LAS VEGAS – There are just some tickets that are hard to get in Las Vegas. Like Adele for example. Or Garth Brooks. Or U2, starting a residency there this fall.
And now, Add Wemby to this list.
Victor Wembanyamas NBA Summer League debut It’s Friday night – and it’s sold out. All 17,500 tickets available for Day 1 of the 11-day game series at UNLV’s campus sold out sometime Wednesday, largely due to the Debut of the 7ft 3 rookie who will play his first game with the San Antonio Spurs.
“I can barely wait for it. I can’t wait,” Wembanyama said Thursday after training in Las Vegas with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich at the gym. “The exercises have been really intense lately. I took a little break from basketball because of the draft and stuff, and I didn’t really get to practice. I’m getting back in shape and I can’t wait. I’m having so much fun.”
The current plan: He will play “at least one or two games” in Vegas, Wembanyama said. That means he’ll play Charlotte (and No. 2 pick Brandon Miller) on Friday and likely play Portland (and No. 3 pick Scoot Henderson) again on Sunday. He, too, has performances ahead of him – Wembanyama is one of the main attractions at the first NBA con event, which starts on Friday; He will attend Saturday’s new-season tournament unveiling along with Commissioner Adam Silver and will be onstage for a conversation with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a session titled “Exploring the Evolution of Basketball.”
Welcome to the NBA, Wemby. People have been waiting.
“I’m realizing more and more how lucky I am to be in this situation,” Wembanyama said. “I’m just happy to be here. Enjoy the moment.”
Not only are tickets selling out — this is only the fifth Summer League sell-out in Las Vegas, the NBA said — but they’re also growing rapidly in secondary resale markets. Vivid Seats, a ticket resale marketplace, said its data showed the average price of a ticket for Friday was $106; That would surpass the summer league record of $86 set on opening night of 2019 when Zion Williamson made his debut for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Spurs summer coach Matt Nielsen hadn’t heard Friday was a sell-out; He was told after San Antonio completed their two-game California Classic Summer League stint in Sacramento – Wembanyama was absent from those games – before flying to Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
“That’s probably not the biggest surprise,” Nielsen said.
The growth of the Las Vegas Summer League is well documented. The inaugural event in 2004 featured six teams, playing a total of 13 games, and it seems the spectacle has grown almost annually since then. It’s now an unofficial league-wide gathering for anyone with ties to the NBA; Most of the coaches are coming, hundreds of players are coming – many will be there for Wembanyama’s debut on Friday – and the final days of this year’s Summer League just so happen to coincide with the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas.
“It’s grown tremendously and it’s a little bit of basketball magic in a bottle,” said Kelly Flatow, the NBA’s executive vice president of global events. “We compare it to three key ingredients: incredible passion from the rookies, free agents all working to get a place on a team, and incredible energy from the fans. It seems that so many fans keep coming back every year that this becomes something of a pilgrimage. And they’re not just from the US, they’re from all over the world.”
That seems particularly true this year; NBA data shows that 98% of fans who purchased Summer League tickets through NBA Experiences live outside of Nevada and 13% outside of the United States
Wembanyama was asked what advice Popovich gives him.
“Being myself,” Wembanyama said. “No one can worry that I’m not myself. When entering a new environment, it is important not to lose the feeling of being yourself, having fun and experiencing something. This is the time to experience things on the pitch – because when the season starts it’s about winning.”
This is the second time Wembanyama has come to Las Vegas to play to great fanfare. His French team made two appearances last fall against G League Ignite – a team Henderson appeared on. The success of these games led to Ignite books another series against the Perth Wildcats this fall.
FORMAT
All 30 NBA teams are represented and each will play four games before a four-team playoff round is determined. The 26 teams that don’t make the playoffs will play a fifth game on July 15 or 16 before leaving Las Vegas. The four playoff teams play a single-elimination tournament with semifinals on July 16 and a championship game on July 17.
NEW RULES
As has often been the case in the past, the Summer League offers the NBA an opportunity to experiment with new rules before fully adopting them. This year, coaches will be given a second challenge if their first is successful, and an in-game flop penalty – a free throw and possession for the other team if a flop is called – will also be tried.
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