Brian Ross
Senior Editor
Minor League News

Minor Basketball As Easy As P.I.E.
A breakdown of the minor leagues and a ranking of who's hot and who's not.

Minor league basketball is a supportive system to the NBA, largely providing bench players doing a certain amount of fill in time when injuries mount up at a particular team.

Almost all minor basketball players are recruited from college in supplemental drafts by the minor leagues after the NBA draft. The minor league drafts tend to draw the remaining players from the NBA draft not taken, and players from smaller schools and schools below the division I level that may not have had a look by the NBA.

A few players are recruited from international leagues.

The players can get more money playing in the international leagues. They stay in the United States for less money largely because they believe that the NBA scouts will have an easier time finding them, and because there might be a possibility, no matter how slim of them getting some time in the NBA.

The Troubled Sport

Of all of the minor league sports, basketball has been the most troubled. It's been at a crossroads for two years now, an intersection of politics involving the NBA, the NCAA, and Isaiah Thomas.

The anchor of the minor league system for decades has been the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). In business more than 50 years, they have served up players to the NBA through very loose affiliations with the major league for decades.

The United States Basketball League (USBL) which develops players over the NBA's off-season, has acted as a funnel to the CBA and to international leagues overseas.

Around the turn of this century, basketball star Isaiah Thomas bought the whole CBA from its owners, claiming that he was going to take the league to a new level, with better television coverage, and more connection with the NBA.

Mr. Thomas did take the league to a new level: Down.

He started off in the right direction: A new television deal with Black Entertainment Television (BET), and some push to get the league in front of the NBA. His intention seemed clear from the start: Make a deal with the NBA. Thomas wasn't alone, though.

Smelling blood in the water for an NBA-sanctioned minor league, some wealthy businessmen with a passion for basketball and a lot of dollars to fling around started the International Basketball League (IBL). That experiment lasted two years, collapsing through a combination of bad management and an awareness of the owners that the NBA wanted no part of them.

Another league, dubbed the ABA-2000 also formed in the fall of 2000. They called themselves an "alternative" to the NBA, playing in NBA cities at cut-rates. It was very clear, after the devastation of their inaugural season, that they were another minor league. They limped out of season one with just enough teams to survive.

The NBA quietly tried to negotiate a deal with Mr. Thomas. He asked for far more money than the league was worth. The NBA walked. He became bored with his troublesome toy. When an opportunity to coach in the NBA appeared, he reached for it. Commissioner Stern gave him a year to sell the CBA.

Periodically, other leagues attempt start-up. Basketball has the highest failure rate of leagues in the minors. Most do not last longer than one or two seasons.

The Post Isaiah Era (PIE)

Following the fallout of talks with the CBA, the NBA formed its own sanctioned minor league, the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), with 8 teams in the Southeast in November, 2001.

The CBA almost collapsed as, after a year, Mr. Thomas could not find an owner for the league. He sold the teams back to their original owners for a dollar. The CBA, which had been fifteen teams strong at one point, was on life support with its four strongest franchises.

In the 2004-2005 season, the dust is beginning to settle. The NBDL has lost two teams and gained one, to cruise in with seven.

The CBA is now seven teams strong, and continuing to plan its development. The teams are well marketed in their cities, and draw good crowds. They turn out a number of NBA call-ups every year, even with the NBDL doing the same thing.

The NBA continues to run the NBDL. They have some of the best PR in the business, and television exposure, but turnout for the actual games remains exceptionally low for the only other league outside of baseball to be fully affiliated with a major league.

The USBL continues to operate steadily, as it has for years.

The now renamed ABA continues to drag out Dennis Rodman to a new city for a week or three, operate in new markets, and close almost as many others.

Why develop a minor league for basketball? Isn't College already the minor league for the NBA?

There are players who are 17 and have no business being in college, as they don't plan to get much of an education or aren't grade eligible. There are outstanding players who were the number two or three guy at their college, or who play for small schools who don't make the NBA draft.

There is not only a need for developmental basketball, but a good market for it as well.

Players under contract to NBA teams playing in a dedicated minor league system can improve the reach of major league clubs into neighboring regional markets. Just as baseball continues to try and find more logical groupings of major clubs with area affiliates, the NBA could do well by strengthening its hold in local communities with good live games to augment the pay-per-season television fare.

There is a difference between college ball and pro minor league sports in hoops, as there is in other sports. These athletes are that step up. Perhaps not NBA quality, but on the verge of being there.

Commissioner Stern laments that many players just aren't ready for the NBA when they come off of the draft. How many kids have we seen touted as top round draft picks who fizzle and die in the big time because they didn't have enough additional maturity or seasoning?

There is a reason why post-collegiate players and non-college players in baseball fare better coming up from the farm system: It prepares them for the specifics of a career in the big leagues.

Even if you are the most die hard NBA/College fan, how many players have you seen that could have been great but got lost in the big leagues?

A system strong and deep in talent is always more interesting to watch than a few stars surrounded by also-rans.

The cost to basketball, where losing potentially great talent costs millions in signing bonuses and salary guarantees, is staggering.

The NBA needs a system for seasoning players better, acknowledged in part by Commissioner Stern's launch of the NBDL. That is only part of the way though, and more will need to happen.

The CBA is the best managed league in minor basketball. It has survived economic downturns, and even Mr. Thomas putting it into near extinction.

The CBA owners know more about operating a league in the second tier than the NBA and its partner, SFX Entertainment, that run the NBDL.

The NBA's name alone is not enough to make a minor league fly. Large corporate ownership of the league, much like the original NBDL team logos (Generic NBA brand in different colors) does not replace local ownership, and community passion for its teams.

There are a lot of war wounds from the last few years. The political fractiousness of the leagues creates a disharmony that damages all of them, NBDL included, and leaves them failing to serve players, local market fans, and even the NBA itself.

Were all fourteen of the AAA class CBA and NBDL teams to come together in one league that could ultimately go team-for-team with the major leagues, there would be a very strong developmental system for basketball.

What should happen? Commissioner Stern and the NBA need to negotiate a greater whole in minor league basketball that brings in the stronger elements of all leagues to a class-system.

It is easier to play to your ability when you know that you're working towards something, that there are clear avenues between you and the major league that you can pass along if you play the game.

Minor basketball offers fans a chance to see rising stars up close, to get excited about the next crop of great players.

The March Madness Factor

The other piece of that puzzle is the NCAA, where anecdotal evidence suggests that a larger minor league is threatening to their media money and dominance.

The likelihood that the minors develop much more national following or television time than they currently have seems low.

There is the possibility that college bound players might defer to the league's farm system rather than college. Without television and name appeal in the minors, that would be less likely, but even if the two systems were of parallel strength, it would give the colleges more credibility not to be recruiting players who are not academically worthy in order to get to the Final Four.

If the NBA positions its minor league teams in markets that do not detract from the major division one schools, in places big enough to sustain a college and a pro program, the NCAA should find that a healthy minor league should help the college programs by increasing post-collegiate careers, not hurt it.

Who's Hot (And Who's Not)

		The oldest and still the best (Sorry NBA). If you want to see great action with good home fan base, check out the CBA.
		If you build it, they won't necessarily come. The league is developing some great talent, but the NBA's large scale marketing savvy doesn't always draw fans in at the local level. Good action, but you can hear your cheers echo.
		The USBL plays after the NBA season, so you can catch your summer basketball jones. Good Class AA level ball. If you're in the neighborhood, worth a look.
		The ABA always seems to patch together teams. A few places from Vegas to Long Beach are worth checking out. They drag out Rodman annually, who occasionally figures out that he's playing basketball.

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