While 21 teams will gather in Las Vegas later this week for the NBA summer league, the 76ers are one of the seven squads that will send players to the Orlando Pro Summer League, which begins today at the RDV Sportsplex in Orlando.
The 15-game event will run through Friday. The Sixers and the New Jersey Nets have entered a combined team in the competition hosted by the Orlando Magic. The Boston Celtics, the Indiana Pacers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Utah Jazz will also participate.
Representing the Sixers are second-year forward Marreese Speights, and a pair of rookie guards in Jrue Holiday of UCLA and Dionte Christmas of Temple.
The 6-foot-10 Speights, who showed promise as a rookie, was selected by the Sixers with the 16th overall pick in last year's draft. The 6-4 Holiday, whom the team took 17th last month, is going to be groomed as the Sixers' playmaker of the future. And Christmas, 6-5, has a shooter's chance of making it into the team's fall training camp.
The Sixers' trio will be joined by guard Blake Ahearn (6-2), and forwards Gary Forbes (6-6), former Penn Charter star Rob Kurz (6-9), and Marcus Slaughter (6-9) of the Nets.
Oklahoma City used the No. 3 overall pick on James Harden, a 6-4 shooting guard. And 6-2 Eric Maynor of Virginia Commonwealth was taken No. 20 by Utah.
Contact staff writer Kevin Tatum at 215-854-2583 or ktatum@phillynews.com.
