As NBA players realize that sitting around bored is no way to spend the summer, some really fun exhibition games loosely pitting city against city have emerged. Wish there were more of these games? Same here.
If Hakim Warrick gets his way, another good one should come soon.
Marc Stein of ESPN reports:
After watching Carmelo Anthony host some of the game’s biggest names for a glitzy summer-league game in his hometown, Phoenix Suns forward and Philadelphia native Hakim Warrick is trying to arrange a Philly-versus-Baltimore showdown against Anthony’s crew.
Warrick told ESPN.com that he and Anthony, former college teammates at Syracuse, spoke Wednesday and have tentatively arranged to stage an exhibition game in Philadelphia before the end of September.
“I was trying to do a Philly and Baltimore game awhile ago,” Warrick said. “Then when I saw Drew League vs. Goodman League and Team Melo vs. Goodman [on Tuesday night], I was like, ‘Man, let me go ahead and set this up.’
“I told [Anthony] that we want to play them next and they have to come up to Philly. And he said he’s with it.”
Warrick says he’ll try to recruit Philadelphia-reared stalwarts such as Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans, Orlando’s Jameer Nelson and Detroit’s Richard Hamilton to play on the Philly squad. Other players Warrick expects to play include Houston’s Kyle Lowry, Sacramento’s John Salmons, Minnesota’s Wayne Ellington, Charlotte’s Gerald Henderson, veteran NBA guard Ronald Murray (who finished last season in Turkey) and recent draftees Markieff and Marcus Morris, who were selected in the first round in June by Phoenix and Houston, respectively.
In the ideal world, we’d have a game like this every week, all summer long.
Of course, in an even more ideal world, there’d be no lockout, and we’d be previewing the upcoming season.
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