For any NBA fans heading to Las Vegas for NBA Summer League, the National Basketball Players Association is putting on a variety of events where the biggest basketball enthusiasts in the world can get a chance to interact with players as the entire NBA world gathers in the desert.
Summer League — a yearly event where all 30 teams make their way to the desert with squads comprised of rookies trying to break through to veterans looking for one last shot — is always a haven for the biggest basketball obsessives in the world to reunite and look for opportunities to duck the heat together.
The first such offering where they can do so with the Players Association is the NBPA Brotherhood Deli, a pop-up restaurant and shop that will be open in the Thomas and Mack Center during the first weekend of summer league, July 12-14, starting an hour before games start each day. Interested prospective attendees to the bodega-themed venue need a ticket to enter summer league, but the expected schedule (with ticket prices to enter the restaurant for special events) includes meet-and-greets with players like Jaime Jaquez Jr., Scoot Henderson, Dereck Lively II, and potentially more.
Additionally, the Players Association will also be hosting a “special player-inspired Speakeasy at Easy’s Cocktail Lounge inside ARIA Resort & Casino” on Saturday, July 13 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., featuring spirits from brands owned by players as well as other basketball-themed cocktails. Tickets for that event, featuring a performance by DJ Trauma, can be purchased at the event’s official website for $165 under the section titled “NBPA Brotherhood Deli Speakeasy.” The event is additionally open to current and former players as well as other guests and figures from the world of basketball.
Both events have additional philanthropic elements as well, with guests of the Deli able to give to the donation platform “Change” on top of their purchases, and the Speakeasy will benefit the NBPA Foundation in “furthering the community and philanthropic efforts of NBA players across the world.”
Those interested in more information can check out all the details in the NBPA’s official press release here.
