The Lakers 2022 Summer League roster is laden with talent and full of notable names, but on Friday night it was Scotty Pippen Jr. who stole the show in front of LeBron James.
In the team’s first game of the Las Vegas Summer League, the son of the former Bulls great put on a show, scoring a team-high 19 points in the Lakers 104–84 loss to the Suns. He also racked up four rebounds, three assists and three steals in the game.
The timing of Pippen’s strong performance couldn’t have been better, considering LeBron and a host of other current Lakers were in the building to support the young NBA hopefuls. At one point, after the former Vanderbilt star stumbled to the ground following an acrobatic finish through contact, James rushed over to help the 21-year-old to his feet.
Although Friday’s showing was enough to get recognition from The King, Pippen Jr. will need to turn in a number of impressive games if he hopes to eventually earn a spot on the Lakers regular season roster. The 6-foot-3 point guard went undrafted in this summer’s NBA draft and will have to leap frog a handful of other young players hoping to don the purple and gold this upcoming year.
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Pippen Jr., the son of six-time NBA champion and seven-time All-Star Scottie Pippen, played for three years at Vanderbilt before opting to turn pro. He was named first-team All-SEC in his sophomore and junior seasons after averaging over 20 points per game in both campaigns. As a junior, he also tallied 4.5 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per contest.
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