We’re three days into the 2012 NBA Summer League and nobody has torn their ACL yet. That’s encouraging news.
The crowds began to dwindle a bit today as people realized they have to go back to the real world tomorrow. Still, there was some pretty solid action here in Las Vegas. Over the last two days a lot of the games haven’t been very close. Then again, I could just be focusing on the fact that the Lakers got beat down twice. At least we didn’t have to worry about that today.
Los Angeles took the day off to practice and regroup after two consecutive losses on Friday and Saturday. As the Lakers prepared for their game on Monday night against the Miami Heat, 14 other teams were in action today. Well, 13 NBA teams and the D-League Select Team, which might be my favorite team now. Their jerseys just have the D-League logo on them with nothing else. It’s tremendous.
As for the actual NBA teams, the game of the night belonged to Charlotte and Cleveland. As I mentioned above, there haven’t been a ton of close games so far this weekend, but this was a good one. Dion Waiters scored 10 points in his Summer League Debut, but had himself a bit of an incident. Nothing cruel or unusual, he just happened to pull a Chris Webber and call a timeout when the team didn’t have any left. Charlotte hit the technical and killed the clock to win the game.
Growing pains, I guess.
Anyways, now that I managed to struggle my way through 250 words about the Bobcats, Cavaliers and how grateful I am to be here, let’s get on to the things that are actually entertaining. If you’ve been following these nightly posts religiously, which honestly you should be, you know I’ve been adding in a little quote of the day for each one. If you ask me it’s been a wonderful addition to already superb writing, but I’ll simply allow you to express your appreciation for my writing in the comment section below.
Today’s quote actually came during the first game of the afternoon. Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra was sitting in the stands waiting for the Miami Summer League team to play when he was approached by a rather robust individual wearing a New York Knicks shirt. The fan wanted an autograph from Spoelstra.
This seems like a fair request, right? I mean, even Kobe signed a pair of LeBron shoes and Kobe hates everyone.
Spoelstra doesn’t agree.
“I’m not signing anything for that,” he said, pointing at the shirt. The fan, who thought he was kidding, laughed and continued to stand there with a rather stupefied look on his face. Still Spoelstra didn’t budge. He refused to sign the autograph.
I can’t express how awesome this is. Erik Spoelstra is my new favorite person. Besides Tom Brady. Also Luke Walton.
Anyways, I had the pleasure of being seated next to Spoelstra when the fan made the request, and I think I may have snorted after the exchange between the two of them. So much for professionalism.
Well that’s all for now from NBA Summer League. If I manage to make it through the night – which isn’t always a guarantee in this town – I’ll be back for more irritating commentary tomorrow night. I know you’ll tune in.