It has become a more irrelevant tradition than any other.
NBA players dominate the national ProAm league every summer. Kyle Kuzma was the latest player to roast an average Joe, dropping a staggering 67 points, 14 rebounds and 9 assists. That kind of production is quite a feat, but Kuzma plays this game for a living in the best league on the planet.
What I get about this is how hyped everyone is over these ProAm performances, mostly to non-NBA players. Pope was on the court, but less than half the players on the floor. This output put him 26 points ahead of Kuzma’s NBA. career high41 points against the Pistons in 2019.
I’d like to see Kuzma average 20ppg for the team paying him to play. You know, where that actually counts in court. This was a charity game, so it meant something, but the hype surrounding this game and others like it has gone too far.
Peyton Pritchard put up 92 points The internet almost exploded at the ProAm game in Portland last August. Pritchard’s big the week before his game, Isaiah his Thomas scored 81 in his game against Seattle’s Pro-Am. These performances are all over the place, and with Thomas, I understand that.
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Thomas was still looking to show people he could play and is still having trouble sticking with an NBA franchise for the long term. He’s an older player who suffered a bad injury and has spent the past few years barely hanging on in the NBA. But Kuzma has a solid spot with the Wizards, and even Pritchard is a regular rotation guy for the Celtics.
Caldwell-Pope and Barnes also scored 38 and 35 points in the same game on the opposing side. Apparently, they only went half speed compared to Kuzma. Former teammate LeBron James hopped on Instagram Praise Kuzma as if he didn’t trade Russell Westbrook.
Bronn may regret a trade last summer after seeing Kuzma’s offensive outburst after James’ season with Westbrook. But seriously, if James realizes how bad that trade is in this pro-am performance, he’s not an undisputed basketball genius.
The Westbrook trade was terrifying then, now, and forever. If there was a way to undo it, I’m sure James would jump at it. I know Kuzma hasn’t dropped that many points in the Association Games, but at least he can play within the system. .
But congratulations (I imagine) on Kuzma’s new all-around hoops career high. It must have been fun to score all those points, but let’s not get all the celebration and accolades among NBA players. You guys are doing this for a living and shouldn’t be easily impressed.
