The NBA lockout is in full effect, as everyone that's reading this already knows, I guess. What they might not know, however, is that the lack of news due to said lockout makes it pretty difficult to put together a decent post to start off everyone's work week.

That said, it seems the next best thing is to go around the web and scoop everything that I haven't yet mentioned on Ridiculous Upside into one handy post to keep everyone updated and elated on Monday morning. The alternative was either posting my own rendition of Sunday Morning Coming Down with "Monday" substituted for "Sunday" (watch for it on iTunes) or an 800-word column wondering why Rashad McCants showed up at the ESPYs.

First up, I want to talk about me, want to talk about I, want to talk about number one, oh my me my, what I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see, I want to talk about me let's talk about the D-League. More specifically, let's take a look at CBS Sports' Ken Berger's thoughts on how to "make the D-League relevant."

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There really isn't a lot going on right now in terms of breaking news regarding any basketball being played stateside. It's my mission to deliver the news, though, so this morning that will include my Monday morning musings on the D-League, Great Britain and ... swag (in case the title didn't make that clear).

Firs thing's first: Important NBA Development League news broke in Bismarck, North Dakota, over the weekend when the Bismarck Tribune reported that Anthony Moody finally signed a D-League contract.

Moody, a standout in Division 2 basketball the past few seasons at University of Mary, is quick, a good point guard, popular with little kids and seems to only lose basketball games when I'm on his team during our daily runs at the local YMCA. If Moody's resume doesn't impress any of the other D-League teams, I would expect the Dakota Wizards to draft him this fall. I won't guarantee he'll make the team, but he should at least get an opportunity.

In other interesting D-League news, I wrote (emailed?) a small piece for Pro Basketball Talk regarding the state of the D-League so y'all might as well read it.

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Cherokee Parks played his last NBA game for the Golden State Warriors on December 17, 2003. Since then, the 38-year-old has been out of professional basketball ... until now.

Parks has signed with Aubenas, a team that plays in the fourth division in France as far as I can tell, according to the team's official website. The 6-foot-11 center has already reported to the team, apparently deciding that he doesn't want to sit idle during this NBA lockout like he did during the 1998 version.

There doesn't seem to be a good explanation of why Parks decided to get back into basketball -- he's a Duke grad, made over $10 million during a nine-year NBA career and is rumored to be a good lover in the comments of websites I've never heard of until now -- but he's apparently decided to begin a comeback and everyone should be happy.

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NBA players going overseas has been discussed more than I previously thought humanly possible prior to the NBA lockout, but a recent incident in the Philippines brought up another thing American players might have to worry about during their European experiences.

It's not something I can accurately describe, however, so you'll have to rely on the picture above and the excellent reporting of Jaemark Tordecilla of InterakTV.

In game 1 of the 2011 PBA Governors' Cup finals between Talk ‘N Text and Petron Blaze last night, Tropang Texters defensive stopper Mark Yee was caught by the camera - twice - "defending" Boosters import Anthony Grundy by sticking his fingers where the sun doesn't shine.

And while we have to give some props for Yee's effort - talk about doing anything to keep your opponent from scoring - it was, frankly, disgusting.

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Kobe Bryant is a professional basketball player so it makes sense that he's looking for opportunities to practice his craft for the upcoming season even after the NBA has locked him out. In fact, the Los Angeles Laker is rumored to be meeting with Besiktas this weekend to talk about playing in Turkey next season.

If Bryant and his representatives aren't able to come to an agreement to pair the shooting guard with fellow NBA All-Star Deron Williams overseas next year, however, there are plenty of other locales willing to allow the Black Mamba to do what he does until the NBA reconvenes.

The weirdest option, even weirder than Ron Artest seriously looking at playing in Britain next season, is taking his talents to the Rochester RazorSharks of the Premier Basketball League. The PBL is probably the second best minor league in America -- which is saying very little about the state of professional basketball stateside -- but they're doing their part to keep themselves relevant

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With the NBA lockout trudging on, it has been decided that Ridiculous Upside will cover football -- particularly NFL free agency -- until the two sides are able to come to an amicable agreement. Media darling Matthew O'Donnell will be the first topic up for discussion, of course.

O'Donnell, a 6-foot-11 big man hailing from Queen's University in Canada, was the talk of the town when he decided to forego a Canadian Football career in order to tryout for the NBA's Boston Celtics. That tryout didn't go all that well, according to sources with knowledge of the workout, but O'Donnell still ended up at a Toronto Raptors workout before ultimately going undrafted in the 2011 NBA Draft.

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The Utah Flash will not play in the NBA Development League next season. The Flash had been affiliated with the Atlanta Hawks and the nearby Utah Jazz, but since the Jazz were unwilling to partner with the team, there weren't many other options to keep the team afloat.

The news first got to Ridiculous Upside via several D-League sources, and while I had decided to wait until the Flash could announce the news on their own terms -- or the team was bought by an NBA team -- local media learned of the news late Friday night.

The Orem based team had quite a bit of fan interest and was led by two competent people in Joe Brown and Drew Sellers, but was a losing investment owner Brandt Andersen (he's a legend 'round these parts) finally decided he wasn't interested in pursuing any longer.

This isn't good news by any means as the Flash seemed to be able to get a decent amount of fans to the arena every night (they were second in the D-League in reported attendance last season with 4,237.2 fans on average), but it does alleviate the uneven number of teams the D-League was looking at when the D-Fenders decided to come back after a one-year hiatus.

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The NBA's annual Summer League in Vegas is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. So I was quite disappointed when news broke that it's a severe longshot that I have a reason to leave North Dakota for two weeks to watch basketball this July. Fortunately, Vegas Summer League founder Warren Legarie hasn't given up hope and neither have the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz hosted a pretty random pre-draft workout earlier in the week, featuring exactly zero players projected to be selected in the 2011 NBA mock drafts, and it confused more than a few people who wondered what the point of it all was: Why pay to bring four players to the team's facility when there's a 95 percent chance the Jazz have zero intention of actually picking them?

Walt Perrin, vice president of player personnel for the Jazz, gave the answer on Tuesday when talking to the Deseret News' Jody Genessy.

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