INDIANAPOLIS – Repeat after me: The NBA Summer League isn’t real. Hey look, I saw the same things you saw when the Indiana Pacers made their summer league debut Saturday night against the Wizards in Las Vegas. I saw Andrew Nembhard controlling the game and Bennedict Mathurin scoring 27 points as he’s speaking two languages and rookie Jarace Walker outsmarting the other nine players on the court and all three officials. Saw it.
But don’t fall for it. Because this is how you can get hurt, by forgetting the golden rule: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Myles Turner’s outfit? If we’re lucky, that will stay in Vegas. White oxford untucked nearly to the naval, revealing a purplish scarf tied around his neck, dangling over his bare chest. Pink slacks hemmed several inches above his ankles. Leather loafers. No socks. Turner knew he was dressed outrageously so he tried to slip unnoticed into the arena I’M KIDDING HE SHOWED UP LATE AND WALKED COURTSIDE AND MADE IT ONTO ESPN.
For the first half, when the game had actual intensity, Nembhard was the best player on the court and Walker was looking a whole lot like the guy he’s been compared to, Draymond Green. Kendall Brown, who missed most of his rookie year with an injury, was making everything he shot and hustling back to block a breakaway dunk. The Pacers were beating the Wizards by 22.
It looked so good, and there are season tickets availab—
Don’t do that! Don’t start believing, because that’s what the summer league will try to do to you. It will give you hope, and hope is dangerous. Try to remember the name of that hotel a few miles down the road from the Thomas & Mack Center. You’ve heard of the place.
The Mirage.
That’s the NBA Summer League, a mirage. Our luck, Turner’s fashion boldness will be the only thing from Saturday night that comes back to Indianapolis.
This is what I’m telling myself, as I’m sitting down to write about our first look at the Pacers, the summer league Pacers, any group of Pacers, since last season. Don’t fall for the okey doke, I’m telling myself. Show some wisdom, some maturity, some common sense.
NOPE TOO LATE THE PACERS ARE GOING TO THE 2024 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS, BABY!!
They don’t count fouls in the Summer League. I mean, not really. They keep up with them, but you can play with seven fouls. You can play with eight fouls. Can you play with nine? Don’t know. Isaiah Jackson almost finished with a triple-double: 21 points, 14 rebounds, eight fouls.
That’s the NBA Summer League. It’s like some kid made the rules, and decided: There are no rules.
Take Bennedict Mathurin, for example. He’s sitting on the bench in the first half, and ESPN is giving him a headset, and now he’s being interviewed on live TV during a game in which he’s playing. The whole thing was so absurd, at one point ESPN’s Mark Jones was basically asking Mathurin why he’s here, and why he’s trying so hard. Mathurin had been attacking the rim and playing legit defense and hustling. Jones wanted to know why.
“My No. 1 goal is winning,” Mathurin said. “Trying to improve, trying to shift the culture (here) a little but more to winning basketball. Pretty good start for me and my teammates to start with summer league.”
Sounds good in any language, and this interview definitely didn’t start in English. Jones began the interview by saying something that sounded like como ca va, which my friends at Google say is French for “how are you?” Mathurin responded with something that sounded like tres bien, which is French for “three beignets.”
Pretty soon ESPN’s Doris Burke was asking Mathurin another question, no idea what language she had in mind, but Mathurin is talking to someone else. Right there on national TV, he’s ignoring Doris Burke and giving a thumbs up to someone down the way and asking: “You want me?”
Turns out, Pacers coach Jannero Pargo was wondering if Mathurin would be so kind as to go back into the game. Mathurin gets to his feet and starts apologizing to Burke and Jones: “I’m so sorry.”
Jones asks, “Going in?”
“Yeah I’m going back in,” Mathurin says. “I’m so sorry.”
We’re nice here in the Midwest. That’s real. The rest of what happened Saturday night? Let’s say: Yes.
Let’s say: Sure.
Let’s say: Why not?
Nembhard doesn’t seem to be moving very fast, but he spent the whole game in the lane, finding open spots for an array of mid-range jumpers and floaters. And when the defense collapsed on him, he was dribbling one way and throwing a bounce pass another way, behind him, don’t ask, and rookie Oscar Tshiebwe was catching it and dunking it. Another time all Washington eyes were on Nembhard, whose eyes were looking left but whose pass was going right, to Walker, who caught it and — in the same motion — flipped it behind his back to Jackson for a dunk.
The Pacers led 44-23 and they had the best four players on the court, and when does the regular season get here anyway? Because we’re going to need to see what Jarace Walker looks like in a real game. In the summer league, which I’m trying to remind myself isn’t real, he looked like some combination of Ben Wallace and Draymond Green: grabbing every defensive rebound, angrily swatting shots 15 or 20 feet into the distance, switching onto smaller guards and taking the ball from them, even bringing the ball up the court after made baskets. Just because, I guess.
Walker finished with eight points, 13 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and three steals. You can tell me Walker was just 3-for-13 from the floor, but I’ll remind you 7-5 Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama was 2-for-13 from the floor on this very same court, 24 hours earlier.
Jarace Walker is better than Victor Wembanyama, is my point.
See why I’m so excited?
Walker isn’t just the best player on the planet. He’s the smartest one, too. Midway through the second quarter he went to the foul line for two shots and hit the first. The Wizards call timeout. Game resumes, eventually, and Walker’s back on the line for his second of two free throws. He misses, only everybody’s forgotten about the first one. Everybody but Walker, who grabs the rebound off the bounce and dunks it as various Washington players look at referees with contempt, like: Where’s the tech?
And those referees, they were thinking about it! Well, until Walker — who was mic’d up by ESPN, because again, this is not exactly tres bien basketball — started shouting:
“I already shot one! I already shot one! That’s a bucket! I already shot one!”
Reminded how to do their job by the 19-year-old rookie from Houston, officials counted the basket.
Pretty soon it was halftime, and Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton was leaving his courtside seat to speak with ESPN, and he was talking about what the Pacers have in mind this season after going 35-47 last year.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that feel like they have something to prove individually,” Haliburton said, “and we’re going to do that collectively.”
The Pacers seem to believe. They are young, they are deep, they are hungry. They’re in Vegas right now, but they’re coming back to Indiana, where we’ll see what’s real in due time. I’ll remind you they beat the Wizards 91-83 on Saturday night, which means they’re more than young, deep and hungry.
They’re perfect.
This content was originally published here.