NBA D-League: Showcase for 'The Show'

OREM — For a player in the NBA Developmental League, a week in Orem may be the most important part of the 2008-09 season.

With every D-League player in town this week for the league's 2009 Showcase, they all seem to agree that the chance for exposure in front of more than 50 NBA executives and scouts is pretty good.

"It's a great opportunity, that's what the showcase is, it's a huge opportunity for everyone to get seen by every team," Utah Flash guard Andrew Ingram said. "(NBA general managers) are looking for people who want to win and not necessarily those who are looking to do their own thing and not worry about the team."

Ingram, in his second year in the D-League, played at American University in Washington, D.C., before playing in the D-League last season.

Since the league's inception in 2001, players who might have sought their basketball fortunes overseas are staying stateside in the name of exposure.

Utah Flash forward Carlos Wheeler, the most senior member of the team at age 30, has been around the globe. Stops along Wheeler's quest to the NBA include Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Italy, Sweden, Israel, the Philippines, Egypt and a variety of minor-league teams in the U.S.

"Being in the D-League is a great opportunity for me to be seen ... to showcase my talent and energy," Wheeler said. "The difference (with the D-League) is simple: being seen by the NBA teams, NBA (general managers), scouts. That's the big difference. Overseas, no one really knows you but that country that you're playing for. Here, you're being seen all over the world."

Some of the players in the D-League have actually spent some time in the NBA and are just trying to make it back. Former University of Utah and Weber State player Lance Allred signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers in March of last year but is back in the D-League playing for the Idaho Stampede this season.

"I would have hoped the ride with Cleveland would have lasted a little bit longer, but I was grateful for the time I (had)," Allred said. "You know, it's a business and such is life. Most of it is just timing. You just have to be patient and wait for the right place, the right situation, to come along."

James Lang, who rejoined the Flash this week after spending time playing in China and Israel this season, was selected right out of high school by the New Orleans Hornets in the second round of the 2003 NBA draft.