Generational Talent

Even though M and J are now officially adults, it's nice to know that they still are up for going places with us. Guess it helps that Mom and Dad are picking up the tab for the hotel room, meals, and tickets to watch two days of NBA Summer League games in Las Vegas. Ha! But since both of them are gainfully employed this summer, they can play in the casino with their own hard-earned cash.

Because M needed to work remotely this morning, we picked up the boys in LA yesterday evening and started the drive to Vegas from there, stopping in Victorville for dinner at Freddy's and arriving at our hotel close to midnight. However, the late hour was not a deterrent for J, who was eager to make his donation to the house coffers since he wasn't old enough yet to gamble the last time we were here. M and R went with, but this tired driver kept her money and went to bed.

Since the Summer League games didn't start until the afternoon, this morning we left M (working) and J (sleeping) behind at the Cal and drove to Lake Mead National Recreation Area to collect more passport stamps in an effort to earn a Silver Master Traveler Award from the National Park Travelers Club (minimum 75 stamps from 35 units across 5 regions during 2023). It was nice to see the improvement in the water level from when R and I were here last November.

Instead of returning via Lake Mead Parkway through Henderson, we decided to exit using Lake Mead Boulevard (NV-147) which brought us right into North Las Vegas. We picked up the boys from the hotel and headed straight to Monta for lunch.

Then we drove over to UNLV for the first day of Summer League. Even though we could have watched the Bulls-Raptors game in Cox Pavilion, we opted to camp out in the Thomas & Mack Center for the whole afternoon in order to secure our seats for the debut of Victor Wembanyama, the highly touted overall #1 draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs. It worked out anyway because the guys wanted to see Peyton Watson, who was drafted last year by the Denver Nuggets out of UCLA.

J's club teammate and R's fellow "Asian basketball dad" were also here

J caught Peyton heading up the aisle after the game

The second game in Thomas & Mack was between the Trailblazers and Rockets. Scoot Henderson (#3 overall pick) played well for Portland, with his team leading for much of the game. But Houston came back in the fourth quarter, winning 100-99 at the buzzer on a 3-pointer from Jabari Smith, Jr.! What a fun game to watch!

Since the arena had been steadily filling up throughout the afternoon for the match-up between the Hornets (Brandon Miller, #2 overall pick) and Spurs (Wembanyama), and because the crowd was pumped from exciting finish of the previous game as well, the atmosphere at tip-off was pretty electric.

19 year-old 7' 4" rookie center Victor Wembanyama 

Unfortunately, the actual game didn't live up to the hype. It was clear that everyone wanted to witness the "generational talent" of Wembanyama and were poised to erupt every time he touched the ball, but he looked a bit lost and out of condition during the game. He did pass the ball well, but his teammates couldn't convert. And the Spurs hardly ran any pick-and-roll plays for him. On the Hornets' side, Miller was also underwhelming. All of the energy in the crowd had fizzled out by halftime. 🥱

Having had our fill of basketball for the day, we decided to bail on the Warriors-Lakers game and headed out to grab dinner.

Pretty cool to see The Sphere lit up at dusk

We ended our day at Q Bistro with Korean fried chicken wings and other fusion dishes. Yum!

Assorted wings, bulgogi fries, and corn cheese fondue