It's kind of hypocritical for me to tell you why you should go to the Greentree Summer League games when I've never been there myself. Living in Pittsburgh, I've really got no excuse other than simply being tired after a work day. Still, I plan on getting up there at some point and now you have an added incentive - DeJuan Blair is showing up.
Blair played last Wednesday tallying nine points and twelve rebounds in a losing effort. I know, I get it - an NBA player going against college kids? Well, Blair had a good excuse for his modest game:
Blair landed in Pittsburgh Wednesday night, then went straight to the Greentree SportsPlex to take part in Wednesday night’s finale. As soon as that game ended around 10:30 pm, he said he was off to play in another pickup game.
"It’s fun, it was a good run," Blair said of coming back. I actually just got here, just about an hour (before his game started). It’s cool. There’s a lot of fans up in here. I didn’t get to play the game I wanted, but it was the first time I played in two or three months."
Yeah, I'd say showing up an hour before tip-off to play your first game in a few months is a reasonable excuse. Plus, it's not like DeJuan is out to actually impress someone - these games are merely for fun. Well, mostly.
At any rate, you'll want to check out future games because it sounds like Blair will be back:
"I might be here a couple of times," Blair said after his game on Wednesday night. "I’ll just keep playing here. There’s no lockout here."
...
"A lot of good energy," Blair said of his impression of the freshmen. "They’re still learning, though. They’re learning a lot. I’m going to try to play a little bit more with them and try to get them a little bit better.
If that's not reason enough to show up, I don't know what is.