How To Fix The D-League

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 2:01 AM EDT in D-League News Comment 30 comments

[I didn't write this, it was emailed to me. However, I don't disagree with it and thought it was worth publishing, so here you go. I did add my own thoughts when necessary. -- Scott]

There's a bad connotation to the D-League. Anybody that's heard of the D-League (and doesn't lie) is going to tell you this. Just mentioning D-League to people that haven't heard of it, it's going to come off as fourth rate. It's the official minor league of the NBA. The only one. Every in-season NBA signing has been from the D-League or a free agent the past fiveish seasons. But, it doesn't seem like people know this. It doesn't seem like anyone is trying to fix this, either.

That's where I come in (and you as well, fan's de basquetbol). The D-League can be fixed in one easy step!

Market it.

How many dollars did the D-League make from incessantly promoting Sun Yue, the 49 players it had in this years playoffs, and anything else that had "NBA" attached to it? I don't suspect much, and if it did, Bakersfield apparently didn't see any of it.

Get this - The people going to the D-League website, they're familiar with basketball. They know about the NBA. The NBA will be alright without this hype. When I go to NBA.com, though, I don't see anything about the D-League. I see Chris Webber's 5 Fave Knicks, I can look at the Dallas Mavericks going fishing, I can even watch Charles Barkley lose a push-up challenge. I can't see anything about the D-League. NBA fans aren't nearly as familiar with the D-League as they should be, and this is why.

Go grassroots. Use Twitter, facebook, myspace (do people still do this?) and even your site to get people excited. Not about the NBA. Aaron Brooks and Jordan Farmar combined for five games in the D-League, while on assignment, yet they garner two of the five spots on your website and the majority of your Twitter and Facebook 'messages' (Brandon Bass is a third, who played one career D-League game). Is the D-League that terrible that the only players they can market are players that have played seven games combined? People don't go to D-League.com for NBA news.

Why not highlight the recent tryout that so many D-Leaguer's attended? The Pacers D-League tryouts? Bakersfield Coach Scott Roth training Hasheem Thabeet? The multiple coaching positions open right now? Talk about the hybrid affiliation. MARKET THE D-LEAGUE.

Why not have an editorial column about how Jeremy Tyler could join the D-League? Wouldn't that possibly gain some interest in the D-League? Isn't that more interesting than a photo gallery of former D-Leaguer's in the NBA? Nobody even knows that this is a possibility if they wouldn't read RidiculousUpside, among other places that covered it after Jon L.It's disappointing, as a fan of the league, to see Bakersfield fail, to know Colorado is on the verge of folding, to know Albuquerque laid their entire staff off for the summer (and beyond?)

If the league did a bit better in promoting that this could really take off. Have the NBA invest a bit more, as I'm sure not one of the 30 NBA teams is losing money. Unfortunately, I'm guessing at a minimum 10 of the 16 D-League teams are losing money and all 16 have.

If the goal is to make this an actual development league, why not have the NBA invest some money into, well, developing it? If you're serious about making the D-League a true development league, market it as such. Not as a place where Jordan Farmar played three games three years ago.

[/end soapbox]

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im thinkin

they need to promote more current dleague guys like boom tho.

by Fanaticflashfan.blogspot on May 15, 2009 2:36 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

When I watch or listen to a major league baseball game, I’ll inevitably hear some sort of minor league report, where the announcer will inform us that one player hit his 20th home run at AAA, or how another is hitting .350. You get a lot of casual fans feeling informed, enough to call in to talk shows and say “we should bench ____ and call up ____!”

The NBA team affiliate system obviously isn’t quite the same, but if I were watching my team struggle to score, I’d be pretty excited to hear the announcer talk about a guy averaging 30 PPG with our minor league team. So yeah, for NBA teams who have D-League assignees, talk about them! If you can get a bunch of people to start checking the box scores, or even tune in to Futurecast, thats a good start.

by richardhkirkando on May 15, 2009 8:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

This could actually be better

Teams are not relegated to four or five prospects on their AAA team. They can pick from 30ish NBA-caliber players, depending on what they need.

I never really thought of this as a pro (seems more of a con), but it might actually not be terrible to not have direct affiliation, as there are that many more players available for call-ups.

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 1:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Plus we'd get to hear Reggie MIller say this.....

Reggie: “Hey Marv, did you hear about this Will Conroy kid? He went for 54 the other night in the D-League. What a great prospect, glad somebody sent the boxscore TO MY BLACKBERRY!!!!”

by Aisander D on May 15, 2009 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I second this opinion

I mean, I live in Utah. There’s a NBDL team in the state.
And yet, save for the occasional “oh, Almond exploded again” or “The Koof is looking good” or “Fesenko sucks” (which I get from Scott), you don’t hear much about it.

Yeah… and I don’t understand all the NBA news on the D-League website. The NBA doesn’t need more publicity. Stick to your own guys, and make the NBA publicize the league a bit more too.

True Blue Jazz
I'm on Twitter
RIP Nick Adenhart. 4/9/09

by UtesFan89 on May 15, 2009 10:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I never say "Fesenko sucks"

I don’t like him, and he’s not good, but I don’t think I’ve ever used that exact phrase.

Other than that, spot on.

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 1:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

but that’s the gist of what you’re saying. I was just trying to keep it short.

Oh, and Brevin Knight… (oh, yes I did)

True Blue Jazz
I'm on Twitter
RIP Nick Adenhart. 4/9/09

by UtesFan89 on May 15, 2009 10:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haha

D-League next season? Also, how’s his brother?

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 10:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

BTW....

Fes sucks.

by Aisander D on May 15, 2009 11:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well said Scott

There is so much untapped entertainment potential in the D-leauge…

One has to hope this will start with some of the teams themselves having a closer tie to their affiliates.

But until there is a draft system like there is in baseball where the rights to the minor league players are “owned” by the major league club there doesn’t seem to be enough vested interest by the NBA teams to market their prospects.

Part of this of course is on the media who simply doesn’t have the band width to cover much beyond the stars on the NBA teams let alone d-league guys. The only reason we know about minor league baseball prospects is b/c of their potential to impact trades and the future of the club.

It would take a major change to the CBA to encourage draft picks to spend more time in the D (developmental) League and of course to change how the rights to prospects are handled. The players would have to buy into this and in doing so would be giving up some of their freedom of movement they currently enjoy.

Or, just scrap all that nonsense and hire Freddy Finals as the full time spokesperson for the D-league. Marketing genius.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Phoenix Stan on May 15, 2009 12:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hiring Freddy Finals would be a great idea

But couldn’t NBA teams just market the D-League as a whole, rather than specific players on their “affiliate.”
The D-League could easily email all of the NBA PR people the top scorer, rebounder, shooter, and maybe even positional players each night. Wouldn’t be that hard..

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

From the team

perspective, what interest do they have in doing that.

The teams are each individual businesses responsible for marketing their own brand. If the D-league teams and players aren’t tied to that they are going to resist spending their PR focus on them.

For the teams to be engaged they need to be able to show a direct connection between affiliates and players and the major league club. This is how it works in baseball. And when an NBA team does send a “named” guy to the d-league they do check in. When Tucker and Strawberry were spending significant time Albq we heard about from the Suns and local media. But if there is no connection between the Suns and Othyeus Jeffers so we never hear about him.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Phoenix Stan on May 15, 2009 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Because

These guys are the future of the NBA. 1/4 D-Leaguer’s end up on preseason rosters. If teams are following possible draftee’s, why not follow possible signee’s?

Isn’t each team connected to the D-League? They do all have a stake in the league, after all.

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes

that makes sense but I don’t think the teams see it that way. They would need more of a direct incentive and since the NBA doesn’t own the teams they can’t just direct that more attention be paid to the affiliates.

The only other way would be for the media to consistently ask for more information from the teams about their affiliates but I don’t see that not happening any time soon.

The local papers and radio and TV stations barely have enough time to cover the NBA team let alone an affiliate in some other state with players who have a very small chance of ever coming to town. Even an NBA team blogger like me can only pay so much attention to the Energy given the amount of time available. Also, why would I cover Cartier Martin if can just end up playing in Charlotte? If his rights were held by the Suns I would be much more invested in his progress b/c his development would have a direct impact on the Suns even if was only to use in a trade like they do in baseball.

You are looking at the big picture. At the league level. But at the local media market and team level there’s just not enough of a direct tie between what happens in Iowa and what might happen in Phoenix (my Iowa based mother-in-law notwithstanding).

Since that structure of the relationships and rights to prospects isn’t changing any time soon, I would focus the marketing efforts of the D-league on two audiences: a) basketball geeks that love the competition regardless of the location and b) local markets. The problem with local markets is that with so much roster turnover it is hard for fans to get behind and stay loyal to a team. I would think.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Phoenix Stan on May 15, 2009 2:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

baseball

This is like minor league baseball. Bob Brenly has no incentive to talk about the Cubs’ affiliates besides that face that most of those players appeared in spring training and could be on the Cubs roster at some point during the season. David Stern and the NBA have enough pull/power that if they told NBA teams to talk about their affiliates more on tv and radio broadcasts they would.

Also, I don’t recall ALL of the D-League all star festivities being shown on Futurecast and NBA TV this year…That would be a good start!

by Invasion Fan on May 15, 2009 3:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The NBA owns the entire league

I’m not sure how much we disagree on this topic, but why not market the D-League in general.
Individual NBA teams don’t need to market individual teams, as we’ve already said that this doesn’t necessarily matter.
Couldn’t the Suns media, who knew the Suns were looking for an extra player, have given coverage to the D-League, as it was almost a certainty that the 13th man would come from the D-League (ending up Courtney Sims)?

This isn’t where I have a problem though. The media shouldn’t have it be their job to pick up the D-League information.

The NBA should direct their teams to feed the media information on the D-League, as that’s the only way more people will care, if it’s coming from the D-League. If the D-League is to be a major asset to the teams, why wouldn’t the teams want to market this?

As far as the marketing efforts, that’s what they market the D-League to now. This obviously isn’t getting the D-League any further than it already is. Local markets are going to be interested regardless of marketing efforts because they’re the only professional basketball team in town, and thus, the media will pick it up anyway.

To actually expand the D-League, and make it as viable as it can be, it should be marketed on a much broader scale.

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

We certainly agree

that they need to do a better job. Not have the ASG stuff on NBA TV was inexcusable. In fact not having pretty much every game on NBA TV is dumb. They have all that programming to fill and instead of actually basketball they broadcast an endless loop of the same recap show?

I have to think there’s a cost to broadcasting the games that I don’t understand b/c otherwise it makes no sense at all.

As for Sims and the Suns 13th man…well you know I covered that angle at least :) Beyond that, the rest of the media is spread to thin to worry about such things. They have limited time and space to cover and they assume that most casual sports fans really don’t care anyway. They report the transaction after the fact but aren’t going to spend time and energy on it otherwise. That’s why we need bloggers to go into more depth.

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Phoenix Stan on May 15, 2009 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Truth

The NBATV stuff makes sense, and I should be a bigger advocate, but I don’t get NBA TV, and thus, this wouldn’t help me regardless. If it’s in place of Rick Kamla, I’m all for it. It’s already being recorded, so as you say, there must be some behind the scenes cost we’re not aware of.

You did cover the D-League well. you and WTLC both did great jobs in that aspect. I guess the media shouldn’t necessarily cover it, as you’re right in that there is limited space.

However, the teams could cover this. The cool thing with websites is there’s a lot of room. Why not have a tab about the D-League? Better yet, the Suns have 96,426 bloggers. Why isn’t there one to cover the D-League?

The other part they could mention the D-League is on telecast’s.. The local broadcasters are glorified team PR people. In a 48 minute game between the TWolves and the Grizzlies, why isn’t there one D-League mention?

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yesss this is why I read this!!!

I’m giving a standing ovation to the person that wrote this. I’ve always wondered why on any D-League Website you can track your favorite NBA star on assignment, but there’s not even so much as a D-League logo on any NBA team sights. Not to mention alot of times there’s not time to mention players D-League Career in game when they are with a team for 20 days and play a collective 11minutes in 6 games (My Boy Trey Johnson got shafted in Clevand) But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard an announcer refer to Rafer Alston as Skip to My Lou (Promote And 1 but not the D-League) and what realy throws in the dagger is when Stuart Scott (my Favorite sportscaster) refers to it as the Developmental league on Sports Center. Even guys who get payed millions to report on this stuff don’t know enough about it to know it’s Development not Developmental. C’mon JP, D.Reed, and C. Alpert Step it up I know you can make this league sucessful.

by justen2273 on May 15, 2009 12:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Did you really give a standing ovation?

That is a good point on Alston. Unless the NBA owns And1, you’d think they’d rather promote his time in the D-League.. The NBA does own the D-League, right?

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 2:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Scott I'l say it for you

Get it right people. NBA Development League not Developmental. and yes I take offense to this being a former employee of a franchise. Damn Folding teams in Cali

by justen2273 on May 15, 2009 12:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

oops

my bad…just made this mistake. Sorry

Blogging Suns Basketball

by Phoenix Stan on May 15, 2009 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm more against

NBDL.

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry

I’m guilty of that.

True Blue Jazz
I'm on Twitter
RIP Nick Adenhart. 4/9/09

by UtesFan89 on May 15, 2009 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Either way it doesn't affect me

But they did change from NBDL to NBADL… so technically, that’s more wrong than calling it the D-League.
Keep doing what you do!

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 10:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ah

didn’t know that.
Don’t get updates on the ‘l’ very often.

True Blue Jazz
I'm on Twitter
RIP Nick Adenhart. 4/9/09

by UtesFan89 on May 17, 2009 12:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Me too

I’m so glad the finally realized it should be NBADL

by justen2273 on May 15, 2009 12:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

About time...

Scott and I were talking about this last night, and I hope that caused someone to write him an email. It’s good to see that I’m not the only one that feels this way. The D- League is supposedly David Stern’s baby. He doesn’t treat it like that from the outside. The reason so many D- League teams are struggling is because the NBA has fees that they charge teams. Which I have heard are not cheap…With that being said, you’d thing the NBA would make an effort to market the D- League! Two simple way to do this would be to put the D- League logo on rotating signage during NBA games and talk about the D- League during TV broadcasts. The D- League is the next best thing to the NBA and is the highest level of competition in all of minor league sports! It is the future of the NBA.

In and interview that Mr. Ridiculous Scott did with Mr. Dan Reed earlier this season he said that D-League alums account for roughly 20% of NBA players. This number is only going to rise, and as that happens, the NBA and media will have no choice but to talk about the D- League!

by Invasion Fan on May 15, 2009 2:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

NBA.com

I’d wager the reason you can watch Barkley do pushups or read/hear Reggie Miller say something inane is because of the league’s TV and sponsorship deals. I’d imagine that part of their deal with TNT is to help promote TNT’s coverage on their site, so that people see Barkley doing something crazy and want to watch “Inside the NBA.” On the site now there also appear to be two “Angels and Demons” ads and two McDonalds bracket widgets, and at the very top is some Sprite dunk competition tie-in. So I don’t think it’s just that they’re willfully under-promoting the D-League, it’s that their other deals already commit a lot of webspace to ads and such that they probably don’t think there’s a lot of room.

Now writing for Ridiculous Upside, where we think the Nuggets should play Sonny Weems more.

by Jon L on May 15, 2009 7:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

This is true

And I can’t disagree.. But shouldn’t they also promote something they own as well?

It’d seem to me, that along with getting sponsorship dollars from these promotions, that it’d also be beneficial to promote something in which it has a direct stake in.

Though they obviously wouldn’t see a direct correlation in income if they promoted the D-League on the front page, it would increase brand awareness. With that, the D-League might not struggle as it is now.

Blogging at RidiculousUpside, where we converse with recently fired mascots.

by Scott Schroeder on May 15, 2009 8:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs