Yaxel Lendeborg has not played a regular-season minute in the NBA. He already has a championship ring’s summer-league equivalent, a tournament MVP trophy, and a postgame quote that will be waiting for him at every road arena from Memphis to Miami.
Lendeborg scored 21 points Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, leading the Golden State Warriors to an NBA Summer League championship over a Memphis Grizzlies squad anchored by Cameron Boozer. The Warriors erased a double-digit deficit. Lendeborg was named tournament MVP.
The box score tells one story. Lendeborg’s mouth told another.