New affiliation with minor league might help young players reach their potential instead of sitting on a big-league bench.
By VINCENT THOMAS
Published November 25, 2005
A couple years ago, Bracey Wright was starting his freshman season at Indiana. Dick Vitale was calling him a Diaper Dandy; he was even one of the 30 finalists for the John Wooden award. When he looked into his crystal ball, he saw that NBA logo with Jerry West's silhouette.
Playing in something called the Development League wasn't on his mind.
"Two or three years ago I didn't know much about the D-League," Wright said. "I hear that a couple years ago people thought, "This is where you don't want to be.' "
That was the D-League's reputation: somewhere you don't want to be.
"But it's much better now with that affiliation with the NBA," Wright said. "There are better opportunities."
The National Basketball Development League is now the NBA Development League, but NBA commissioner David Stern says you can still call it the D-League. What began in 2001 as a six-team league that housed mostly castaways and pipedreamers is now a league of eight privately owned teams due to almost double in size next season. It features some players that won't ever play in the NBA, but others are under contract to NBA teams.
When the Florida Flame, based in Fort Myers, starts its season tonight at home in the Germain Arena, Wright and 6-foot-10 St. Joseph's alum Dwayne Jones will suit up as this new breed, under contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves - making the same salary (about $400,000 a year) with the same benefits but developing in the NBADL. The D-League features five other players under NBA contract, with more to come.
That's what makes the NBADL - the new D-League - different than its predecessor and other minor leagues, such as the former Continental Basketball Association or the current American Basketball Association. Each D-League squad is assigned to four NBA teams, with NBA squads able to send one or two first- or second-year players for some seasoning. The Florida Flame, for instance, is the farm team for Orlando, Miami, Minnesota and Boston.
The two leagues forged the relationship in the new collective bargaining agreement and took a major step at establishing a true farm system for the NBA. Instead of releasing young players growing fungus on the end of the bench or on injured reserve with phantom ailments, teams can send these players to the D-League, where they'll get real game-time experience against other pros.
"Once and for all," NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a phone conversation, "we hope that this will establish a solid minor-league system for us."
Better late than never
To many, this new arrangement was a long time coming. Magic Johnson, Isaiah Thomas, Michael Jordan and others were among players that skipped their final years of college to enter the NBA early. By the early 1990s, drafting sophomores and juniors became a trend.
But when Kevin Garnett skipped college in 1995 and declared for the NBA draft, he opened a floodgate. In came Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady and Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James and even one-and-done college players like Carmelo Anthony. They flourished quickly and are the league's linchpin stars.
But what about high school-to-pro Korleone Young? Remember him? Remember Omar Cook, who left St. John's after his freshmen year? Probably not, since they were out of the NBA just as soon as they were in.
There were other teenagers and not-quite-ready players sitting on the ends of benches, not ready to contribute and not necessarily getting better. As the league got younger, calls for some type of farm system grew louder.
With a farm system, proponents argued, these players could develop instead of getting released. With a farm system, roster spots might open for more experienced veterans.
It's here now, and as with almost anything NBA-related, Stern has vision.
"We hope the D-League can be for us what minor-league baseball is for the majors," Stern said.
Kevin Carr, the D-League's director of player development, shares that vision.
"We're about developing everything: players, coaches, executives ... " he said. "We're a development league to our core."
The development mechanism that gradually honed itself throughout the D-League's first four years (36 players, 11 coaches, 14 referees, six athletic trainers and 30 executives have spent time in the D-League before moving up to the NBA) should accelerate. The league is so committed to becoming the NBA's primary developing ground that it's trying to brand that relationship. Each player called up to the NBA is put on a sponsored list: The Gatorade Call-Up.
Some reservations
Not everyone is sold. Magic assistant general manager Dave Twardzik has reservations.
"Let's say we send somebody there," he told the Orlando Sentinel. "Is he assured of getting playing time? What kind of offense does the coach run? If it's not like ours, maybe it's better that our player stays with us (on the inactive roster)."
Twardzik's reservations may explain why Travis Diener, a guard out of Marquette, hasn't been sent to the Flame.
The commissioner said a "healthy dose of skepticism is okay in the first year," with only one team serving four NBA squads. But as the D-League expands to where there are only two NBA teams assigned to each D-League team, Stern and others expect more players to serve stints.
Magic general manager Pat Williams recognizes the potential.
"It seems to me that a kid is better off playing 40 games than sitting," he said.
Which is how players see it too.
"Practicing against the NBA guys is good and great," said the Flame's Andre Barrett, who spent time with Houston and Orlando last season and was among Milwaukee's final training-camp cuts. "But at the same token, that's not a game. There's a different mind set during real games, and you can get that here."
So the D-League went from being a "you don't want to be there" league to a "you can get that here" league. But even with the makeover and NBA ties, the D-League is a far cry from the NBA.
Not the Big Time
Recently the Flame hosted an exhibition game against the Arkansas Rim Rockers in front of about 300 fans at a community school gym in Naples that was no bigger than a Class 5A high school gym. Behind one of the hoops was a rock-climbing wall. There were no typical cheerleaders. But there were teenage dance troupes and The Hot Flashes , a group of women, some in their 60s, dancing to Brick House. Instead of the NBA-style postgame buffet, players walked briskly from the locker room to the soon-to-be-closed concession stand and bought a couple of hot dogs for the drive back to Fort Myers. The transportation? A shuttle van normally used to take people to and from the airport.
"You just have to remember that you've been at this level before. Everything wasn't luxurious in high school and sometimes not in college," Barrett said. "You can't get caught up in that thinking."
It's a little easier, though, for NBA-contract guys like Wright.
"They want to accommodate you as an NBA guy and make you feel like you're still a part of the league, even though you're still in the D-League."
