Playing Professional Basketball Is Not As Easy As It Sounds

Quite a few NBA players were cut yesterday, but since I'm still working on some things regarding that, I thought I'd showcase something from my man Jordan Schultz, a colleague over at AOL FanHouse. Schultz has been chronicling his time at the NBA Development League's national tryout in Chantilly, VA with a series of videos (up top being the series finale) and, though not directly, kind of making me realize just how good players have to be to even be able to make an NBA training camp.

Along with the above video, Schultz also wrote a great post chronicling his time at the tryout while pointing out just how difficult it is to even make the NBA's Development League.

At our opening meeting, you could see and feel hopes rise when Alpert mentioned how "one out of every four players (in the NBA this year) was a former D-League player."

With that in mind, you knew why the tensions in the last game were elevated. Following the game, guys couldn't help but wonder if they did enough, if they showed enough talent, if they had enough grit. When the final whistle blew, it all became a waiting game.

We listened intently as coach Whitted told us to expect to wait a week or two for a call-back, 200 guys all left wondering the same thing ...

"Did I make it? Am I next?"

Later, Schultz writes:

For the 160 or so who didn't get the call back, this was a setback. You can count on one hand how many will be on a D-League roster next season, but you can also count on the fact that all these guys will continue their pursuit of the ultimate dream. That's all they know, and it's fine by them, because basketball is life.

They wouldn't have it any other way.

I encourage you to go read the entire article.