Summertime Fun

Circumstances conspired to keep me away from the Orlando Pro Summer League more than I had hoped, but here's what I saw, in limited duty.

-- Brook Lopez can play. In his current incarnation, he'll get pushed around a lot by bulkier, more muscular centers and forwards, but once he thickens up, he should be fine. More athletic than I thought, and really good hands. He made a very pretty running one-hander in the lane on Friday that one typically doesn't see from a 7-footer. A few of us in the crowd emitted a collective "whaaaa...?" when he tried a three-pointer, but I won't hold that against him. Also, he wears a perpetual scowl while on the floor, which is a real feat in Summer League play. I'll bet he'll be pretty good.

-- Lawrence Frank looks even younger in shorts and an untucked Polo shirt. As in, he appears to be 14 years old. Really. I cannot stress this enough.

-- Jim O'Brien, on the other hand, has not aged in the last ten years, and that includes the time that we worked together on the set of 'ESPNEWS.'

-- Same for new Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro. Here's why his hiring was the single biggest surprise (in my book) this NBA off-season: going back, again, to the ESPN days, I was occasionally called upon to host a show called 'NBA Matchup,' which was shot at the NBA Entertainment studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. Vinny was one of the regulars on the show at that time -- this was about seven years ago -- and his travel schedule was unique.

At the time, he lived in Arizona, and played golf every day. I mean, every day. 'Matchup' was shot on Saturdays at 8 or 9 in the morning, and Vinny would fly into Newark the day before, usually after playing 18 that morning. He would plan his return flight to Phoenix -- I am not making this up -- for about noon on Saturday, a very tight turnaround in the world of taped television. He did so in order to guarantee that he could get in 18 more holes on Saturday afternoon, owing to the time change and all. That he would drop this schedule in favor of coaching the Chicago Bulls -- his first NBA head coaching gig, evidenced by the fact that he actually *coached* the Bulls' Summer League team as opposed to handing it off to the 14th assistant -- demonstrates a commitment to this new phase of his career that I find both admirable and stunning, given my understanding of his golf addiction.

Nice, nice guy. I did not get the chance to say hello this week, as he was, well, coaching. Hard. His handicap will suffer.

-- One of the coolest things about watching Summer League play, aside from the close-knit, private atmosphere and the relaxation factor, is determining which players on each Summer League roster are getting serious burn, and which are window dressing.

The draft picks always get minutes. Lopez, Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, Russell Westbrook, Courtney Lee -- they're gonna play. Everyone knows it. First-rounders are the reason why Summer League exists.

But then you get these otherwise unknowns who end up playing huge minutes before disappearing, presumably forever. You have to think that somebody in each front office is bound and determined to unearth a gem, and has instructed the Summer League coach -- in most cases, like I said, the assistant coach who has designs on moving up the ladder someday, like Patrick Ewing for Orlando -- to work these scrubs into the lineup as much as possible, just to see if they can play or not. Or, more likely, the competitive nature of the coaching staff takes over, and they start playing their most devoted Summer Leaguers in order to get a meaningless (to us) win.

So among those seeing huge minutes this week: Earl Calloway, Josh Davis, Will Conroy, and Nick Lewis.

Ever heard of them? Nope. Will you ever hear of them? Doubt it. But they are exhausted tonight, trust me. Summer League is awesome. The only thing missing was Paul Shirley.

-- Among the celebs in the crowd during just the two days I was in attendance at the RDV Sportsplex: Larry Bird, Pat Riley, Rod Thorn, Kiki Vandeweghe, Otis Smith, Stan Van Gundy, O'Brien, Frank, Del Negro, plus a whole bunch of NBA referees who were there to evaluate the NBDL/NCAA/CFL/God Knows Where They Found Them refs who officiate these train wrecks. Like I said, awesome. It's All-Star Weekend Lite. If you're a basketball junkie, this is a great week.

-- Chris Douglas-Roberts didn't do squat. I know it's Summer League, but he looked disinterested even for this crowd, which is saying something.

-- The World Wide Interweb has picked up on my friends Dante Marchitelli and George Galante, who took their OrlandoMagic.com podcast act into live play-by-play of the Summer League games for a third consecutive year (and on that note, I was one of their original 'guests' on the live Internet broadcast a couple of years ago, way before ESPN Radio and the blogosphere discovered them). Yes, they are funny. Yes, basketball would be a HELL of a lot more entertaining if every game was produced this way. So here's the gauntlet:

This needs to be on television.

I'm throwing it at the feet of my employers at Sun Sports and FSN Florida. People are starved for live basketball this time of year, as the gazillion hits at OrlandoMagic.com proved. It's a relaxed, fun environment, and one of the few properties in sports that hasn't yet been locked up in a long-term TV rights deal. We need to get the Summer League on TV, one way or another.

My plan, which I floated past a few people this week to resounding yawns: set up a literal round table at one corner of the practice court at RDV. Stick me out there with Dante and George, with 'guest appearances' from anyone and everyone -- the Magic announce team of David Steele and Matt Guokas, the Heat announce team of Eric Reid and Tony Fiorentino (who I ran into on Monday), Magic GM Otis Smith, Paul Kennedy, Bird, Riley, anyone who will sit down. Have a big-picture, state-of-the-NBA chat going on with the game in the background. Lots of guests, lots of promos getting people pumped for our NBA coverage still to come this fall, lots of background on players and off-topic chat. Read e-mails. Bring the viewing audience into this unique event, which is not open to the public otherwise. It's play-by-play with a twist. It's fun. It needs to be on television.

Did I mention the 2 million hits at the Magic's website?

I've got the Josh Davis anecdotes ready. Just cue me.