This year’s Las Vegas NBA Summer League has a different feel to it with the league officially exploring the city for a potential expansion team.
Summer League co-founder Albert Hall said the crowd showing out this year, as it has in the past, is as important as ever for the annual event that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver already calls the NBA’s 31st franchise.
“I think the stakes are heightened right for everybody,” Hall told the Review-Journal Tuesday. “Las Vegas has proven they can be a big major league city with the NHL and NFL and whatnot. I think for us it’s a matter of really being that 31st franchise, as Adam alludes, to show what works, what doesn’t, whoever that new team may be. There is a lot of talk.”
Silver will address the media on July 14, Hall said, where an update on the expansion process is almost a certainty. In March, Silver announced that the league was formally exploring Las Vegas and Seattle for potential expansion teams.
“Doing it (Summer League) for 22 years here, we’ve got a great track record,” Hall said. “However this thing plays out, we hope we’re a part of it in some form or fashion. But it’s exciting. … It’s something that we need to have the locals support Summer League every way possible to show that it can support an NBA team. Quite honestly, Vegas is a basketball town. It really is.”
When the NBA Summer League began in Las Vegas in 2004, it only featured six teams and drew a total crowd of 1,500, Hall said. The event grew each year, to eventually include all 30 NBA teams and become one of the league’s marquee events.
“We were just figuring things out, but we realized there’s a big demand,” Hall said. “Then as broadcast grew, as the internet grew, it’s just one of those things where … we were showing whoever was paying attention that we’re making improvements; we’re making adjustments. People in Las Vegas and Clark County are supporting what we’re doing, especially on some of those big (games), going back to the Kevin Durant or the Blake Griffin and Lonzo Ball nights, where it felt like a prize fight almost. But it showed that people will support this if it’s done correctly.’”
This year’s Summer League will feature what analysts are calling one of the best NBA draft classes in years. Fans should again expect a prize fight-like atmosphere on Thursday, during this year’s marquee matchup between the Washington Wizards and No. 1 overall draft pick AJ Dybantsa and the Utah Jazz, featuring No. 2 pick Darryn Peterson.
“It gets everybody excited, including the veteran players,” Hall said. “We have a lot of veteran players, a lot of NFL guys … requesting tickets and wanting to come out. They want to see that one versus two with Dybantsa. They want to see Caleb Wilson. They want to see (Keaton) Wagler, some of these other guys; you go 20 deep in this class. It’s exciting to have the competition again.”
As the event has grown each year, so has the financial gain of the city. Last year’s edition created an estimated economic impact of $280 million, according to Silver.
Hall expects that economic boon created by Summer League to continue growing, as new broadcast partner Prime Video will be streaming their first league games from Las Vegas and teams are also putting more resources into the league, with some using off-site facilities to enhance practices over the 11-day event.
“Now we’ve got teams that are building out facilities off-site for practice,” Hall said. “The Wynn has it, Fontainebleau has it, Resorts World has courts.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
