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Tom Osborn: This just in amidst the playoff push: Warriors will host the eighth annual California Classic Summer League at Chase Center on July 3, 5 and 6, featuring three days of play between the Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, the Heat and the Spurs.
The Utah Jazz announced the return of the Salt Lake City Summer League for 2026. Once again, it will be a four-team, six-game event hosted by the Utah Jazz. Here are the details: It will inc * It will include four teams: Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder * It will be held at the Jon M. Huntsman Center at the University of Utah * It will be held on July 4th, 6th, and 7th
Nick Friedell: Will Richard admits he hit the rookie wall a couple weeks before the All Star break and it kind of lingered the rest of the year. He said he was leaning on the veterans for advice on how to get over the mental fatigue. He says he plans to play in Summer League.
Fred VanVllet: “It was between Toronto and Indiana that summer. Indiana wanted me to play Orlando Summer League and Vegas Summer League, but I ain’t feel like doing that. So, Toronto said, ‘They got $50,000. You come to Summer League. If you get the 50, if you don’t make the team — if you make the team, we’ll get you a two-year deal.’ I’m like, ‘All right, bet. Boom. Let’s get it.’ And that was it. And I was in Toronto like the next day. Kyle Lowry and — Kyle was there. Cory Joseph and Delon Wright. That was the three. And so when I go to Summer League, Delon Wright tear his shoulder at Summer League. So boom, now I move up. Now I’m the third point guard. And s***, I just worked from there. I was in. That’s all I needed.”
He also has Darius Garland, a new, in-his-prime point guard to build with, not just manage. “Having a young point guard under my tutelage is the first time I’ve really had it since Kyrie (Irving),” Lue said. “It’s gonna be fun.” That distinction matters most with Garland. After Tyronn Lue was fired by the Cavaliers in 2018, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul introduced him to Garland, then just 19 and newly drafted. They crossed paths again months later at a Las Vegas comedy show during Garland’s first NBA Summer League. “We went to the Dave Chappelle show in Vegas, and we just hit it off right there,” Garland told The Athletic. “It just happened naturally, really.”
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Maxime Aubin: News from Noa Essengue, whom I saw in San Antonio last night: The French rookie of the Bulls (19 years old) has fully recovered from his shoulder surgery in December. He resumed individual contact training three weeks ago, and should resume team training by the end of April. He is ahead of his schedule, with the goal of making his big return with the Bulls during the Summer League in Las Vegas, in mid-July.
With the Board Governors approving a vote for the league to explore bids and applicants for Vegas, what do you think the next steps will be with this process? Warren LeGarie: “Part of figuring out if you’re an NBA market is if fans get behind it. Get behind Summer League. Show that NBA basketball is important. ‘We’re going to come out and support Summer League.’ That is your first vote to have a potential to have an NBA franchise. I think that’s important. No matter what, certainly the NBA is monitoring all of the things that are going on in both cities. They want to see legitimate enthusiasm, not fake enthusiasm. They don’t want to see a reaction like ‘Yeah, we finally got it and ho-hum after that.’ They want to see enthusiasm that is genuine. They’ve been supportive enough not just for a year, but for a lot of years. I think it’s huge right now. No matter what, Vegas has to be aware of it.”
It's a place where the NBA already has a big presence with the annual NBA Summer League, but also the more recent "in-season tournament", the Emirates Cup. "This city, over all the other cities that were vying for this position, is a city that can do it. I mean, you're talking about college towns, you know, cities with huge basketball fan bases did not get it. So the NBA did their research," said Williams.
The lawmakers urged Silver to consider Las Vegas’ 20-year partnership with the NBA through hosting the Summer League and NBA Cup championships. “As you consider the future of the NBA, we strongly urge you to build on the League’s local momentum by selecting Las Vegas as a site for a future league franchise,” the letter reads in part.
![“Yeah, [summer league is the goal]. But right now, …](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/content-pipeline-sports-images/sports2/nba/logos/17.png?format=png8&auto=webp&quality=85,75&width=140)
“[The procedure] was successful. I’m not qualified to explain exactly what it was, but it was to make his plantar fasciitis better and find the best way for him to take the next step and get stronger,” Fernández said before his tanking Nets suffered a 121-92 blowout loss to the defending champion Thunder at Barclays Center. “So it went well, and he’ll be ready to go at some point in the offseason, which is great because then you have all this time to work, get better and go into summer league. “Yeah, [summer league is the goal]. But right now, what we’re doing is — what’s the next step? Right now he’s not on the court, so I don’t think we’ll have any timeline; but that’s the idea, yeah, at some point.” Egor Demin averaged 10.3 points, 3.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds in a solid rookie campaign, the first Net since 2019 picked for the Rising Stars at All-Star Weekend.
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Within league circles, it has been seen as the expected outcome for several years, though it was far from a certainty because of some pushback from different owners over the economics for the reasons laid out above. However, when Silver said in December a decision was coming in 2026, the belief within the league was that expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas was close to inevitable. While next week's vote is not a binding resolution, something like that is more likely to come at the July board of governors meeting during the Las Vegas Summer League, sources told ESPN.
It will be shocking if expansion doesn't happen. Within league circles, it has been seen as the expected outcome for several years, though it was far from a certainty because of some pushback from different owners over the economics for the reasons laid out above. However, when Silver said in December a decision was coming in 2026, the belief within the league was that expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas was close to inevitable. While next week's vote is not a binding resolution, something like that is more likely to come at the July board of governors meeting during the Las Vegas Summer League, sources told ESPN.
Players typically begin returning to normal walking and strength exercises after about three months. From there, basketball activity is slowly reintroduced. "Even when you repair ligaments — like he had on the other side — the tissue needs time to heal," Jung said. "The bone stress also needs time to heal, and then he has to rebuild his strength." Given this timeline, it's unlikely that Edey will participate in NBA Summer League or play in the 2026 FIBA World Cup for Team Canada.