“Literally I was handing out flyers on spring break and shaking people’s hands. It wasn’t the city that people didn’t want to go to. Everybody’s always intrigued by Las Vegas. Direct flights from anywhere, that was big. And over time, it now has become this 31st city for the NBA.”
Albert Hall on bringing the NBA Summer League to Vegas
Get The Edge
In this week’s episode of The Edge, we caught up with Albert Hall, co-founder of the NBA Summer League and president of HallPass Media.
In this wide-ranging hoops talk, we went over the history of the Summer League since its start in 2004, and how technology has allowed it to consistently grow over the years.
We also discussed:
- What led him to bring basketball to Vegas
- Other grassroots events run by him over the years, such as Adidas Nations and NBA Global Camp
- What it takes to have LeBron James come to one of your games
- The memorable game (Mavs vs. Wizards) back in 2010 when Jeremy Lin stole the show against John Wall
Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Full show transcript available here.
Where to Listen
On this Episode
On bringing basketball back and the TBT tournament:
“It’s been a major undertaking from the testing to the players, to the compliance and logistically… it’s been a challenge and the team here has done an unbelievable job.”
Applying good use of technology to grow the Summer League:
“Technology is a big part of our growth. We’ve done a great job with the research, the analytics, putting those into motion to help sell tickets to market, to drive interest leaguewide, to create social channels and social followings.”
Getting LeBron James to show up at a Summer League game:
“People don’t understand the work that goes into getting LeBron James there to watch that game. And he doesn’t just show up. I mean, other guys show up, but Bron, you have to work that out.”
