Well, I decided I have way more to write about, so maybe when Jon L and Aisman need help, I'll throw a random Summer League story up.  The following chronicles my first four days in Vegas.  Tell me how much it sucks.  I think I forgot how to write.

Basically, I felt like giving the guys a break and since I was in Vegas for 12 days watching basketball working for the Summer League and all I came back with is my report from yesterday, I decided to give you all a look at what happens behind the scenes at Summer League.  It sounds lame, but once I start writing, maybe there'll be some interesting tidbits.  I know, I realize you're on the edge of your seat, so let's begin.

First, my plane ride.  Excitingly, there are one-way trips from Bismarck, North Dakota to Las Vegas, Nevada, and they're cheap.  So that's how I got to Vegas.  Allegiant Air, baby!

From the airport, I was picked up by the one and only Mr. Deane Martin (former Dakota and Bakersfield assistant, and likely D-League head coach this season), as my Summer League issued hotel room wasn't ready until the next day.  When we arrived at Deane's, I was told that the couch was my bed and we were going to work out.  In Bismarck, I run around the golf course every night.  In Vegas, I'd die if I ran outside.  So I ran inside, and showed my superb cardio off to the ladies.  Deane is in better shape than me, and also only eats organic food.  Neat.

That night, we were going to go to the Blue Martini, but didn't meet the dress code.  We ended up at the Cadillac Ranch where they had mechanical bull rides and $2.50 beers.  We liked.

The next day, Deane dropped me off at the Thomas & Mack for the NBA Summer League Intern Walkthrough.  Nothing exciting happened, except I found out I was actually going to have to do work - Game Op's Manager in the Thomas & Mack.  Bonus - it looks good.  Downfall - I have to wear a headset for six hours a day and be held accountable.

The job of a Game Op's Manager is this: Make sure everything happens while the ball isn't in play.  I wore a headset and told: the music guy when to play music, the jumbotron guys when to run a commercial, the PA guy when to do a PA read, the scoreboard operator when to buzz the teams during a timeout, my Spirit Squad when to do a T-Shirt Toss, my intern when to take pictures and when to get me dinner.  I also walked the National Anthem singer's out and turned on the mic for them, briefed the halftime performances, told the camera guys when somebody important was in the crowd so they could get him on the big screen and of course played the Ultimate Warrior theme whenever I had to fill in for the music guy so he could go get something to eat.  Essentially, I made sure the game ran smoothly and as quick as possible - to the point of telling the officials to get teams in and out of the huddle quicker.

Before the Thomas & Mack opens, I helped out in the Cox gym: get starting line-up's baby.  I really wish I could find a job that only required me to get starting line-up's, because that'd be a fun job.  Or it should be, but day one, my heart was broken.  I ran down to the dungeon, got the officials names (told D-League official Nick Buchert who I was, but didn't seem impressed), met Brent Petway and got the Lakers starting line-up's.  However, I noticed a problem.  Luke Schenscher wasn't starting!  Did Chucky Brown make a mistake?  Did I mishear "Ben McCauley" for "Luke Schenscher?"

I go back to ask Chucky (He's a D-League assistant, so I assume we're friends) where the hell Luke Schenscher is and why isn't he starting!?  Chucky replies "Yeah, he was on our roster, but he didn't make it out here.  He was in L.A., but didn't make the cut for the final roster."

At first, I thought he reads my blog, knew Schensch was my boy and decided to trick me.  I watched the starting line-up's, hoping to see Schenscher rise up from the elevator and have this scene play out (music and all), culminating in Luke being able to show the world how he can dominate the NBA.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and I lost all hope.  Forever.

When the Thomas & Mack finally opened, myself and crew (my intern Justin, David on the tunes and my security guard Tracy just in case things got out of hand) got down to business.  Unfortunately, our business sucked a bit at first.  

Apparently David forgot to test out the National Anthem on his computer and an epic debacle ensued.  How epic?  Well, enough for us to make it into the Washington Post (Thanks, Dan Steinberg!).  

We recovered nicely though, and no one wrote about us in a major newspaper again, to my knowledge.