Kane County Chronicle on the D-League ...

We spotted this interesting article from Kane County, Illinois:

Bulls’ Brown a changed man after NBDL stint

Rich and famous pro athletes are not used to traveling this way. During a stint with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in January, Bulls guard Shannon Brown journeyed with his team from the southern tip of Texas to a National Basketball Developmental League tournament in Boise, Idaho.

There was a four-hour bus trip to San Antonio on which players ate boxed lunches with sandwiches, chips, a banana and cookies.

There was a two-hour commercial flight to Denver, a far cry from the private charter flights that are an NBA staple. Brown squeezed his 6-foot-4 frame into a coach seat.

There was an hour-long layover in Denver. There was a second flight from Denver to Boise, which is not the most glamorous place to visit in January.

Finally, there was basketball.

“Actually, I never appreciated the game more,” Brown said. “Going through all that to get there, you can’t wait to just play.”

For players such as Brown, a first-round draft pick who had known nothing but stardom in high school and college, the NBDL can be a jolting experience. These players are used to the bright lights, not the minor leagues.

Learning to adjust, even if their NBDL stint is short-lived, can be a challenge.

“Riding that bus was a little bit humbling, and I mean that in a good way,” Brown said. “All the [perks] that come with playing in the NBA, you’re not guaranteed any of that. It was a good reminder to have.”

The second-year guard, whom the Bulls acquired in last month’s trade with Cleveland, spent six days in the NBDL while with the Cavaliers.

The D-League, as the NBDL is best known, gave Brown a better chance to hone his skills than he would have had while sitting at the end of Cleveland’s bench. But the lifestyle was a big change.

Brown, after all, had lived in northern urban environments throughout his life – from Maywood in the Chicago suburbs to East Lansing, Mich., for college to Cleveland.

In Hidalgo, Texas, home of the Vipers, “I saw people wearing sombreros,” Brown said. “If you drove a little ways outside town, you’d end up on dirt roads. It was something new for me.”

So was realizing his limitations as a basketball player.

Brown was a prep star at Proviso East in Maywood, where one of his teammates was eventual University of Illinois star Dee Brown. Shannon Brown went on to Michigan State, where he earned second-team all-Big Ten honors as a junior.

Cleveland made Brown the 25th pick of the 2006 draft. Scouts lauded his athleticism, but wondered whether, at 6-foot-4, he was too short and lacked a pure enough jump shot to excel at shooting guard.

Those concerns were justified. Brown appeared in only 23 games as a rookie during the Cavs’ run to the NBA Finals. He got off to a slow start this season as well.

“My dad [Chris Brown] always made me work so hard,” Brown said. “And ever since high school, all that hard work had paid off. Now I was having a tougher time where just working hard wasn’t going to cut it. Not everyone can just come right in and be LeBron [James].”

On Jan. 11, the Cavs assigned Brown to the Vipers.

The more Brown thought about it, the more he actually was happy about the designation. Cleveland had surprised him by declining to pick up the third-year option on his rookie contract, and the D-League showcase in Boise would be a chance to play in front of scouts from all 30 teams.

“We talked about that part of it with him and, when he thought about it, it was something he wanted to do,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said.

The D-League is a 14-team outfit that has been in existence in some form since 2001. In the most recent collective bargaining agreement, signed in the summer of 2005, the NBA persuaded the players’ union to agree to make the D-League more of a true minor league.

Each D-League team is associated with two or three NBA teams. NBA players in their first or second season can be designated for assignment.

During his week in the D-League, Brown still collected his $1.044 million salary. The collective bargaining agreement requires any player that gets “sent down” to continue receiving full pay.

Most of Brown’s teammates at Rio Grande Valley were not contracted to NBA teams. They were fringe pros playing for somewhere around $50,000 while hoping to attract the notice of an NBA club and perhaps sign a 10-day contract.

“Seeing them, I couldn’t complain about anything,” Brown said.

The Boise tournament was a success for Brown, who scored 63 points in two games to earn his way back onto the Cavs’ main roster. And no, he did not see any potato farms.

“We were downtown the whole time,” Brown said. “It was like a mini-Cleveland.”

However, their accommodations were not as extravagant as Brown had become used to during 11⁄2 pro seasons. Most NBA teams stay in four- or five-star hotels on the road (think Ritz-Carlton), while NBDL teams frequent Holiday Inns and the like.

Also, it’s two players to a room in the D-League. Brown always appreciated the privacy of a solo room, allowing him to nap on game days, but he had to adapt.

All told, he came away thankful for the experience.

“As soon as I got to the NBA, it was like I had realized my dream,” Brown said. “I had to understand that the hard part was just beginning. My time down there really helped drive home that point even more.”