NBA Development League Overview
From Hoopedia
Entering its seventh season, the NBA Development League, or D-League – the NBA’s minor league established to develop talent across all disciplines for the NBA – has relocated its headquarters from Greenville, S.C. to New York City to help foster the D-League's continued growth by giving it direct access to the support and resources of the NBA and WNBA.
During the 2006-07 season, 19 NBA teams assigned 24 players to D-League rosters, and 14 NBA teams called-up 16 players (‘Gatorade Call-ups’) while 31 D-League alumni participated in the NBA Playoffs. Additionally, every referee hired by the NBA since 2002 has worked in the D-League, while coaches, athletic trainers and front office executives are also being developed.
The 2007-08 NBA season will also include the first-ever D-League coach to be promoted to the NBA with Sam Vincent taking over head coaching duties for the Charlotte Bobcats.
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Basketball
On July 19, 2005, the league changed its name from the NBDL to the NBA Development League to better reflect the role of the league within the new NBA-NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Along with a new name, the league adopted new primary and secondary logos, a new official Spalding Infusion basketball, and several uniform enhancements including an NBA team logo being affixed to the jersey of a player who is assigned to the D-League to help identify his NBA affiliation.
Teams are composed of 10 players and play 50-game regular season schedule to allow for more practice time and development of skills.
On April 6, 2006, expansion teams were awarded to four cities for the 2006-07 season. The teams, all previously associated with the Continental Basketball Association, are located in Bismarck, N.D., Boise, Idaho, Broomfield, Colo., and Sioux Falls, S.D. The Dakota Wizards, Idaho Stampede, Colorado 14ers and Sioux Falls Skyforce, along with the previously announced expansion Bakersfield Jam (Calif.), join the Albuquerque Thunderbirds (N.M.), Arkansas RimRockers (Little Rock), Austin Toros (Texas), Fayetteville Patriots (N.C.), Florida Flame (Ft. Myers), Fort Worth Flyers (Texas), Roanoke Dazzle (Va.) and Tulsa 66ers (Okla.).
Then, on April 11, 2006 The NBA Development League awarded an expansion team to Anaheim, California for the 2006-07 season. The team will play at The Arena at the Anaheim Convention Center. On December 2, 2006 the league expanded and placed a franchise in Utah Valley. Three more expansion franchises were added in 2007- - Rio Grande Valley (January 24, 2007), Des Moines, Iowa (February 27, 2007) and Fort Wayne, Indiana (April 10, 2007).
Television
Sixty regular season games plus several more Playoff games aired on NBA TV during the 2006-07 season, adding to the league’s growing national exposure.
NBA TV is airing the highlight show, "This Week in the D-League," throughout the season.
Acquiring Players
D-League conducts a league-wide draft in early November. To be eligible for the draft a player must have signed a NBA Development League Standard Player Contract.
Each team conducts training camps in early November. In order to participate in team training camp a player must have been a member of the team during the previous season, been drafted by the team during the D-League Draft, been allocated to the team by the league or been selected to attend camp from a local team tryout.
Under the new affiliation and assignment system, each of the eight current D-League teams are affiliated with either three or four NBA teams, and the NBA teams may assign players in their first two seasons to play in the D-League.
- An NBA team may assign any player on its Active List or Inactive List to play in the D-League, provided that the player has zero or one Years of Service at the time of Assignment.
- No players may be given more than three Assignments during any season. There is no minimum or maximum length of a D-League assignment.
- During the 2005-06 season, no NBA team may have more than two players on assignment at the same time.
- A player on Assignment will be carried on the Inactive List of his NBA Team.
2007-08 Affiliations
For details of previous affiliations, see NBA Development League Affiliations.
Colorado 14ers (Broomfield)
Dakota Wizards (Bismarck, ND)
Idaho Stampede (Boise)
Iowa Energy (Des Moines)
Sioux Falls SkyForce (SD)
Utah Flash (Orem)
History
A team representing the NBA Development League was one of six teams competing in the 2000 Asian Basketball Association League.
The NBA Ambassadors were one of two squads representing Hong Kong competing in a six-week competition against teams from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Ambassadors went 13-1 and won the tournament.
The Ambassadors also played in the South American League Basketball Championship in 2001 and were sponsored by the Pan-American Sports Network (PSN). The inclusion of the Ambassadors in South America’s premier basketball club championship was part of a landmark, strategic alliance between the NBA, PSN and CONSUBASQUET, the South American Basketball Confederation. Ambassadors went 2-0 in exhibition games, 2-1 in round robin play and lost to Flamengo 2-1 in the best-of-three quarterfinal round.
The NBA Development League was launched in 2001 with eight teams in the Southeastern U.S.
After establishing new rules as part of our collective bargaining agreement with the NBPA, NBA teams can assign younger players to the D-League for further seasoning. NBA teams have embraced this system as 19 teams have assigned 29 players to D-League affiliates.
