The league’s upcoming stars are in the Las Vegas desert sweating more than Myles Turner for the past six trade deadlines.

While the big man can (hopefully) avoid trade talks in his new home, we’ve got more important things to talk about here on Out Of Bounds: chess.

Today’s Lineup

♟️ Derrick Rose’s Pro-Am Chess Tournament

Today is the biggest day of the NBA x Chess world. We can explain.

This Sunday is Chesstival, a first-of-its-kind chess pro-am tournament started by Derrick Rose pairing chess masters and NBA players to compete for charity. The hoopers will also have their own blitz tournament to be crowned the “NBA Chess Champion.”

Aside from DRose, who is a co-founder alongside chess world champ Magnus Carlsen, NBA names playing today include Rajon Rondo, Tony Snell, Marcus Smart, De’Anthony Melton, and more! 🔥

Rose first got into chess during the rehab of his ACL tear and credits the patience, vision, and poise of chess, which he says translates directly to basketball. He was known to carry around a chess board, and a video went viral of him attending a Drake concert but playing chess on his phone the whole time. 😂

Then, in 2023, he created Chesstival, which is now in its second operational year in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League. The idea was to merge sports, pop culture, and chess by bringing in the world’s best hoopers and chess masters to compete and place chess in front of a wider (and younger) audience! 🧠

⭐️ Stars Support Rooks at Summer League

Summer League is a basketball sickos paradise. We have NBA lottery picks battling with second-rounders, career G League guys, and college All-Americans in the Las Vegas desert.

And when you think the NBA multimillionaires might be in Cancun or Paris, year after year we are astounded that they come in droves to watch the young guys compete. Even the face of the league, LeBron James, was there! Though, that may be because his son was on the court. 😂

New Nuggets Cam Johnson and Tim Hardaway Jr watched Denver compete alongside their teammates Christian Braun and Peyton Watson. Groups of Knicks, Spurs, and Timberwolves dotted the crowd. The Hornets also pulled up as a roster, though we challenge you to find LaMelo Ball in this photo:

Speaking of the Hornets, did you see that last week half a dozen Charlotte Hornets veteran players attended the rookie contract signing. Seriously, how cool is that? Collin Sexton was traded to the team less than a week prior and was clapping like a proud father seeing his kid graduate college. Good vibes brewing in Charlotte! 👀

It truly is the end of an era—a DYNASTY—in Golden State. The most important piece in Warriors history is leaving SF. That’s right: Kevon Looney is on the move. 💔

Okay, obviously the Loon Dog isn’t stacking awards like Steph Curry, but he WAS in the Bay Area for 10 years. The center penned a beautiful farewell in The Players Tribune, which we highly recommend:

To be clear, that long of a duration with a single team is rare in today’s NBA. Only Steph (16), Draymond (13), Giannis (12), Embiid (11), and Jokic (11) presently have more consecutive seasons with the same team. When the only guys above him on the list are Hall of Famers, that is something to be proud of for Kevon Looney.

His tenure ties that of Myles Turner, who after a Finals run with the Pacers went to their division rivals for more money after a decade in Indiana.

We can speculate all day about if the Pacers did him dirty, or if Turner jumped ship for the Bucks before hearing their final offer, but what we REALLY are wondering about is how Turner is gonna move his massive Lego collection to Milwaukee?!?

Signing Off

It’s been real. It’s been fun. It’s been real fun, but we gotta call it a day for now. See you back in your inbox tomorrow morning for our regular newsletter! ✌️

-Conor Geelan