For those of you who have found heaven out in the dessert under the flashing neon lights, the NBA Summer will be bringing a little live sports entertainment your way in the form of the Samsung NBA Summer League games which will begin at Cox Pavilion on the University of Nevada at Las Vegas campus on July the 11th. Other matches will take place at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The annual NBA Summer League takes place in Las Vegas every July. Only players who have been in the NBA for 3 years or less are eligible to participate along with the newest crop of future stars from the 2014 NBA Draft. Also invited will be select players from the NBA D-League.
For many of these players it will be the first time that they get a chance to show their stuff out from under the shadow of their already big named teammates. For others it will be their first time to take to the basketball court with real professional basketball players.
The Summer League will tip off with five days of exhibition type games before getting down to business on July 16th when the actual tournament competition begins. Teams will be seeded for the tourney on the basis of their performance during the first five days of basketball before beginning the single elimination tournament, one loss and you go home. However, each participating team will be guaranteed to play at least five games.
All total there will be 67 basketball games and the NBA Network will be broadcasting each and every one of them, after all, what else do they have to do in July? Thirty eight of the games will be broadcast live, while the remaining contests will be taped for later presentation.
During the 11 days of the NBA Summer League, Las Vegas, Nevada will become the center of the basketball world. Everyone from Commissioner Adam Silver to the newly drafted rookies will be in attendance and all conversation will be about the game of basketball.
Last summer’s champions, the Golden State Warriors, will be returning to the competition with their new head coach Steve Kerr, so Kerr’s first games coaching the Warriors will be played in Las Vegas and there will be much attention given to him and his new wards.
The NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is where some of the NBA’s brightest stars got their first taste of professional basketball. In fact, 7 or the past 9 ‘Rookie of the Year’ awards went to players who played their first pro games in Las Vegas.
