The anticipation was pretty high immediately after booking my two-day trip to Las Vegas to take in the Philadelphia 76ers Summer League team and many other NBA teams I could watch within 48 hours. You better believe I did just that. Watching at least one-half of basketball for 11 games and three full games. One of those full games of course was a Sixers game.
The process of walking up into Thomas & Mack Arena to watch some of the NBA’s future is exciting. It brought me back to thinking about how far the Sixers are from that stage as a franchise.
Philadelphia 76ers-fan perspective from Summer League
The last significant Sixer to play in the Summer League was just last year in Tyrese Maxey, which feels like five years ago due to Maxey’s great play in two games of Summer League and his great sophomore season. Before that, it was Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz, two controversial names but provided some memorable Sixer Summer League moments.
That wasn’t the case here but that could only damper the energy, mood, and reality so much because I was still at NBA Summer League for the first time. The NBA congregates in one place once a year. It truly is an event where anyone affiliated with the NBA could be. Sadly, my luck did not net me any great meetings with players, coaches, scouts, front office, and legends.
The ability to get as close as possible with a general admission made it enjoyable. A social event where one can bounce around in different seats from different angles and have different conversations with different people about hoops. It was also an honor to be at the same event that has started so many careers of so many modern stars and legends.