While Cooper Flagg and Bronny James faced off in a packed arena on the campus of UNLV, the Nuggets and Bucks played a Summer League thriller in the sleepy gymnasium adjacent to the main event.

The NBA 2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas officially kicked off Thursday, July 10th. It will feature all 30 NBA teams and run through July 20.

The best of them was French point guard Nolan Traore, who looked like a guy who has played against men before (he played professionally in France last year) and was comfortable, finishing with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and getting to the line six times. It was a promising start.

Cooper Flagg scored 10 points and led the Dallas Mavericks to a victory in his first NBA Summer League action.

Magic second-year pro Tristan da Silva posted 19 points, but Orlando fell to the Kings on Thursday night to open Las Vegas Summer League.

There hasn't been an American player with so much hype in more than a decade, at least since Flagg's new teammate Anthony Davis.

Nate Williams and Reed Sheppard are the only players on the Rockets' roster playing in summer league. Williams isn't sweating his non-guaranteed contract.

The Warriors held their first practice Thursday in Las Vegas ahead of their Summer League opener against Portland.

Traditionally, the marquee game on the opening night of summer league features the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks from the draft playing against each other, but not this year. The NBA scheduled a matchup with Flagg squaring off against the son of the league's all-time leading scorer, LeBron James.