Is Halifax ready for the D-League?

Some highlights from the Ridiculous Upside interview with Dan Reed, the president of the D-League:

D-League President Dan Reed: Well, if you go overseas you basically eliminate your chances of playing in the NBA that season, so if your goal is to make the NBA your odds are much better playing with us. I asked our folks to run these numbers for me, a - of the 107 players who have been called up to the NBA in a given season, 61% of them (65 players) received a guaranteed contract that season. I actually think these numbers are pretty compelling reasons to play in the NBA D-League, when you consider that: a) even one NBA 10-day contract is worth as much or more than a player can make in a month overseas, b) if you get one 10-day it’s highly likely you will double your money with at least one additional 10-day, and c) if you do get a 10-day there’s a 60% chance you’ll be with that team for the rest of the season, and d) you have a zero percent chance of being “called up” to the NBA if you play overseas.

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DR: That’s why I think the best number to look at is the sheer number of NBA D-League alumni playing in the NBA, and by that metric, we clearly establish ourselves as the absolute best way to get to the NBA — we’ve produced five times more NBA players than any other professional basketball league in the world. We’re the most heavily scouted league in the world, and that is extremely valuable for our players. If you really want to look at odds, check out this stat: if you played in the NBA D-League last season you had a 1 in 4 chance of participating in an NBA team’s training camp the following season. I’d say those odds are pretty good. And even if after all that the NBA simply doesn’t work out for player, showing well in the NBA D-League allows you maximize your earning potential no matter where you decide to play.

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RS: It seems to me that if each NBA team had their own D-League affiliate, and was able to call up, send down, and rehab players on their D-League teams, much like the farm system of Major League Baseball, that the NBA and the NBADL would both benefit tremendously. Are the leagues making any attempt toward moving in that direction?

DR: We took a major step towards that sort of system when we created the affiliation and assignment system back in 2005. Since then we’ve doubled the number of teams in the league, have seen 104 NBA players “sent down” and recalled to/from their NBA team, and have had 59 additional players called-up to the NBA. As a result we now have close to 80 former NBA D-League players on NBA rosters right now, which is getting close to 20% of the entire league!

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D-League president Dan Reed’s checklist for prospective affiliates, from the RU interview:

- a great arena
- strong ownership
- a good market

- market size
- competition
- income levels
- size of corporate base
- basketball fan avidity


Can a PBL team move to the D-League? Looking at Dan Reed's checklist, I think Halifax qualifies.

- We play in a 10,000 seat arena, average about 2,800 fans this past season (1,800 in the first season in the ABA),
- population of 400,000 in the immediate area and draw from another 100,000+ within an hour of Halifax,
- we have 2 university teams in the city and another within 2 hours of Halifax that are usually nationally ranked so we are basketball fans,
- Halifax is a government town so income levels are good and steady,
- the only live pro sport competition is a major junior league hockey team that shares the arena with us.

As for the other current PBL teams, most of their markets are too small to support a D-League team, because of the $1,000,000 franchise fee, versus $10,000 or $20,000 for ABA, depending on your source. I don't know the cost of a franchise in the PBL, but I bet it is closer to $20,000 than a million.

Halifax is unique in that we are a good-size small city with a suitable arena to support a D-League team, rather than many PBL teams who play in much smaller venues. With Maine and Springfield in the NBADL, along with Erie, we could fit into a Northeast division quite easily, flying through Boston or Toronto.