CruzDude
Senior Member sharing a brew with bajaden
Las Vegas Summer League - A Fun Fix for the Kings Fan
by CruzDude
Las Vegas, 10 July 2006.........A story about the Toshiba Vegas Summer League starts with the Rocky Mountain Review in Salt Lake City. In 1995 my wife and I were looking for a new adventure for a week off in July or August. We found out about the premier (at the time) NBA summer league, the Rocky Mountain Review held each summer in Salt Lake City since 1984. From then for the next 9 years an average of 12-14 NBA teams sent rookie and free agent teams to The Review. Salt Lake is a lot of fun: some 1/2 dozen brew pubs, clean, safe, great mountain biking and a short drive up Hwy 80 takes one to Park City, a top resort ski town that turns into a mountain biking mecca every summer.
The Kings were not very good back then (mid-90's) but what the heck, we were Kings fans and had season tickets and since they almost never made the playoffs there was an NBA void for us from May through September. So an NBA summer camp half way through that dead zone seemed the thing to do. It was a ball, mountain biking was great and Salt Lake City is the "tidiest" city in the US.
But then in 2004 the Palms Casino Hotel owned by new Kings owners, the Maloof Family, was in full swing, the Maloofs had become the NBA in Las Vegas and the Kings had been playing the Lakers in Las Vegas the last 2 Octobers as an exhibition game. Vegas is a Lakers town. Or rather it WAS. Interesting, in the second year of the Vegas Summer League the Lakers are NOT one of the teams here. They are only at the Summer Pro League in Long Beach beginning this weekend when the VSL is finished.
Seems the Kings may now be the home team in Las Vegas. In 2006 the Palms has become THE hot spot in Sin City for all singles in their 20's and 30's. This summer the Palms debuted their Fantasy Suites and expanded their Party Pool (the swimming pool) to 3 times it original size. And if you are on the Palms email list you get special offers for really cheap rates during the week, as low as $69-$89. In fact for 3 days of the VSL those rates were available for those lucky enough to find out.
Back to the VSL. From an article by Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on May 21, 2004, this is how it finally got started. "
Apparently, Warren LeGarie's persistence paid off.
After six years of prodding, the longtime sports agent convinced NBA commissioner David Stern that putting a summer pro basketball league in Las Vegas would be good for the NBA.
Thursday, LeGarie announced that six NBA teams -- Boston, Cleveland, Orlando, Denver, Phoenix and Washington -- will spend July 13 to 18 at Cox Pavilion participating in the Vegas Summer League. There will be nightly doubleheaders with the exception of July 16, when a tripleheader involving the six teams will be staged.
This first Vegas Summer League replaced the summer league in Boston the previous year, hence 4 of the 6 participating teams from the eastern conference. The games were to be played under NBA rules and would even use NBA referees and NBA ref tryouts under the watchful eye of the Director of Referees for the NBA.
The success of the first year for the Vegas Summer League spread around the league and in 2005 there would be 16 teams along with a major sponsor, Reebok. It proved to be a bit overwhelming at first but the incredible volunteer staff quickly got their act together and things smoothed out in a day or two. An article by Marc Stein for ESPN.com in July 2005 set the new flavor for this now Premier NBA summer league. http://proxy.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2105306 Gavin Maloof is mentioned prominently along with his photo waving a towel during a Kings game.
All VSL games are held in the Cox Pavilion next to the Thomas & Mack Center, the main basketball arena for UNLV. These are located at the intersection of Tropicana and Paradise Road about one mile east of the main Las Vegas Strip. When next you come to the summer league, here is a little secret. Consider staying at the AmeriSuites on Paradise Road. It is virtually across the street from the arena, is a compact suite hotel with great summer rates, a full hot breakfast included every day, free high speed internet access in every room, ok pool AND it is 50 ft across the parking lot from the Hofbrauhaus beer hall, a mini version of the famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
Ticket prices this year were $22 per day (for 4-5 games a day) and $12 for kids and seniors. You can sit anywhere you want except in the two roped off areas at one end for players, coaches and team staff. At each end of the court are the scouts, agents and GMs watching the action up close. There is not a bad seat in the house. Scattered along the lower rows are casual dressed show girls and other locals offering some really nice viewing along with the celebrities there as well.
Games are true NBA games complete with NBA referees (one NBA ref and two refs-in-training (aka Ref Wannabes) for each game the only deviation being there are 4 10 minute quarters and each player is allowed 10 fouls before fouling out. And I only saw 2 do that in 3 days, one being Bargnani, the #1 overall draft choice. As you can imagine there are a ton of fouls called with the average being 36 per game I think.
Part of the refreshment stand is open with typical arena fare. And at one end are a bunch of vendor booths selling everything from DVDs of each game through the previous night, team clothes and accessories, and a team store selling NBA items. Each day one of the prominent first round draftees will be at a table signing autographs. This year Bargnani from the Raptors was one of them.
Typical July days in Las Vegas are 90°-110° so being inside to watch BBall is a pleasure. The strip is 1.2 miles west of Cox Pavilion and the airport literally across the street from the pavilion parking lot.
I drove over from Monterey Bay area in 7 easy hours. From Sacramento about the same coming down I-5 and over 58 through Tehachepi, Mojave and Barstow. Coming over the Sierras on 80 to 395 and down is much more enjoyable and similar time and you can go through Death Valley in July for a thrill.
See ya there next year.
by CruzDude
Las Vegas, 10 July 2006.........A story about the Toshiba Vegas Summer League starts with the Rocky Mountain Review in Salt Lake City. In 1995 my wife and I were looking for a new adventure for a week off in July or August. We found out about the premier (at the time) NBA summer league, the Rocky Mountain Review held each summer in Salt Lake City since 1984. From then for the next 9 years an average of 12-14 NBA teams sent rookie and free agent teams to The Review. Salt Lake is a lot of fun: some 1/2 dozen brew pubs, clean, safe, great mountain biking and a short drive up Hwy 80 takes one to Park City, a top resort ski town that turns into a mountain biking mecca every summer.
The Kings were not very good back then (mid-90's) but what the heck, we were Kings fans and had season tickets and since they almost never made the playoffs there was an NBA void for us from May through September. So an NBA summer camp half way through that dead zone seemed the thing to do. It was a ball, mountain biking was great and Salt Lake City is the "tidiest" city in the US.
But then in 2004 the Palms Casino Hotel owned by new Kings owners, the Maloof Family, was in full swing, the Maloofs had become the NBA in Las Vegas and the Kings had been playing the Lakers in Las Vegas the last 2 Octobers as an exhibition game. Vegas is a Lakers town. Or rather it WAS. Interesting, in the second year of the Vegas Summer League the Lakers are NOT one of the teams here. They are only at the Summer Pro League in Long Beach beginning this weekend when the VSL is finished.
Seems the Kings may now be the home team in Las Vegas. In 2006 the Palms has become THE hot spot in Sin City for all singles in their 20's and 30's. This summer the Palms debuted their Fantasy Suites and expanded their Party Pool (the swimming pool) to 3 times it original size. And if you are on the Palms email list you get special offers for really cheap rates during the week, as low as $69-$89. In fact for 3 days of the VSL those rates were available for those lucky enough to find out.
Back to the VSL. From an article by Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on May 21, 2004, this is how it finally got started. "
Apparently, Warren LeGarie's persistence paid off.
After six years of prodding, the longtime sports agent convinced NBA commissioner David Stern that putting a summer pro basketball league in Las Vegas would be good for the NBA.
Thursday, LeGarie announced that six NBA teams -- Boston, Cleveland, Orlando, Denver, Phoenix and Washington -- will spend July 13 to 18 at Cox Pavilion participating in the Vegas Summer League. There will be nightly doubleheaders with the exception of July 16, when a tripleheader involving the six teams will be staged.
This first Vegas Summer League replaced the summer league in Boston the previous year, hence 4 of the 6 participating teams from the eastern conference. The games were to be played under NBA rules and would even use NBA referees and NBA ref tryouts under the watchful eye of the Director of Referees for the NBA.
The success of the first year for the Vegas Summer League spread around the league and in 2005 there would be 16 teams along with a major sponsor, Reebok. It proved to be a bit overwhelming at first but the incredible volunteer staff quickly got their act together and things smoothed out in a day or two. An article by Marc Stein for ESPN.com in July 2005 set the new flavor for this now Premier NBA summer league. http://proxy.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2105306 Gavin Maloof is mentioned prominently along with his photo waving a towel during a Kings game.
All VSL games are held in the Cox Pavilion next to the Thomas & Mack Center, the main basketball arena for UNLV. These are located at the intersection of Tropicana and Paradise Road about one mile east of the main Las Vegas Strip. When next you come to the summer league, here is a little secret. Consider staying at the AmeriSuites on Paradise Road. It is virtually across the street from the arena, is a compact suite hotel with great summer rates, a full hot breakfast included every day, free high speed internet access in every room, ok pool AND it is 50 ft across the parking lot from the Hofbrauhaus beer hall, a mini version of the famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
Ticket prices this year were $22 per day (for 4-5 games a day) and $12 for kids and seniors. You can sit anywhere you want except in the two roped off areas at one end for players, coaches and team staff. At each end of the court are the scouts, agents and GMs watching the action up close. There is not a bad seat in the house. Scattered along the lower rows are casual dressed show girls and other locals offering some really nice viewing along with the celebrities there as well.
Games are true NBA games complete with NBA referees (one NBA ref and two refs-in-training (aka Ref Wannabes) for each game the only deviation being there are 4 10 minute quarters and each player is allowed 10 fouls before fouling out. And I only saw 2 do that in 3 days, one being Bargnani, the #1 overall draft choice. As you can imagine there are a ton of fouls called with the average being 36 per game I think.
Part of the refreshment stand is open with typical arena fare. And at one end are a bunch of vendor booths selling everything from DVDs of each game through the previous night, team clothes and accessories, and a team store selling NBA items. Each day one of the prominent first round draftees will be at a table signing autographs. This year Bargnani from the Raptors was one of them.
Typical July days in Las Vegas are 90°-110° so being inside to watch BBall is a pleasure. The strip is 1.2 miles west of Cox Pavilion and the airport literally across the street from the pavilion parking lot.
I drove over from Monterey Bay area in 7 easy hours. From Sacramento about the same coming down I-5 and over 58 through Tehachepi, Mojave and Barstow. Coming over the Sierras on 80 to 395 and down is much more enjoyable and similar time and you can go through Death Valley in July for a thrill.
See ya there next year.
