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The fearless leader of the NBA D-League is leaving, but have no fear, you can still find him on Facebook.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Dan Reed will be resigning as President of The Association's minor league to take advantage of a job opportunity at Facebook. He'll reportedly run sports partnerships at the social media juggernaut.
Just this past week, Reed could be seen at NBA Summer League watching the mass of D-League alumni hit the hardwood in hopes of getting noticed and subsequently securing jobs in the NBA. As the D-League Select Team competed throughout the week, Reed was found court side clapping and cheering "his" squad on each and every game.
Over the last seven years, the D-League has experienced tremendous growth and has progressed in impressive fashion under Reed's guidance. He's continuously made it a priority to figure out new and innovative ways that the minor league can provide an assist to the NBA. From obvious player development opportunities, to business explorations, and new rule experiments as well, the D-League has made itself useful again and again.
As more and more NBA teams enter into single affiliations with D-League teams, Reed's impact continues to be felt. As his vision for growth continues to be carried out, the minor league continues to expand in a variety of ways. Entering next season, the NBADL will have seventeen hybrid and/or direct one-to-one NBA affiliations. What's more, this past season, over 30% of players in The Association had D-League experience.
Earlier this year, RidiculousUpside.com spoke with Reed about the current state of the league, as well as where it was headed. You can read more here, or see below for a small snippet of what the President had to say:
I think the general gist is that it'll progress in the same way we have. NBA teams will control a team, whether they have rights to every player or not. You'll see more and more assignments; NBA players playing for their team's D-League affiliate. That could be young players, recent draftees, or veterans rehabbing. It'll develop to look very much like people are used to seeing in baseball or hockey, where this is a traditional farm system for the NBA. In many respects, I think we're there already. You'll see more team integration, rather than league integration, which I think is certainly where I think we've established ourselves so far.