Miller Kopp was not going to be denied.
The waiting began in Las Vegas on Saturday at his final NBA Summer League game with the Oklahoma City Thunder. There, he was waiting to hear his name called for one more opportunity to prove his ability to compete at the highest level.
That call never came in a game that tipped at 8 p.m. Las Vegas time, 11 p.m. ET.
Kopp did play in three games this summer for the Thunder, and averaged 5.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 20 minutes per contest.
And then the real adventure began.
He went straight from the Thomas & Mack Center to the Las Vegas Airport, for a red eye journey to Indianapolis to play for Assembly Ball in The Basketball Tournament on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. ET.
That would have been a challenging turnaround in and of itself, but Kopp would have seemingly had enough time to get some sleep during the day on Sunday and get himself ready to play again.
But things did not go as planned. Flight cancellations were a story all weekend, and Kopp got hung up in the middle of it at the worst possible time.
If you’re wondering why Kopp didn’t play more in Assembly Ball’s round-of-32 win over Purdue alumni team Men of Mackey, listen to his planes, trains and automobiles adventure.
“We had a game at 8 p.m., I had a flight at 1 a.m., it got delayed to 9 a.m., and then it got canceled,” Kopp said on Sunday evening. “And then I got a new flight at 6 a.m., got into Chicago at 11, drove three hours to Indy to the game, took like an hour nap. And we played and we got the win.”
See ya soon. Cancelled flights won’t stop me. Lfg https://t.co/cx0FtB5ZxJ pic.twitter.com/HZSZYNxRWl
— Miller Kopp (@millerkopp) July 21, 2024
Kopp did come off the bench, and he scored seven points in eight minutes. Straight from the NBA Summer League, he’s probably one of the best conditioned athletes in the TBT. There’s no doubt he can help Assembly Ball and their quest for the $1 million winner-takes-all prize in the event.
But his head coach didn’t expect any contributions on Sunday night.
“Miller got off the flight like 10 minutes ago,” Assembly Ball coach Adam Ross joked after the Sunday contest. “He was supposed to take a red eye that was supposed to land at 10 in the morning, he was delayed twice. I really honestly didn’t plan on suiting him up tonight. I thought we’d have to wait until game three assuming we got there.
“He showed up here, during the Butler game, and I’m scouting that game and he came up behind me and said ‘I’m ready to go.’ So we caught him up real quick on some of the actions we’ve been working on, we sat down with him on the white board. Miller’s a very, very smart kid, he absorbed it immediately, and I felt comfortable putting him in the game. He played very well considering the circumstances.”
Kopp should have plenty of time to rest before his next game.
Assembly Ball returns to the floor on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. ET when they face Eberlein Drive at Hinkle Fieldhouse with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line (FS1).
.@millerkopp officially puts @TBTAssemblyBall in the Round of 16! pic.twitter.com/WaJ5mTsMzu
— TBT (@thetournament) July 22, 2024
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