In Vegas for Summer League: Day 2
Day 2 of our Vegas Summer League journey did not commence until the second game of the day at the Thomas & Mack Center between our beloved Charlotte Hornets and the Indiana Pacers.
We wanted to try out a different perspective, so we grabbed a general admission seat on the other side of the court. When we sat down, some guys behind us said, “Who is that? Is that supposed to be somebody?” Another guy replied, “I don’t know, but if it is, I don’t know why they would be sitting up here with us.”
As beloved Hornets stans, we always wondered why our old guy James Borrego did not play the young rookies of Kai Jones and JT Thor more last season. (And James Bouknight as well, but his recent pinky surgery will keep him out of summer league.) After seeing the game on Friday afternoon, maybe we now know. Our Hornets looked clunky, and that’s probably being nice. The spacing was poor and there were so many forced shots.
The Pacers No. 6 overall pick, Bennedict Mathurin from Arizona, looked like the best player on the court, drilling 3s, moving so smooth with the ball, and scoring a game-high 23 points. We love that he is rocking the 00.
The Pacers also had a fan favorite, the 19-year-old 6-foot-11 Chinese sensation Fanbo Zeng, who had a steal and breakaway lay up And-1 that received grand approval from the crowd.
And you thought there weren’t going to be Fanbo Zeng highlights.
The next game between the Knicks and Warriors had a lot of loud and energetic fans as expected.
Moses Moody balled out, a big game with 34 points. (15 of those came from the free throw line.) There was some back-and-forth action where Moody and DaQuan Jefffies of the Knicks were trading 3s and talking shit.
Quentin Grimes had the greenest of green lights, firing away 14 3-pointers and connecting on four. Jericho Sims had a lot of dunks, and the lesser known Feron Hunt did, too, including a fastbreak windmill jam.
Jonathan Kuminga had a forgettable game, shooting 2-of-10 from the field, but he did at least try a monster power dunk that unfortunately didn’t go down.
Mac McClung played well, and we were left wondering why the Lakers did not keep him around. Remember the last game of the season in Denver!?
As anticipated, the last game of Day 2 between the Suns and Lakers was the loudest the arena got all day, if only due to the amount of fans in attendance thanks to the close proximity of the two teams to Vegas.
LeBron and Westbrook were both in the building, but it must be duly noted that while Westbrook was sitting at the end of the Lakers bench, LeBron was sitting at the entire other end of the court along the baseline.
There is reading the tea leaves, and then there is looking at what’s directly in front of you.
During the game, Kenny Atkinson was walking up into the stands right by us. (We had moved back down to our lower level seats by that point.) Eye contact was made and smiles were exchanged. We couldn’t help but say, “We’ll miss you in Charlotte,” with a knowing grin. He had a stunned smile at first, then let out a big laugh and said, “I really appreciate that,” as he dapped us up with a full bro-hug and everything.
Classic!
Another classic was @MaxIsNicee walking right by us shortly after our Atkinson moment. The opportunity to lean in and say a subtle and quiet, “Max is niceeee,” could not be passed up. He loved it and squeezed our shoulder with a big smile, nodding in full acknowledgement and appreciation for not blowing his cover.
How about another classic from Friday night?
Straight up got to meet the legend Shams.
His advice for an up-and-coming writer?
“Keep grinding, keep grinding. As many interviews as you can. Just keep grinding!”
Indeed we shall, buddy.
A final note from Day 2: Had a great time walking back to The Strip from Thomas & Mack with some Atlanta Hawks stats/analytics interns and talking hoops the entire way. It was rather alarming and illuminating, however, to hear that the shadow of Luka Doncic is quite prevalent in hanging over the entire Hawks organization, and it is apparently talked about within constantly.
< insert eyeball emoji here >
We love this game!
