2011 D-League Showcase: Coming Soon to an Island Near...Me

Sorry I've been absent for the past few days, but a buddy of mine is getting married in a few months so this was bros weekend here in Austin.  Then I slept for 12 hours.  Anyway, while we are going heavy on the draft coverage these days, there are some D-League doings-a-transpiring.

The Monitor's David Hinojosa reported on Friday that the 2011 D-League Showcase will be held on South Padre Island, Texas.  League sources didn't confirm that to Hinojosa, but there will be a press conference tomorrow at South Padre Convention Center, so...yeah, it's happening.  Recent Showcase locations include Boise, Idaho; Orem, Utah; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Fun fact: it will be five years since the Showcase was in a city that doesn't get snow in January.  And actually it snows in North Carolina sometimes, so...maybe it'll be six years.

For those of you unfamiliar with geography, South Padre Island is down towards the southern tip of Texas, about an hour and a half from McAllen (home of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers).  It is, in fact, an island, making it unlike Monster Island (which technically is a peninsula).  You may have heard of South Padre Island as a popular spring break destination, which it is.

For those of you unfamiliar with the D-League Showcase, it's a time every season where all the D-League teams meet and play each other in one city; it's main attraction is that scouts from the NBA and "overseas" leagues (quotes because I'm not sure if South America technically counts as overseas) show up to evaluate players.  Basically, it's a way for the players and the league to get more exposure.  The Vipers and Austin Toros played an exhibition game last season at South Padre Convention Center, so the basketball facilities are there.

There's not much else to say at this point; I assume we'll find out the actual dates of the Showcase, either tomorrow or in a few months when the season schedule is released (this year's was held January 4-7).  The Showcase is fairly well-attended anyway, but with all respect to my friends to the north, the beach in January > the mountains in January.  Who knows?  Depending on what my schedule is like (I'm a busy guy; well okay, not right now, but I will be then), maybe I'll even be there, and you can once again see me stare awkwardly but unintentionally into the Futurecast camera.