Another summer league? Better than nothing

I have a confession that makes me feel a bit ashamed, as it very well could place me in the cranky minority among NBA writers and reporters: I’m not much interested in pro-am leagues or streetball games.

Don’t misunderstand: They’re fun to watch, the highlights are great and they are a nice thing to have around during a soul-sucking lockout in which the two sides can’t even manage to set a meeting. But we just spent weeks hyping the showdown between the Los Angeles-based Drew League and the Washington, D.C.-based Goodman League, and when the game finally happened, we found out that the Drew League team did not know players could pile up infinite fouls without facing disqualification.

To repeat:

1) Players could not foul out of a game that I was supposed to take at least somewhat seriously.

2) One of the teams competing in this game did not realize this until late in the game.

There were moments of legitimate intensity during the Drew-Goodman game, and I’ll certainly watch a rematch if the two leagues can pull it off in Los Angeles. But there were also moments like this, as described by Beckley Mason of ESPN.com:

[DeMarcus] Cousins dominated the boards and released the quick outlets so crucial to scoring in a game in which neither team ran a single set or seemed particularly interested in letting the shot clock tick under 15 seconds.

Mason easily could have been describing the annual All-Star weekend rookie-sophomore game, which, I’m sorry, is borderline unwatchable. To be truly compelling, basketball games require real stakes, organization and strategy, and these games just don’t have those things — especially for NBA players who have “real” jobs and “real” teams that play for “real” stakes.

Still, these unofficial games can be compelling, and you watch them like you watch an All-Star Game — with the hope that the game takes some kind of organic turn toward seriousness, either because it’s close toward the end, or because some good-natured taunting crosses a line and a few players get ticked. The most talented players bring the biggest egos, and that’s why something really cool might come out of the latest lockout summer league, first reported by HOOPSWORLD on Monday night: a two-week exhibition involving teams composed of about 70 players affiliated with Impact Basketball, one of the big-time offseason training destinations for NBA players.

Only NBA guys will play, and Impact, which is organizing the league, hopes to run two games per day over two weeks in Las Vegas starting in mid-September, according to HOOPSWORLD. Impact is still working out the logistics and the rosters. An official from Impact was not immediately available to speak with SI.com on Tuesday morning. John Wall, Paul Pierce, Rudy Gay, Monta Ellis, Kevin Garnett, Tyreke Evans, Rajon Rondo and Josh Smith are among the potential participants HOOPSWORLD cites because of their ties to Impact.

This kind of thing won’t replace actual NBA basketball, and I’m still much more interested in the EuroBasket Olympic qualifying tournament that starts at the end of this month. But as HOOPSWORLD reports, the Impact league will have a 24-second clock, a foul limit and other NBA rules, and, like the Goodman-Drew game, it will give us some teammate combinations we won’t see elsewhere. It’s better than nothing, which is what the NBA has given us since Game 6 in Miami.