truebluefan

The NBA Development League's 2008-09 season begins Friday, Nov. 28, with six games scheduled, including the first-ever game for the Erie BayHawks, who travel to take on the Fort Wayne Mad Ants at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in a Central Division matchup. The following night, the Reno Bighorns tip off their inaugural season, hosting the Bakersfield Jam at the Reno Events Center, in a Western Division showdown. This season, the league's eighth, and the fourth in which D-League teams have direct affiliations with NBA teams, tips off with seven NBA assigned players on NBA D-League rosters, including Boston's J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker, playing for the Utah Flash; Golden State's Richard Hendrix and DeMarcus Nelson suiting up for the Jam; Memphis' Hamed Haddai honing his game with the Dakota Wizards; Oklahoma City's Steven Hill with the Tulsa 66ers and Ian Mahinmi returning to the Austin Toros from the San Antonio Spurs. The NBA D-League has also seen it's first GATORADE Call-Up to the NBA this season, with Dakota guard Blake Ahearn earning a spot on the Spurs' roster. The NBA D-League is coming off a record-breaking 2007-08 season in which an all-time high 31 NBA players were assigned 53 times to their team's NBA D-League affiliate and an all-time high 18 players earned 29 GATORADE Call-Ups to NBA teams.
At the start of the 2008-09 NBA season, 60 players with NBA D-League experience were featured on NBA opening day rosters, including 2007-08 assigned guard Ramon Sessions (Tulsa, Milwaukee) and Kelenna Azubuike, who earned a GATORADE Call-Up during the 2006-07 season from the Fort Worth Flyers to the Golden State Warriors. Last season, 15 percent of all players in the NBA were NBA D-League alumni, including the NBA D-League's 100th GATORADE Call-Up, Golden State's C.J. Watson Additionally, one-third of the 2007 NBA draft class played in the NBA D-League to improve their skills and accelerate their development.
For the 2008-09 season, the NBA D-League's 16 teams are broken into three divisions: the Central Division, West Division and Southwest Division. The Central Division is comprised of Dakota, Erie, Fort Wayne, the Iowa Energy and Sioux Falls Skyforce while the West Division includes the Anaheim Arsenal, Bakersfield, 2007-08 NBA D-League Champion Idaho Stampede, Los Angeles D-Fenders, Reno and Utah. The Southwest Division consists of the Albuquerque Thunderbirds, Austin, Colorado 14ers, Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Tulsa.
NBA D-League teams each play a 50-game regular season schedule, including 24 home games, 24 road games, and two games at the annual NBA D-League Showcase. The Showcase, which features all 16 NBA D-League teams playing 16 games in four days, will take place from January 5-8 on the Flash's home court in Orem, Utah, with all games aired on NBA TV. The regular season begins Friday and ends April 11. The Playoffs will begin on April 13 at the earliest.
The NBA D-League will continue to have a large presence during NBA All-Star festivities, with the third-annual NBA D-League All-Star Game taking place in Phoenix on Feb. 14, 2008. NBA D-League All-Stars will also participate in the second annual Dream Factory Skills Competition and numerous other community and fan events.