NBA Commissioner Adam Silver "was the driving force behind the league’s commitment" to the Samsung NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, and "his faith has been rewarded," according to Steve Carp of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The Summer League has "grown to where it has 24 teams, has all its games on national television through NBA TV" and the on-site attendance "continues to set records each passing season." In the first three days, this year's games "attracted 21,248 and will likely set a new attendance record." Silver yesterday said, "I’m not surprised at all." He added that he is "aware of the MGM-AEG arena project behind New York-New York and Monte Carlo." Silver "met with MGM officials late Monday afternoon." Silver: "We’ve had a long-time partnership with AEG. ... I met with [AEG Chair Phil Anschutz] recently and we talked about partnering on some projects for the new arena in Las Vegas." He added of the arena slated to open in Spring of '16, "Once there’s a new state-of-the-art arena in Las Vegas that’s open, it opens up all sorts of possibilities. We have no prohibition about bringing All Star Weekend back to Las Vegas. From our standpoint, it was a tremendous experience and the city has embraced us with open arms. So we’re looking at doing all kinds of different events here" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 7/15).
WILL WORK FOR...: In Las Vegas, Alan Snel notes there were "50 interns performing the tasks to keep the 11-day summer league humming" at UNLV's, Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion. Alums of the Vegas Summer League internship program include Nuggets Dir of Team Operations Ben Tenzer, NBA Kings Coordinator of Basketball Operations Chris Gilbert, Warriors Special Assistant to Head Coach & Manager of Advanced Scouting Nicholas U’Ren, and Wasserman Media Group Marketing Manager Alex Snyder and agent Michael Tellem. Summer League Founder Warren LeGarie said, “It’s like they’re your kids. We try to give them good insights and tell them about the pratfalls. We’re like parents to them” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 7/15).
