Is the NBA Summer League an underrated TV property?

On Thursday, former Duke Blue Devils superstar Cooper Flagg will make his NBA “debut” with the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas. It won’t be must-watch TV by any stretch of the imagination. But boy, does the Summer League kind of hit.

I feel like the Summer League was made for people like me. I’m a big basketball fan, but I skew much more towards the college game than the NBA during the season. In the summers, golf is my preferred sport to throw on television. Tennis if it’s a Grand Slam. And soccer, when it’s a tournament like the Gold Cup, Euros, or Copa America. I’ll get some dirty looks from my coworkers for writing this, but baseball doesn’t come on in my household until October.

For the next few weeks in July, my nighttime sports viewing habits are pretty hamstrung. The golf and tennis are both happening overseas, and by the time the sun sets here on the East Coast, it’s already long done for the day. Unfortunately, the Gold Cup is over. And there’s only one more match left in the Club World Cup. Primetime soccer viewing is over for me this summer, unless I stumble across a rare MLS game on FS1.

What’s a man to do? Spend time with friends? Go outside? Watch something that isn’t a live sport? Hell no. NBA Summer League is on, and it’s the prettiest girl left at this almost empty bar. Time to spark a conversation.

I’m not going to try to put lipstick on a pig; NBA Summer League viewership is not great. Most games average between 200,000 and 400,000 viewers. But games that feature highly anticipated debuts can pop.

Zion Williamson’s debut with the New Orleans Pelicans averaged 1.64 million viewers in 2019. Two years ago, Victor Wembanyama scared up 1.39 million viewers for his San Antonio Spurs debut. Lonzo Ball had similar drawing power in 2017, averaging nearly one million viewers across his first two Summer League appearances.

The NBA is certainly trying to manufacture some level of excitement this year. Flagg and the Mavs will play Bronny James and the Los Angeles Lakers to kick things off. As far as Summer League matchups go, that’s about as tasty as you can get.

And for a college hoops junkie, Summer League feels like an Easter egg hunt. Flip on a game and you’re bound to see “that guy from Utah State” or “the clumsy center that played a year at UNLV.” It’s fun. Most of these guys will never sniff NBA rosters, but Summer League can serve as a quick trip down memory lane.

When you’re as desperate for live sports as I am this time of year, that’s not a bad thing to flip on. Is Summer League going to be the next big viewership play for ESPN? Of course not. Will the product ever appeal to anyone outside of hardcore basketball fans or people desperate to disassociate on the couch after a long day of work? It probably won’t do that either.

But we’re not asking for Sunday Night Football. Heck, we’re not even asking for the Hall of Fame Game! It’s the middle of July, and we get to watch some hoops. That’s pretty damn good.