The New Jersey Nets have made some interesting NBA Development League moves in the past, but their latest call-up has done everything possible during his time in the D-League this season.

Andre Emmett will be signed by the Nets in the coming days, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Emmett originally entered the NBA as a second round pick of the Seattle SuperSonics in 2004, but has spent the majority of his career toiling overseas and in the D-League.

The 6-foot-5 wing has stood out all season for Paul Mokeski's Reno Bighorns this season, averaging 23.7 points, six rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 53 percent from the field and 46 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Emmett doesn't have the most ridiculous upside considering he's already 29, but he does have a skill set that's made him turn quite a few heads this season.

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Jeremy Lin has become the talk of the basketball world after recently being given the reins to Mike D'Antoni's offense in New York, but it wasn't a foregone conclusion that the Harvard grad would be able to come even close to what he's accomplished over the past week.

In fact, Lin nearly missed the opportunity to accomplish anything at all with the Knicks.

Before the Taiwanese-American guard's surprising breakout game against the New Jersey Nets last Saturday night, the team was seriously considering cutting the second-year guard prior to Jan. 10, the date on which player's contracts became guaranteed for the remainder of the season, in favor of veteran D-Leaguer Mike James.

Yep, Lin went from a player this close to being released in favor of a player plucked straight from the NBA Development League to leading off SportsCenter with his 38-point performance on Friday night following a win over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

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It's been suggested here before that the NBA D-League needs to change it's name to more accurately reflect the nature and talent level of the league. With an abundance of misconceptions out there, it's no surprise to followers of the D-League that player assignments tend to drawn some fire from sports beat writers across the nation, but a recent article out of Houston took the NBA D-League haterade to a new level.

The author contends that the D-League is not nearly as mature as MLB’s farm system and that an assignment to the D-League is a demotion. These points are certainly open for discussion, however; when he labeled all NBA D-League players as ‘scrubs’ he showed his unfamiliarity with the D-League and its current level of play.

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This story isn't about "Linsanity".

This isn't about Jeremy Lin going undrafted out of Harvard, signing with the Golden State Warriors, being waived twice over by the Warriors and Houston Rockets, claimed by the New York Knicks and surviving another cut four days before transforming into the Messiah of Madison Square Garden.

This isn't about Lin becoming the Knicks' first player (along with center Jerome Jordan) to be assigned to their D-League affiliate, the Erie Bayhawks, last month or entering the league as the NBA's first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent or his open devout Christian faith.

This story isn't even about Lin blowing up this past week by scoring 89 points in his first three starts with the Knicks, featuring his latest miracle on Friday night in New York against the Los Angeles Lakers: a career-high 38 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and shooting 56.5% from the field.

Instead, the feel-good story of this NBA season is a testament to a young player's overall development in the D-League, deeply rooted in two stints during the 2010-11 season with the Reno Bighorns.

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The NBA Development League has found more than its fair share of players looking for an NBA comeback this season as everyone from Greg Ostertag to Ricky Davis to Rafer Alston to Jerome James have decided playing in the D-League would give them the best chance to make it back to the big leagues.

The newest player to decide to give the D-League a shot, Kareem Rush, is another name people should recognize. The 31-year-old shooter was given solid role player minutes with the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte Bobcats and Indiana Pacers in between an otherwise injury-riddled career that seemingly ended when he tore his ACL in 2009.

It looked like that would probably be it for Rush's basketball career as he ventured into R&B singing, even getting National Anthem honors at a recent Lakers-Pacers game, but the older brother of Brandon Rush announced on Twitter Thursday night that he plans to enter the D-League.

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