I have been around this business to remember when NBA Summer League was a few weeks on hot gyms little fanfare and checking watches to see when vacation could start for many. Westchester County, Boston, Orlando, and Salt Lake City, Summer League always started with great fanfare, especially for teams with high draft picks, and then became a grind to the final days which really felt like the end of school for the year.
Then over the years, the exposure, the brand involvement, the global fanbases, the growth of social media and on and on suddenly made Summer league into a “thing,” a multiweek offseason celebration and introduction for players on the cusp or on the way up, in of all places Las Vegas, at a time of year for the city when tourism isn’t at its peak. This year you factor in the explosive growth of the WNBA, the mystique of Victor Wamabayama, the continues expansive travel and interest in a post COVID world, and you have basically a three week love fest in and around basketball almost of every level (there is also 3 on 3, a massive AAU event now run by of all companies, Sportradar, NBA.com, a tech and innovation festival, an NBA 2k tournament and even the mystique of SlamBall coming back to top it all off).
Every extension, every innovation and rules test, every chance for young people…and there were HUNDREDS of young golf shirt and backpack clad twentysomethings milling about games, practices and meetups…to meet, look at ways to find and create jobs, internships and volunteer opportunities…existed in the wide expanse of Las Vegas, which has become the great crystal ball for what the business of basketball on and off the court can be. Oh and did we mention fans? There were days not that long ago where a good crowd at Summer League was a few hundred…now you have more than that for practice, and the experience for fans gets you into not just Thomas and Mack Arena but the attached Cox Pavilion, where you can wander back and forth spring training like to watch numerous teams in action.
There is merch of every came, autograph sessions, high end seating and hospitality, players decked out in custom uniforms, custom sneaker stations, photo ops of every kind, all for games and in front of many players who may never see the NBA come fall. Some teams call it a bit of a distraction, most see it as the best possible test case for players on the cusp to show their mettle in front of rabid fan bases as much as they will on the quiet practice court.
Walking around the games on the day when the NBA folks are starting to wind down while the WNBA stars are starting to crank things up maybe a half mile away at Mandalay Bay (with their own fan support and brand activations and massive social followings by the way), it was almost overwhelming as it was impressive to see how the NBA and all elements basketball not only had the vision but the strength to take a shot at literally creating something that is a viable additional property from almost nothing…practice in small gyms with limited gear, small media attendance and fan bases who were paying slightly attention for a day or two before they headed off to camp or the Cape or the mountains. Basketball in a gym in the heat of summer? As a player on youth teams, OK. As a parent following your kids around? I get that. But as a fan? By the thousands? No way.
Well. Yes.
Oh and by the way, in a city where triple digits is what’s on the dashboard not the scoreboard and where until this gambling thing became legal around most parts of the country, was literally a sports desert. Now its an oasis for everyone around hoops…and while they have The Aces and G League Ignite in nearby Henderson, they don’t yet even have their own team. Not yet anyway.
The NBA 2K Summer League. Fun, innovation, engagement forged in the heat of the desert. Not sure many saw this coming in the bowels of the Westchester Convention Center back in the day, but kudos to all who did, and all who made it into the event it is today, with no signs of slowing down.
Something out of nothing, the best type of innovation.
