All sad. The Summer League exhibition in Las Vegas that nearly killed me is over. Google for yourself really fast in me, the Las Vegas throat. It's not what you think it means. It really is not. That's what I had pause for the last nine days in Las Vegas. Turns out the frequency of my voice doesn't penetrate pause at the club. You know what I'm saying. A title game between the Rockets and the Cavs ended tonight. Do you know that the Cleveland Cavaliers were thirty to one
to win the whole Summer League? Did you know of that? Just a beat down over the Rockets. The Rockets hadn't lost the game before Amani Baits and friends came through with the Tomahawk to decapitate the Houston Rockets. Did you watch it? No? I know you didn't. Don't even lie Cam Whitmore. By the way, one MVP. We'll talk about
that in a little bit. Remember he was expected projected to be a top five pick, and then even the team that's light years ahead of everyone else, the Golden State Warriors, passed on him so that he goes to the Houston Rockets at twenty, which begs the question, though, does anyone really give a shit about the end of the Summer League? A lot of people joking in the Twitter streets saying that it should have been shut down
after the first weekend. Most big league players leave big parties tended only happened in the first few days, which is actually a lie considering that the WNBA parties were absolutely lit. Cannice Parker was getting busy on the dance floor anyway, I digress. ESPN coverage take a dive like broadcasters you've never heard of, and Isaiah Thomas start debating the usefulness of the silent e in the English language, like that's where we're at in the summer leagues. Teams
shut high draft picks down after the second game. Interest in buzz memes by Josiah starts to weigh on the internet. It becomes one of those boo boom, boom boom. It's like just straight dust mothballs in the Twitter streets. So who cares about the second half of Summer League? Does anyone actually give a shit? Who wins the tournament? That's a very complicated question. It depends on who you ask.
If you are Ausar Thompson, if you were aiming Thompson a fifth pick in the draft, top five lottery pick. You probably don't care. I mean that affects your life in absolutely no way. Are you worried about the Warren Legarry Summer League ring and the Envy P Trophy. The answer no, shade to Warren in the Summer League MVP trophy, But no, like that does not affect you at all.
Like you see Summer League as a way to announce your arrival to the league, to show out, to show your teammates what's up, to show the batties out there. Who needs to be putting a target on your back. You're already getting four years, five years guaranteed, You're probably repped by Bill Duffy, you probably got multiple endorsement deals already, set up gatorade cases in your garage, shoes on, shoes on shoes, h what else do you need? Life's good.
So if you win the Summer League, I mean, it's just you're just sitting there in street clothes, popping a bottle of Rose Champagne, get your mug on ESPN, tork with Holly Row and navigate your new found fame. But if you are an undrafted free agent. If you're a second round pick, the championship game, get to the championship game where eyeballs are on you. Important, eyeballs are on you, very important. It's an extra game in front of a
national TV audience. It's an opportunity to showcase your skills to your coaches and your organization. And more importantly, if you don't latch onto your original team in the summer League, it's more important that you show yourself to other teams. Like Max Streuce. Max Struce initially impressed at the Bulls Summer League while secretly catching the eye of Andy Ellisberg and pat Riley, and then he parlayed that into a ten day contract with the Heat and into a sixty
three million dollar contract with the Cavs. That is what the exposure at summer League can do for a player who very badly needs exposure. Even if fans aren't in the stands, they are. It's a convention, baby, they're executives and scouts and they still remain and they are everywhere like fleas, like flies, like rodents. They are putting in the time watching Orlando versus Dallas. Yuck at nine pm, yuck at the cock center. Yuck on the last Friday
night of Summer League. Yuck. And they think about it like it's Game seven of the Western Conference Finals. Kobe Buffkin might as well be Kobe Bryant to them to like a third string scout who lives for this shit. He just wants to talk about wingspan and like hip size and mobility. That's him, that's his shit. And it's a good thing too, because the vast majority of Summer League roster players never make it to the NBA, but
a ton of them are gonna play professionally somewhere. Summer League will give him instant credibility, instant access to their tape where you cook a lottery pick. He's been touted as the next best thing, and you know what, you twisted his ankles up. That is how a kid from Towson ends up making seven figures a year at Olympiacos or Fenner Bacchi or Leon Aboju or any of the
one hundred euro teams that exist there. And some of these guys they parlay Euros success then as a path back to the league as a scout or executive or a coach, as brand ambassadors. It's corporate liaisons, and god forbid, maybe they actually make it to the league League. Talk to Patrick Beverly about that. They just want to be
surrounded in the game that they love. They're willing to spend years traveling by bus, probably at the little tippy top of the bus, like those double deckers in the dusty roads and the icy snow conditions and the Balkans, just to figure out a way to play one more season, just to figure out a way to win at any level. Some of these guys return the Summer League to start the process all over again, like moths butterflies. That's kind of beautiful to me. So here's what we're not gonna do.
We are not mocking the end of summer because we didn't see chet Holmgren, or we didn't see Victor wembin Yama. By the way, I figured out a way to say his name, it's not Wambayama anymore. It's wembin Yama. Okay, So we're good there. Summer League isn't just for them. It's for Wendell Green and Luke Trevers and Craig Porter Junior, all of whom have played for the Cavs. It's for Trevor Huggins and Matthew Mayer, har Harrel and James Huff of the Rockets. This means something to them, So celebrate
Summer League from beginning to end. It's like the end of a marathon. You're too tired to celebrate it properly, but you know you did something and you accomplish something great. I cannot wait for next year. I absolutely flourish at Summer League. It is the best thing in the NBA. Event Wise, I'll see you guys next year. Dum