Around the D-League

by Brett Edwards

I was watching the NBA channel on DirecTV over the weekend, and caught the half hour extravaganza which takes you around the D-League, which is the NBA's "Development" league for players that can't quite make it to the end of the bench in the NBA. There are many things that are both funny and wrong with this league, here are some of them in no particular order:

- The D-League has the best team nickname in the history of sports. The Rimrockers?! Is Arkansas, where this team plays, a training ground for players to practice their off-the-court skills with local groupies-to-be? Even the logo could be interpreted as something involving another kind of rim. Freaking hilarious.

- The team names and uniforms are verrrry WNBA-like. Some of the other team names include the Dazzle, Flame, and 66ers. Additionally, it seems the D-League ran out of money for name creativity, because two of the teams are named the Flyers and the Patriots. Come on guys, there are only 8 teams in the league, do you really have to steal names from other sports? And the WNBA style red white and blue ball needs to go. And check out this picture of Smush Parker from a couple years ago, I never knew they let him play in the WNBA!

- Absolutely no one goes to these games. And I don't mean WNBA no one, I mean no one. All of the games take place in literally empty arenas. The documented attendance for yesterday's Rimrockers (still laughing) vs. Dazzle game was 464. That had to include players and arena workers. It makes the highlights look ridiculous, like you're watching a practice with referees or something. Do they play their games at 9am on weekdays?

- Each D-League team has 3 or 4 NBA "affiliates" assigned to it. Meaning that these NBA teams have to share the minor league franchise, and that's where they send players for development. Dallas and the Lakers share the same team (The Fort Worth Flyers), can you actually see them working together to develop players? Neither can I.

Overall, D Stern has a lot of work to do if this league is to work as a true developmental minor league for the NBA. This is probably the first and last time you will hear anything about it, unless Arkansas were to change its name to something like the Cousinlovers, which based on the current teams doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

Comments

[Craig]

The Rimrockers and the 66ers... are you sure they didn't just get the team names from beer-league softball?

And how about the talent pool, these are guys who couldn't make it in Europe, Asia, Oceana, And-1, the courts down the street, my uncle's driveway, etc.

[Dan Sargent]

I looked at the names on the NBADL league and its so damm funny.

I didnt know that Bernard King is still playing. ISnt he like 50!!!!

[John]

Nice post, I just found it. I write for Sports Media Watch, a watch dog organization that monitors and analyzes how media covers sports. My column is about media coverage in smaller markets. My most recent article looked at the D-League and how local papers cover it. You might enjoy it, here's the link:
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/content/view/176/34/

You bring up some good points, particularly regarding how players are developed in terms of learning the system of a NBA team. I'll be curious to see what happens if there are ever 30 D-League teams and each is developing players for one pro club.