Las Vegas becomes summer hotbed for basketball junkies

Las Vegas in July. It’s the place to be, if you’re a lizard, cactus plant or a basketball fan.

Long dependent on the tourist trade and convention business, Las Vegas officials have long struggled to attract crowds in the sweltering months, but, in recent years, they have discovered an ideal lure: basketball. While the city is world famous as the mecca of boxing, it has became a hoop hub in July, luring teams from preteens to preps to pros to Olympians.

“In the summer months, we are always working harder to bring people in,” said Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, the organization that promotes everything from rodeos to monster truck rallies.

“In the spring, this town is rocking with March Madness. In the fall, it also rocks. Now, basketball has become popular in the summer because we have the two things teams require, rooms and facilities.”

When you’ve got air-conditioned gyms, who cares if the thermometer hits triple digits outside?

This month, Las Vegas will host:

The NBA Summer League, from tonight through July 20.

Once a popular attraction in Southern California and elsewhere around the country, the league came to Las Vegas in 2004, starting with six NBA teams playing a total of 13 games.

This year, 21 of the league’s 30 teams, including the Lakers and Clippers, will play a total of 53 games over 10 days at the Thomas & Mack Center and neighboring Cox Pavilion on the Nevada Las Vegas campus.

Among those expected to participate are O.J. Mayo, the former Trojan now with the Memphis Grizzlies, and Kevin Love, former Bruin now with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The U.S. men’s Olympic team, July 21-25.

The U.S. national team, led by Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, will return to the site of last year’s FIBA Americas tournament in which it won the gold and clinched a berth in this year’s Olympics in China.

The Olympians will train for four days, beginning July 21, at a Las Vegas high school before finishing up with an exhibition against Canada on July 25 at Thomas & Mack. Then, it’s off to China for the Olympics.

Youth basketball, late July.

Everyone from kids to preps in a series of tournaments that will bring in over a thousand teams from not only this country, but Canada and New Zealand as well.

There is the Adidas Super 64 Tournament, The Main Event, the Reebok Summer Championships (all three tournaments run July 22-26); plus the National Youth Basketball Championships/LV Summer Classic (July 27-31).

“There’s not a gym in this town that won’t be used,” said Christenson.

Still not hooped out? In July, Las Vegas will also be site of the Eurobasket Summer League, Hart Sports Management International Exposure Camp, tryouts for the Las Vegas Aces of the American Basketball Assn. and the Korean Basketball League pre-draft tryouts.

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steve.springer@latimes.com