Hines hits hardwood with New Orleans at NBA Summer League

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – For the third consecutive year, former UNCG men's basketball star Kyle Hines will take to the summer hardwood in an NBA summer league when he hits the floor with the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night in Las Vegas.

Hines, who has spent the last two regular seasons as a standout for Prima Veroli in Italy's LegaDue, will be heading to the Las Vegas Summer League for the second time in the three years. Last year, Hines played in the Orlando Summer League for Oklahoma City. In 2008, Hines' first summer after graduating from UNCG, the Sicklerville, N.J., native played for the Charlotte Bobcats in the Las Vegas circuit.

Hines finished 10th in LegaDue in scoring this past season, averaging a team-best 18.2 points per game. He was sixth in the league in rebounding at 7.9 per contest, also tops on the Prima Veroli squad. He had an outstanding playoff season for Prima Veroli, leading the team to the league finals, where they lost a best-of-five, 3-1. In 10 playoff games, Hines averaged 19.2 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, shooting better than 60 percent from the floor.

At UNCG, Hines finished as one of six players in college basketball history with career totals surpassing 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocked shots (joining Alonzo Mourning, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Pervis Ellison and Derrick Coleman). He finished as the school's all-time leader in all three categories with 2,187 points, 1,047 rebounds and 349 blocks. He earned SoCon Player of the Year honors and AP All-America honorable mention honors in his junior season. Hines became just the fourth player in the Southern Conference's 64 years of all-conference selections to become a four-time first-team selection and the first in 20 years when he graduated in 2008. He scored in double figures in each of his last 81 games, the longest active streak in the nation at the time. He finished in the top five among active players in career points, career rebounds, career blocked shots and career double-doubles (45).

Hines and the Hornets will face Golden State's summer squad at 10 p.m. ET and will be televised on NBA-TV and will be replayed again Saturday at 1 p.m. New Orleans will face Miami at 10 p.m. Sunday and that game will also be shown on NBA-TV.

There are a total of five games for the team in Las Vegas, the first four games at COX Pavillion and the fifth at UNLV's Thomas and Mack Center. The Hornets will also face Portland on July 13 at 10 p.m. ET, Washington on July 16 at 8 p.m. ET and Toronto on July 17 at 6:30 p.m. ET. The Portland and Washington games will also be shown live on NBA-TV, while the Toronto game will be shown on tape delay.

The 2010 NBA Las Vegas Summer League is one of two NBA summer leagues that will take place during the 2010 off-season, with the first playing this week in Orlando. The Las Vegas Summer League is the bigger of the two, however, with 22 NBA teams participating, and 10 of the first 14 picks in the 2010 NBA Draft expected to take the floor during the summer play.

- UNCG -