🏀 And The ESPY Goes To...

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Mornin’ Enjoyers! The Summer League is like a microcosm of the NBA, so it only makes sense that everything we love about basketball is also here in Vegas: buzzer-beaters, polarizing young talent, and the Lakers having found another lights-out shooter in the second round.

For real though, we’ve got some smile-worthy stuff for you today. Read on if you wanna learn about some young SL stars, WNBA All-Star Weekend, and how Lauren and Jrue Holiday are the best humans on the planet… besides all of the Enjoyers, of course.

Today’s Lineup

Young Hoopers ⛹️‍♂️: The best and brightest of this week’s Summer League action…

Award SZN 🏆: Recapping Wednesday night’s ESPY awards.

Around the W ⭐️: Crina takes you through this weekend’s WNBA All-Star festivities!

But first, some trivia:

Summer League Studs

We’re already a couple weeks into Summer League, so here are some young guns who blew us away this week.

Let’s start with Ausar Thompson, who’s been an absolute two-way star for the Pistons. His athleticism will translate to the big leagues for sure, but more impressive is his ability to stay relentless on defense and disrupt an offense’s flow. Take a look:

We talked about Jordan Walsh in Monday’s newsletter, but with a 25-point performance on Wednesday, we have to shout him out again. The 38th overall pick seems like the type of player who NBA casuals might not ever know that well, but we just know that Celtics fans are falling in love with his game.

And finally, as if the Lakers don’t already have enough tools, Max Christie has been looking straight-up dangerous. We’re floored by his jumpshot’s progression after just a year in the Association—the former second round pick could be a crucial option if LA’s shooting goes cold during the regular season.

And The ESPY Goes To…

Unless it’s Kobe getting an OSCAR, the ESPYs are our award show of choice here at Enjoy Basketball. And on Wednesday night, some of the best basketball players in the world took home ESPYs of their own!

Best NBA Player: Nikola Jokic

Back-to-back MVP, reigning Finals MVP… you know how good The Joker is. We don’t have to tell you that, of course, Jokic wasn’t there. The horses take priority, duh!

Best Comeback Athlete: Jamal Murray

After tearing his ACL and not playing NBA basketball for over 500 days, Murray and Co. came back to win the NBA championship this year! It’s enough to make a grown newsletter editor cry… 😢

Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award: Jrue and Lauren Holiday

Jrue and Lauren Holiday are officially couple goals! The JLH Social Impact Fund was founded by Jrue and his wife Lauren (who played on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team) and they’ve donated over $3 million to combat healthcare disparities and social injustice! Along with this honor, Jrue has won the NBA’s Teammate of the Year award in three of the last four seasons! He and Lauren are just the best human beings. ❤️

Best WNBA Player: A'ja Wilson

Last season, A’ja won her second MVP, first DPOY and first ring! She also just signed a contract extension, so she’ll be staying in Vegas with the Aces for the foreseeable future.

Best Record-Breaking Performance: LeBron James 

Anyone who knows anything about basketball remembers that back in February, King James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA career scoring record. Also nominated for this award was Novak Djokovic, who won his 23rd Grand Slam title and consequently broke his tie with rival Rafael Nadal for the most ever.

Best College Athlete, Women's Sports: Caitlin Clark

What a run by Caitlin! She had the country in a March Madness chokehold like Jimmer Fredette and led the Iowa Hawkeyes all the way to the championship game with historic performances throughout their run.

Around the W with Crina: WNBA All-Star Weekend

Happy WNBA All-Star Weekend, Enjoyers! Here’s what you can expect this weekend in Las Vegas!

Friday, July 14: Three-Point Contest and Skills Challenge (4:00pm ET on ESPN)

Three-Point Contest participants:

• DiJonai Carrington, Connecticut Sun

• Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty

• Kelsey Mitchell, Indiana Fever

• Arike Ogunbowale, Dallas Wings

• Sami Whitcomb, Seattle Storm

• Jackie Young, Las Vegas Aces

Jackie Young leads the pack out of these six, shooting 48.5% from beyond the arc this season, but Sabrina Ionescu isn’t too far behind at 44.6%. Sami Whitcomb might be the most underrated name on the list, so look out for her to do some damage tonight.

Skills Challenge participants:

• Allisha Gray and Cheyenne Parker, Atlanta Dream

• Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally, Dallas Wings

• Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces

• Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot, New York Liberty

This year, the Skills Challenge’s new format will pair up teammates and have them compete together against three other pairs, all while showcasing their shooting, passing, and dribbling.

Saturday, July 15th: WNBA All-Star Game (8:30 pm ET on ESPN)

Time for the main event! All-Star captains A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart drafted their teams last week, and here’s how it went down:

Team Wilson

• Starters: A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Aliyah Boston, Arike Ogunbowale

• Reserves: Kelsey Plum, Allisha Gray, Alyssa Thomas, Cheyenne Parker, DeWanna Bonner, Elena Delle Donne (injured, to be replaced by Rhyne Howard)

Team Stewart

• Starters: Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd, Satou Sabally, Nneka Okwumike

• Reserves: Courtney Vandersloot, Sabrina Ionescu, Ezi Magbegor, Napheesa Collier, Kelsey Mitchell, Kahleah Copper

Who do you think will take the trophy home? Respond to this email and let us know!

Alerts Daily

Are you a sneaker head? Whether you like Jordans, Pennys, or New Balances, Alerts Daily has you covered!

Their free 6X weekly newsletter gives you everything you need to know to get your hands on all of the latest and upcoming sneaker drops. Click here to join The Alerts Daily Newsletter.

Challenge: Reply to this email with your best closet on a $15 budget and we’ll share our favorites in an upcoming newsletter!

Re-Writing the Rules

Joel Embiid and Marcus Smart are down bad, folks, because the NBA just passed their first flopping technical foul! Let’s say that hypothetically, James Harden exaggerates his body movement after some contact with a defender, which he would obviously never do. The opposing team will now receive possession and one free throw!

The NBA also finally made a change we’ve been wanting to see since they implemented the coach’s challenge in 2020. Now, if a team’s first challenge is successful, they get one more—just like in football. This will reward teams who use their challenge well, so we’re all for it!

Frozen Moments

• Jaylen Martin sunk an overtime game-winner for the Knicks! 🧊 

• Ochai Agbaji did unspeakable things to a soft layup attempt… 😮 

• Bron, CP3, and DWade honored Carmelo Anthony at the ESPYs 🥲

What We’re Enjoying

In a binge mood? Maybe missing Thursday Night Football? We've got an exciting recommendation for you: the new 8-part Omaha Productions/Peyton Manning/Netflix series "Quarterback”.

Trust us, you won't want to miss all of this behind-the-scenes footage about life as an NFL signal-caller. So grab some popcorn, settle in, and get ready to be hooked!

Signing Off

Going… going… gone!! We’re talking about us, unfortunately. Life is so hectic, so take a few moments this weekend for some personal relaxation. You got this! We’ll talk to ya Monday.

-Conor Geelan

Trivia Answer: Donovan Mitchell averaged 28.0 points per game in the 2017 Summer League, the most since Marcus Banks in 2003!

Before you go…