Hot Again

The days of basketball stars such as Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Dominique Wilkins and Kobe Bryant putting on shows in the Southern California Summer Pro League are gone.

The 35th edition of the SPL features up-and-coming NBA players, free agents and draft selections vying for attention and NBA-caliber competition before summer camps. But that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been impressive performances at the Pyramid in Long Beach, which will be the site for the league championship game Saturday.

One player raising eyebrows has been New Orleans’ first-round pick J.R. Smith, who is making the jump from St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J., to the NBA. Smith, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, has been a bright spot for the winless NBA Stars by averaging 22 points and nearly four rebounds per game.

New Hornet Coach Byron Scott has been smiling a lot while watching Smith, who has shown the same type of mental toughness a young Scott did during the Lakers’ Showtime run of the 1980s. After missing a potential game-tying three-point shot in a loss to Golden State, Smith bounced back the next night to score 35 points and grab five rebounds against Dallas’ A team.

“I didn’t know much about him when I joined the staff, but Byron told me that I would like him,” said New Orleans assistant Darrell Walker. “He’s a good shooter who has a chance to be a real good player in the league.

“That’s what this league is all about. Giving young players a chance to get minutes before training camp.”

Because the SPL runs two weeks, the schedule is of a hit-and-miss variety. The Mavericks have two teams in the SPL but their A team has finished play, which means their talented backcourt of second-year shooting guard Josh Howard and rookie point guard Devin Harris is no longer on display.

“We go into summer league play with certain goals,” said former USC coach Charlie Parker, the Mavericks’ A team coach. “Getting a chance to see what Josh and Devin can do [was] one of them.”

The Lakers’ No. 1 draft pick, Sasha Vujacic, has shown plenty of flash playing a style of point guard that reminds one of San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili. Vujacic has shown that he’s not afraid to shoot a three-pointer at any time or take the ball to the basket.

The Clippers’ Chris Kaman has been a force against the SPL’s collection of big men. Kaman, who sat out one game because of a minor leg injury, has averaged nearly 21 points and nine rebounds.

The Clippers have played without No. 1 draft selection Shaun Livingston, a 6-7 point guard from Peoria (Ill.) Central High making the jump to the NBA. He had minor foot surgery to remove a wart and will not participate in the SPL.

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Arguably the most popular person of the SPL is Frederick Smith Jr., founder and managing partner of HoopTV.net, a digital video basketball service.

Smith has been shooting summer league video since the days of SportsChannel and games at Redondo Beach High. Hundreds of players owe Smith for helping them provide video to professional teams all over the world. Smith’s one-man operation has grown into a multidimensional power player thanks to the recent increase of video being used at the professional, college and high school levels.

“The best thing about what Fred does is that he’s getting it out there to the GMs, getting the information to them,” said Olden Polynice, a journeyman who used Smith’s services during an NBA career that spanned 1,058 games. “A lot of these young guys, the high schoolers, they owe him a lot of credit. Because he’s got the product. He films them and then everybody comes calling.... Without him, most people would not have seen these guys.”

Smith has early summer league video of many NBA greats, including Johnson, Shawn Kemp, Bryant and Baron Davis. He also has footage of every special appearance made by athletes from other sports such as Randy Moss, Tony Gonzales and Roy Jones Jr., along with entertainers such as Snoop Dogg and Percy “Master P” Miller.

“The reality of the summer league is that it always coincides with the Lakers,” Smith said. “When the Lakers are going strong, the summer leagues do well. Back in the 1980s and Showtime, the summer league was strong.

“But after Magic left, the league dropped in popularity. Now with everyone talking about the Lakers, people are back out watching games.”

And Smith’s impact just isn’t on the players. For years, the NBA has used Smith’s videos as a training tool for young prospective officials. Since 1991, the league has operated a summer training program for officials in conjunction with the SPL, featuring game video as the most important teaching method.

“Darrell Garretson had been developing young officials through summer leagues but not using video,” Smith said. “People used to look at the summer leagues as a source of entertainment. I convinced them how important video can be used even in the summer and now everyone does it.

“People from around the world can plug into HoopTV.net and watch any player they want. Video is still video, but the access to it has become easier because of the Internet.”

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With the interest in the NBA off-season steadily growing with free-agent signings and trade talk, action off the court at the SPL has taken on a life of its own.

The Lakers’ Rudy Tomjanovich and Mitch Kupchak have been to Long Beach for at least three nights. So have the Clippers’ Mike Dunleavy and Elgin Baylor. But they haven’t been alone.

Memphis’ Hubie Brown and Jerry West, New Jersey’s Lawrence Frank, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Sacramento’s Rick Adelman and the New York Knicks’ Lenny Wilkens and Thomas are some of the high-profile NBA coaches and general managers who’ve tried to blend into the Long Beach crowd.

That creates the perfect atmosphere for someone looking for a job and a place to hear the latest rumors from around the league.

“It’s not a high-pressure environment and with the league being so small, everyone knows each other,” said former Clipper assistant Rex Kalamian, who wants to get back into coaching after spending last season as an advance scout for the Philadelphia 76ers.

“It’s also a place to make contacts. There are stories from around the league of people moving up the ranks thanks to people they’ve gotten to know from summer leagues.”

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The SPL may be lacking in proven NBA players, but that’s not the case with the Nike Pro Summer League, formerly known as the Nike Real Run, at West Los Angeles College. With Paul Pierce, Bryon Russell and Cedric Ceballos playing key roles on their teams, the Nike Pro Summer League has been a crowd pleaser.

The eight-team league, which had been held in previous seasons in the Veterans Sports Complex at Carson, plays nightly doubleheaders during the week and one night game on weekends.

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When news of the Shaquille O’Neal trade traveled around the Pyramid on July 10, no one was more surprised than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who responded: “Wow! Did they really?”

Abdul-Jabbar, a scout with the Knicks, has been on the New York bench during games, helping summer league coach Herb Williams. It was strange seeing Abdul-Jabbar on the Knick sideline when they played the Lakers, coached by Bill Bertka.

The Knicks have been impressed with the play of former Los Angeles Westchester High and UCLA player Trevor Ariza. The 6-7 forward has been an effective scorer and defender.