Summer League not on TV? You SHOULD Care

This may be the only jersey you see DeMar DeRozan play in until October rolls around

Tucked inside Doug Smith’s latest blog for the Toronto Star was this little nugget of information:

There are no plans at the moment to have television broadcasts of any of the games. Nothing from NBA-TV, nothing from RaptorsTV, nothing from There Are Too Many Channels In The Universe TV.

That means no breathless discussion of how DeMar DeRozan looked playing against true scrubs, no waiting for the broadcast of some game to see if Roko’s lost that ability to dribble out the shot clock like few other guards in the game.

And I don’t believe there will be an ink-stained wretch from Toronto in attendance – money being the big issue, the time of the games being another – so how in the world are we going to discuss something as mundane as summer league basketball? Maybe we won’t be able to, and that’s not a big shame.

Oh Doug, you ingenious wit.  How subtle you are.  Do you see what he’s doing here?  He’s throwing thinly veiled jabs at summer league.  Do you hear that NBA?  Doug Smith has no time for your summer league!  He’s got much more important things to worry about, like his “league sources” who deliver him information us average Joe’s don’t stand a fucking chance at getting our hands on.  Groundbreaking stuff like “it might take a couple of days for that [the Shawn Marion situation] to shake out.”  Thanks, Doug!

But let’s take a quick second to discuss just how fucking stupid his stance on Summer League is.  Essentially, he’s saying that because it’s comprised of young guys and/or lower level players, Summer League isn’t worth watching.

Doug Smith, a man who collects a salary to travel the continent attending basketball games (which I, and many others, pay good money to do) and to write about those games and the team that plays them (which I, and many others, do for free), has decided that Summer League basketball is not worth his time.  Never mind that there will be at least a few guys playing on the Summer League squad that will end up making the Raptors this year.  Never mind that it’s the first opportunity to see how DeMar DeRozan performs outside of the USC system.  That’s what training camp is for, right Doug?  Why bother getting a look at Raptors players in game action when instead, you can just not so subtley question the validity of the system?

It is difficult to overstate the ridiculousness of a man who is paid to write about the Raptors dismissing an event in which Raptors players will play the game that they are being paid millions to play.  These are Raptors basketball players playing the game of basketball in an NBA sanctioned league wearing the Raptors name and logo on their jerseys.  Doug Smith should be all over this.  If financial constraints prevent him from being all over it, then he should be as all over it as possible from Toronto.  If TV scheduling prevents that, he should be using his status and influence as one of the foremost voices in the Raptors media to figure out a way for himself (and by extension, us) to watch it.  He is not.  He is not even upset about this.  In fact, he seems relieved that he won’t have to deal with another Summer League.

And please, spare me the argument that the competition is “true scrubs.”  Millions of people watch NCAA hoops every year, and no one complains about a lack of talent.  You know who plays in Summer League?  The best NCAA guys.  You don’t even sniff the very last Summer League invite unless you had some impact at the NCAA level.  So, if I’m interested in the NCAA, why wouldn’t I be interested in the future careers of its best players?  Not to mention the fact that guys like DeRozan are playing against the best talent they’ve ever played against in Summer League.  Summer League teams are like an NCAA All-Star team made up of guys from the past 5 years.  DeRozan will be competing against teams with higher talent levels than any he has faced off against before.

All that aside, the primary argument for watching and being interested in Summer League is an obvious one.  What is Summer League?  What is the reason all of these young, talented guys congregate in one place in the middle of the summer?

Basketball.

Summer League is fucking basketball.  In the dog days of summer, with the Draft behind us and training camp nowhere in sight, there is basketball.  Is that not why we love the Raptors?  Basketball?  Does our obsession over the NBA, the Raptors, Chris Bosh, Jay Triano, Brian Colangelo, DeMar DeRozan, and so on and so forth not stem from a love of the game of basketball?

Perhaps it’s different when you get paid.  Maybe if we were generating a nice revenue stream from this blog we’d feel comfortable casually flipping off Summer League ball.  Perhaps Doug Smith’s hours, days, weeks, months, and years of being paid to attend games and publish his thoughts to millions has put a damper on his appreciation for the game.  But to me, Summer League represents elite level athletes, some of whom are going to form the core of our league in the near future, getting together to play the game I love to watch.

Is it perfect?  Does it give us a great indication of how good these kids are actually going to be?  Are the games of the utmost importance?  No, no, and no.  But is it Raptors basketball?  Absolutely.  And for a die hard Raptors fan in the middle of the summer, there is little else.  So you’ll pardon me, Doug, for being a tad bit upset when a guy collecting a salary for being a team beat writer casually admits that he is totally disinterested in this aspect of Raptors basketball.

We will be covering Summer League as best as we can here (for free, I might add) and I can only hope that those fortunate enough to collect a cheque for their input on this great sport can remember where it all started for all of us.  Because in the beginning, and in the end, it all comes down to an appreciation of what happens out there on the court.

It’s the reason we write this blog, it’s the reason you can find us runnin’ at Ecole Tuxedo on any given day, and it’s the reason I’ll be checking Summer League box scores like they were a Finals games.

Because it’s basketball, and basketball is the greatest sport in the world.