now all the teams run training camps. The guys come in ready.”

Hall’s credo is to “always start with the basketball first and foremost,” but the action must feel secondary to segments of the masses of league types who descend upon Las Vegas.  

There’s too much else going on.

Perhaps most important to Las Vegas is NBA Commissioner Adam Silver holding an annual owners meeting where he says league expansion could “move into a more formal exploratory phase.” For nearly a decade, Las Vegas and Seattle have widely been considered the favorites to land new teams.

NBA referees meanwhile take part in the league’s official training program during Summer League. Each morning, they review the previous day’s footage and evaluate the next crop of officials hoping to break into the league.

This year, the NBA is introducing an equivalent conference into sports science. Experts and doctors are expected to present data and discuss possible protocol for a number of injuries headlined by the recent rash of Achilles tears that have plagued the league.  

On the court, the NBA is experimenting with a new basketball and shot clock for Summer League. A microchip is implanted in the basketball that could expedite reviews on situations like whether a last-second shot beat the clock and determining which team deserves possession after an out-of-bounds play.

“We’ve essentially become the petri dish for new technology,” Hall said.

Among the NBA innovations first tested at Summer League are elements of the player-tracking analytical revolution.

There are less technical and more lighthearted draws for fans too.

A tradition of having pop-a-shot machines available for fun in the concourses the last several years has turned into Summer League becoming an official qualifier for the game’s ESPN-aired national championship.

Nestled nearby pop-a-shot are also customizable merchandise stands and a display with three official NBA trophies — the one that will be presented to the ultimate Summer League champions, the NBA Cup given to the in-season tournament winners and the Larry O’Brien recently claimed by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.

A basketball film festival is also scheduled for July 17-19 with 34 works set to be shown in Thomas & Mack’s Strip View Pavilion concluding with "Kings of Vegas," which chronicles UNLV’s 1990 national championship team.

There’s something for everyone at Summer League, which has undoubtedly become one of Las Vegas’ best sports traditions.

“I’m not surprised where it’s grown from a basketball standpoint,” Hall said. “But like all the other elements in business and everything, it does surprise me sometimes. But we work really hard at it. We just have good people and know how to efficiently do it, and we're always trying to get better. We're always innovating. We're always challenging ourselves. We're never, ever becoming complacent.”