Most NBA fans will never truly understand just how good NBA players are. The vast majority of fans haven’t sniffed the combination of size, skill and athleticism to even begin to imagine how good these players actually are. NBA players are the best of the best of the best college players who are the best of best of the best high school players.

Payton Pritchard had a promising rookie season averaging 7.7 points off the bench and in going into this second year, he was Boston’s most-outstanding player in the NBA Summer League. He was so good for the Celtics that he was named to The Athletic’s Too-Good-For-Summer-League team.

Showing out off the NBA court

The 23-year old Pritchard displayed how amazing NBA players are when they decide to put their skills on display against lesser player — keeping in mind that local Pro-Am players are the cream of the crop of that region. Pritchard’s not-even-eight-points a game in the NBA isn’t a blip on the NBA radar and that gives fans of the league a poor perception of just how really good an NBA player is.

Already guaranteed a roster spot and will be a rotation player for the C’s, Pritchard may not catch your eye when you’re flipping through NBA TV, but to show you how good NBA players are, Pritchard did some light work at the Portland Pro-Am Summer League. He returned to the state in which he played college ball with the University of Oregon and scored 92 points in his first game. He then followed that up with a 60 point outburst. If you were planning on putting some money down at a PA sportsbooks or your local Oregon casino, you might want to ante up on Payton’s Pritchard’s team.

The video highlights are sparse and don’t capture much of Payton’s (wearing #3) points, but here’s some fourth quarter highlights from that game.

Here’s a shorter clip that does a better job of collecting Pritchard’s shooting, stepback and handles.

In the NBA, we don’t get to see the full spectrum of NBA players’ true abilities. Outside of superstars, rotation and role players stick to what the game plan is. That said, Payton’s performance would outduel the Brooklyn Net’s Mike James (who scored 63 points) in a 165-163 high scoring victory.

Payton’s squad would advance to the Portland Pro-Am Championship Game where the 6-1 guard torched his opponents for 50 points in a triple double performance in a 160-133 blowout win.

Scoring 92 points in any game is impressive, but to do it in a Pro-Am League means you’re a very good basketball player. Being an NBA player that gets playing time should impress us all. We should all keep that in mind if you ever want to toss around “he sucks,” “scrub,” or ironically cheering for them as if they’re some nobody. Those nobodies can routinely put up 40-50 points at the highest level of competition outside of the NBA… and they’re better than you.