Hot hoops for summer

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

As Jerry Colangelo searched for a site that would meet all of the U.S. national basketball team's training requirements, he kept coming back to the same answer: Las Vegas.

"It seemed like that was the spot," said the Phoenix-based former owner of the NBA Suns, who now heads Team USA as its managing director. "It'll be a Mecca for basketball this summer, for sure."

Three premier prep tournaments, an NBA off-season league that has swelled to include a dozen squads and Team USA's two sessions in Las Vegas make it the sweltering center of the sport nationally in coming weeks.

Moreover, for a week in August, Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell will conduct his 30th Big Man Camp at the Cox Pavilion, adjacent to the Thomas & Mack Center. The Newell alumni list is as impressive as the coming thermometer readings.

Hot hoops in the summertime, indeed.

Drink plenty of water, advised UNLV coach Lon Kruger.

Former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian said: "Everyone wants to go to Las Vegas, that's what it is. That's the big thing. It's the place to be."

Yes, Tark the Shark is involved in the glut of hoops events, too. The Tarkanian Academy will be the venue for two tournaments (Friday-Sunday and July 22) on the city's crowded schedule.

Colangelo has long been a proponent of Las Vegas landing a major sports team, and he believes the first team to call the city home will reap extraordinary benefits.

He said the NBA would fit best in Las Vegas.

"I truly believe that," he said. "I don't believe it's hockey. It has a cult following, a different appeal that's difficult in the West. There's always been great interest in basketball there. UNLV had great teams for so many years. The market isn't there for the NFL or baseball.

"I think NBA basketball would be a big hit."

Because Team USA will train and take part in tournaments in China and South Korea in August, then head to Japan for the FIBA World Championship, Colangelo wanted to base tryouts and an exhibition game in a city in the West.

Combine the facilities, lodging, entertainment and dining options in Las Vegas and relationships he has maintained with officials at Las Vegas Events and the Thomas & Mack Center, and it didn't take him long to make a decision.

Colangelo signed a deal to make Las Vegas the home of the senior national team for three years.

"It made all the sense in the world," he said.

The team, Colangelo said, was picked for balance. Stars such as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James have been complemented with role players such as Joe Johnson, Michael Redd and Shane Battier.

Colangelo, 66, was hired to overhaul a national team that has fallen on hard times, only winning bronze in Athens at the Summer Olympics two years ago and failing to medal at the FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis in 2002.

Worse, there's a widely held perception that the Americans' arrogant swagger has contributed to its fall from dominance. USA Basketball scrapped a committee system to give Colangelo, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, complete control.

"To really change how USA Basketball operates," he said. "It's a brand new way. We very much want to change the course, and I think we're well on our way, based on what we've accomplished so far.

"This is as much about having a mind-set and everyone buying into a commitment. There's been a lot of leg work over the last year to create that. The response I've had, in terms of inviting these players, is indicative that we've come a long way."

The physical work will be taxing, he said. So will honing a mental edge.

"Because we're on a mission," Colangelo said. "We're trying to change a perception of who we are. The fact that we're representing our country is paramount. Las Vegas will be a great site to do all the things we wish to do, as they relate to our checklist."

A celebrity golf tournament - for advertisers, sponsors and NBA properties personnel - will be held during the team's second session in Las Vegas, and Colangelo is working on a list of speakers, likely NBA stars who distinguished themselves in the Olympics, to address the players.

"It's going to be a very full schedule and agenda," he said. "We want to get Team USA prepared in more ways than one."