The NBA’s little brother known as the NBA D League Basketball has a variety of functions. It serves as a league where undrafted but talented college graduates can perform, get paid and hope to get brought into the NBA. It also serves as an in-season training for drafted NBA players who are not seeing much playing time with their clubs–they can be sent down to the D League. The 2008 2009 D League Basketball has grown into a sixteen team league and since its inception in 2001 there have been many successful basketball players who have had brief stints reassigned to the D League.
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Here are the most well-known successful basketball players to have spent time in the D League::
Jordan Farmar, Los Angeles Lakers. Jordan Farmar was drafted by the Lakers in the 2006 NBA Draft as a guard out of UCLA to back up then-starter Smush Parker. By the end of the season, Farmar had become the Lakers’ starting point guard. During his first season, Farmar was reassigned to the D League several times for experience. He set an NBA-first record when he played in D League basketball and in an NBA game on the same day. On March 31, 2007, Farmar played for the D-Fenders in a morning game and also played for the Lakers in the afternoon. Farmar won a championship with the Lakers in June 2009.
Rafer Alston, Orlando Magic. Alston took a circuitous route into the the NBA which included stops at Ventura College, Fresno State and a year in which he went to the D League. In fact, Alston started there during the 2002-2003 season with the Mobile Revelers, where he played point guard, averaging better than 15 points per game. After the Revelers won the D League championship, Alston was called back up by the Milwaukee Bucks and was not sent back down to the D League again. He travelled through many NBA teams before ending up as the starting point guard for the Orlando Magic in the NBA Finals in 2009.
Chris Andersen, Denver Nuggets. Andersen, a center nicknamed the “Birdman,” has had a career of ups and downs in the NBA. At 6’10” he was an undrafted center from tiny Blinn College when he first played in China before coming to the D League for two seasons with two different teams before being called up by the Denver Nuggets. Andersen played three seasons before being expelled from the NBA. He was reinstated in 2006 and joined Denver in 2008, playing a central role in their Western Conference Finals battle against the Lakers in 2009.
Devin Brown, Charlotte Hornets. Now with the Hornets, Brown is best known for his time with the successful basketball players that surrounded him on the San Antonio Spurs. Brown began his career as an undrafted players who spent one year with the USBL and then a year with the D-League Fayetteville Patriots in 2002-2003, a season where he was voted the MVP of the D-League. He spent the next three seasons in San Antonio, which featured his best season and a standout postseason in 2005.