It didn’t occur to me when I read Mark Cuban’s comments about how the D-League is a much more super awesome place than college for 18-year olds to hone their skills/cool their jets until they’re eligible for the draft, but here’s a reason kids might not fall all over themselves to chase Cuban’s dream:
“I think the thing with playing college basketball, especially the players that are good enough to play at high-level schools, they get so much exposure (in college),” Nored said. “Think about how much talk there has been of the freshman focus in college basketball this season. You’re probably not going to get that talk in the D-League because you’re just playing on YouTube every day.”
Now there’s no reason the NBA couldn’t choose to promote players in the D-League to a greater degree… except (1) that costs money (and why spend it when the colleges will do it gratis?) and (2) to the extent that promotion is successful, it’s going to pump up the market value of certain players.
Anyway, interesting point.