NBA Summer Vacation Watch: Couples Retreats And Seasonal Self-Betterment

What’s up, my estival experts, my Aestas admirers, my sommar seekers? If you, like me, are wondering why it feels like summer – already the briefest of seasons – has blown by, I’m sorry to say I don’t have a good explanation. Only that you are not alone in those feelings, and that they probably speak to enjoying the season as best you can. I know it feels like you have to take some far-flung escape to pristine and turquoise waters on a borrowed yacht with 20 of your closest friends just to throw a birthday cake overboard, but you don’t, and even James Harden hasn’t done that again this summer.

So just enjoy the weeks of fun, sun, and balmy weather we’ve got left, break out the summer fit you’ve been waiting for a reason to wear (this is the reason), and enjoy this latest dispatch of your big ballin’ favs experiencing the ephemeral joys of ripping around on a jet ski.

Klay Thompson

The Warriors’ preeminent water baby (Thompson’s an Aquarius – so it also cosmically tracks) went to Greece and ticked off most of the major Hellenic holiday boxes. Bopping around on a boat in a matching leisure set, jumping off some cliffs (the form here, too bad Phidias isn’t still around to make a sculpture about it), eating whole grilled fish, tagging the MLB (again, Phidias is spinning in his grave with this form) and playing pickup in a nondescript gym.

Rating: Not sure what the surgeon general recommends in terms of servings of Vitamin Sea per day, but Klay would tell you whatever it is, you could use more.

Devin Booker

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvfbo6uIQeB/?img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvgCZk-AdPB/?hl=en

Color me having had my know-it-all vacation prediction ass handed to me, because Devin Booker went ahead and left the rugged backcountry of America to vacation abroad! Did he go to the rugged backcountry of another country? He did. But biking around the Swiss Alps looked as beautiful as it was a comfortable departure for him.

And just in case you thought he was finished, Booker went on to chill at a quaint holiday home in France, before continuing on to London, England, and, I believe, a first time visit to the Tate.

Rating: A dream trip, innit?

Jimmy Butler

Bad news for everyone who does this as a hobby or a beloved pastime, but Jimmy Butler baked some cookies on his offseason recently and now baking is illegal.

Rating: Even the kind you do using boiling water or whatever. Even no-bake bakes. All of it. It had a good run.

Steph Curry

Steph and Ayesha Curry went on vacation to Greece for their anniversary, where Ayesha got fits off and Steph, endearing, had the tag of his swim trunks flipped up more often than not. Anyway, aside from all the chartered boats it looks like a relatable and nice vacation!!

Rating: Sorry, I start to get emotional when it gets to be this point in August.

Jaylen Brown

Brown went to Japan for the first time and enjoyed the hell out of it. He shopped for some pottery, ate really nice looking food, wrote some heartwarming as hell captions about a rice cracker, and went on a shopping spree that yielded a receipt likely as tall as you.

Rating: I have already begun to picture the tunnel looks those two dozen or so shopping bags will yield this season, this counts as meditation.

Buddy Hield

Lots to take in here and in two parts, so let’s get started. First, we have a wonderful photo dump of Buddy Hield home for the summer, the only person who that otherwise banal act counts as a vacation for. Hield pops the cap off a beer with his teeth (who amongst us but also PLEASE stop), holds a little swimming piglet, lines up some mangos, eats some fritters and fish and does what looks like a camp for some kids.

Next, Buddy went to Dubai to rip around on some camels and ATVs in the desert, and pose like Cristo Redeemer on a NOT RUNNING yellow buggy.

Rating: Whether you are barefoot in the Al Faya Desert or just in your own backyard opening bottles with your teeth (I said stop!), take this wise caption from Buddy Hield to heart.

Pascal Siakam

Pascal Siakam, still on vacation. This time, the Raptors star whose name is still hanging around the late summer trade rumor mill made it over to Germany. Pascal took a plane/chopper ride over, maybe, the Black Forest, then returned city-side for some kebabs. Did Dennis Schroder have anything to do with this destination? I mean, probably! At the very least he gave Pascal some reccos.

Rating: Once again, if you are able, when your workplace dangles your name in trade talks and you’re already off and able to – stay on vacation.

Ben Simmons

At the risk of turning this column into a dating app profile, I’m just going to share one photo of Ben Simmons fishing and call it a day. But when I say Ben Simmons has been fishing, believe me, he’s really been fishing.

Rating: I hope his confusion at the shirt is more like regret at not buying it, then not getting it.

Jusuf Nurkic

Nurk alert! Nurkic got married in Dubrovnik at one of the Game of Thrones castles which is, yes, ignorant of me, but helped you place it right away.

He also got together with Pau Gasol at some point before Gasol’s induction into the Hall of Fame, though I wish Pau had worn a bucket hat to that, too.

Rating: Shaping up to be a Bosnian Beast of a summer so far!

Norman Powell

Sometimes there’s a fair amount of research/legwork/informed guesswork on my part that goes into locating the destinations of NBA summer vacations, and sometime Norman Powell just goes ahead and tells you.

Rating: Thank you, Norm, I hope it was a great family trip!

Blake Griffin

To the above point, even with some digging, the nighttime scene, photo angle, and architectural style of that dome makes me think this could be anywhere along the Mediterranean, from Italy to Turkey. But if anyone deserves a little intrigue, it’s Blake Griffin.

Rating: Still, would a daytime shot with a geotag kill you?

Bismack Biyombo

Biz has had a busy summer. He took part in the NBPA’s The Sanctuary program in Andalusia, Spain, then made his way to the DRC to run basketball camps and take a couple day trips – like this one out to the Kahuzi-Biega wildlife park, a UNESCO heritage site, to meet the rangers.

Rating: When you’re this busy they call you Bi– No, I’m not going to do that.

Cam Payne (Josh Okogie)

Cam Payne celebrated his birthday in Paris and also made sure to have the signature dish of Josh Okogie in Paris, which is, inexplicably, spaghetti.

Rating: Sometimes you just gotta go with it, it makes for a better vacation.

Scottie Barnes

Scottie Barnes went to Jamaica for his 22nd birthday and tied a jaunty bandana around his neck to pair with a bucket hair for that perfect “I’m going to wade into the sea for spontaneous photos” look.

Rating: Nailed it.

DeAndre Jordan

Sometimes summer vacation is about trying out new hobbies you didn’t have time to explore during the rest of the year. The only bummer with this is I bet DeAndre Jordan was wearing an incredible hat when he did his guitar lesson.

Rating: Something lost, but something gained.

Tacko Fall

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvTCeMWNhQq/?img_index=1

During some downtime during coaching in Johannesburg at a BWB camp, Fall went on safari and seemed to blow a giraffe’s mind at being nearly chest-height to it.

Rating: That beautiful creature is about to faint.

Horse Girl Summer

They say the NBA’s a copycat league and that’s finally come true in the best way possible. Has Nikola Jokic brought the horse lover out of his peers? Or have there always been more horse girls in waiting than we’ve known about, and now they finally have the courage to come forward? Whatever the case, it’s perfect.

Also bonus points for Aaron Gordon traveling to Serbia to support Nikola Jokic and one of his horse’s in a race, which the team won and Jokic let Gordon hoist the trophy for.

https://twitter.com/LjubomirovicM/status/1690787681561628672

Rating: There are colleagues you complain with while walking to get a coffee, and colleagues who make the monumental leap from the office into real life, and showing up at a Serbian racetrack is a good way to achieve the latter.

Bonus: NBA SVW Couples Retreat

The beauty of this photo (slide 7) is that it’s a Hieronymus Bosch for the modern NBA fan. What action is your eye most drawn to? Karl-Anthony Towns’ floating head popping in at the upper margins? Ivica Zubac breaking the 4th wall with a level stare of “you’re-in-on-this-too” and confusion? Patrick Beverley, fleeing? Paul George hiding in plain sight? Patrick Patterson, sort of pouting? Whatever you see is just what you’re meant to.