Not Many Fans Care About NBA Summer League, So It'll Get Away With Ridiculous Awards

The NBA Summer League ends Monday night, with the Memphis Grizzlies and the Miami Heat playing for the title. If you didn’t know that already, I don’t blame you.

Like the actual NBA, the summer league hands out awards like first and second-team selections, and league MVP.

I’m going to be honest (because that’s always the best policy), I haven’t paid attention to the summer league action for one second - and I'm sure most of you haven't either. I did see Houston Rockets guard Reed Sheppard wow some people with some fancy ball-handling, but that was only in my X feed.

So, when the league released its first and second-team awards, I just had to trust the selections. Based on what I know about the incoming rookie class, I can safely assume they got it right.

But then I saw their MVP pick - shoutout to the Brooklyn Nets’ Jalen Wilson - I had two thoughts.

The first and most predictable thing was that I could only think of the movie "Castaway." You know which scene I'm talking about.

The second was what award he wasn't given for his efforts.

It’s not because I don’t think he deserved it, he averaged just under 22 points per game in five games while shooting 55% from behind the three-point line (a sizzling rate by any stretch).

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My confusion came because Wilson wasn’t on the first-team.

Hold on, let me confirm that.

***checks notes***

Yup, my eyes did not deceive me.

Wilson, voted as the most valuable player in the entire summer league, somehow was not named a top five player and was forced to be on the second-team.

I don’t even think it’s worth doing a deep-dive into Wilson’s stats compared to all the first-teamers, because it doesn’t make sense from a logical standpoint. One of those top five guys should make way for Wilson if he’s literally the best player.

I can’t make this make sense. It’s a good thing these awards are very low on the sports totem pole, because the league would never hear the end of it if it had more of a following.