The best Summer League performances of all time, ranked
NBA Summer League is awesome. A trip out to Las Vegas to see the league’s next wave of stars.
There’s three different kinds of players at Summer League: rookies making their professional debut, second-year guys who are way too good to be out there, and players on the fringes seeking the security of an NBA contract. The combination of these three groups makes for a spontaneous brand of basketball. The games resemble LifeTime Fitness runs much more than the NBA Finals.
Today’s NBA stars have dominated Las Vegas in a way few other have, which gives us a glimpse of what the future may hold for guys like Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green. Both rookies made their organizations proud with their standout performances, earning their fair share of oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
This begs the question: Who had the best Summer League performance of all time? Surely some of today’s best players would make the list, right? We dug into the archives and did our research. We think we’ve solved it.
6. Josh Hart, LA Lakers
In a 2018 game against the Cavaliers, Josh Hart had 37 points and 9 rebounds, with tons of tough finishes around the rim. Hart always seems to find himself in the right place at the right time. He’s made a career out of it. This is a classic case of being too good for Summer League — he was uber confident throughout this game.
5. Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz
Spida torched Memphis during the 2017 Summer League for 37 points and 8 steals. 8 steals! He immediately put the league on notice that his scoring was legit. Donovan Mitchell fell all the way to the 13th pick that year. He’s another guy who looked way too good to be in Las Vegas. Between reading every pass, finishing through contact, and scoring at every level, he looked so comfortable in one of his first professional games.
4. Anthony Randolph, Golden State Warriors
Watching this game, fans must have thought they had the next superstar in Anthony Randolph. Shit, I would have too. He went off for 42 against the Bulls in 2009, with nearly all of his points in the paint. He absolutely posterized a defender at the end of the first quarter. Randolph was wiry strong and played hard on both ends. This is the second-highest scoring individual performance in Summer League history.
3. Furkan Korkmaz, Philadelphia 76ers
I know what you’re thinking: Furkan Korkmaz, really? Yes, really. It’s hard to imagine it, but wait until you see it — 40 points and 6 rebounds in a 2018 game against the Celtics. It looked like every shot he took was going to go in. Korkmaz started the game with two difficult pull up threes. He ended the game with two insanely difficult step back triples and an over-the-backboard floater. This is what Las Vegas is all about!
2. Anthony Morrow, Golden State Warriors
In 2009, the Warriors had a team in Vegas with Stephen Curry and Anthony Randolph on it. But Anthony Morrow posted one of the most dominant shooting performances in Summer League history. He lit up the Bulls for 47 points (the individual scoring record) on 18-26 shooting. Watching it back, you can tell right away that this man was on one. We’re surprised when Steph misses, but in this game, it seemed like Morrow missing a jumper was fantasy land.
1. Lonzo Ball, LA Lakers
If you had to craft the perfect Summer League player, it would be Lonzo Ball. An unselfish, daring guard that plays with pace, shoots the ball well and makes the right play every time. In a 2017 game against the Sixers, Lonzo put up a near-triple-double of 36 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds. In the first quarter, it was his Aaron Rodgers-style full-court dimes that grabbed our attention. He’d spend the rest of the game blowing past defenders, throwing lobs, and shooting with his funky form.
Watching the game now made me nostalgic for a time that we didn’t know what the Ball brothers would become. It’s a shame we never got to see LaMelo in Las Vegas — his play would have blown the roof off.
