NBA D League

The D-League today. The NBA tomorrow.

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If there ever will be a female NBA head coach in my lifetime, I'm thinking Nancy Lieberman has got a shot. Lieberman took the first step toward that Thursday when she was named head coach of the Dallas Mavericks' D-League team in Frisco, Texas, that will begin play next year.

"If I am successful, I'm sure that I will be looked at (by the NBA),'' Lieberman, while on her way to her press conference to be introduced, told FanHouse by phone. "If I'm not successful, I won't be.''

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Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Basketball has taken former UCLA center Michael Fey across the globe. From China to Poland to the United Arab Emirates, Fey has run the journeyman's version of the Four Corners of the globe. But these days, Fey has been putting in the work at the Lakers training camp as the NBA champions are getting ready for another title defense.

In this video we talk to Michael about how his workouts are going, what type of nicknames Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom have dished out to the Lakers newcomers, whether he'd play for the D-Fenders and more.

Check out the video after the jump.

The NBA has opened its training camp in New York for replacement officials, a group that includes 35 with experience in the NBA's Development League, six with WNBA experience and two that worked in the NBA before being fired in recent years.

Those numbers are based on the list of 44 officials -- obtained by FanHouse -- who had agreed to be part of the camp. (You can find the list, which has not been confirmed by the NBA, at the end of this post.)

The league has been preparing to open both its exhibition schedule next month and the regular season with replacements after contract talks with the referees' union hit a stalemate.

Love it or hate it, no one will forget Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame induction speech any time soon, especially his story about how Bryon Russell once talked trash in 1994, when Jordan was retired and Russell was a rookie, and how Jordan proceeded to go out of his way torch Russell every chance he had after returning. "From this day forward," Jordan concluded, "if I ever see him in shorts, I'm coming at him."

Russell took the challenge in stride, confirming Jordan's story while at the same time refusing to back down. "I'll play his a-- right now," he told Yahoo! Sports. "This is a call-out for him to come play me."

Jordan hasn't publicly responded yet, but Brandt Andersen, owner of the D-League's Utah Flash, is hoping to goad him into action, putting $100,000 of his own money on the line for a one-on-one contest.

Sports Illustrated's Alexander Wolff founded a minor league basketball team -- the Vermont Frost Heaves -- in 2005. He has used the team to experiment with the sort of management styles suggested by sports fans over the years, and has also written about the sports ownership experience in the magazine. One of the gimmicks Wolff implemented was to let Frost Heave fans vote on who would coach the team. Will Voight, a Vermont native and three-time champion of the Norweigan league (seriously) won the job.

This summer, the unstable Bakersfield Jam of the NBA's Developmental League decided to also let fans vote for the team's next coach. Guess who they picked? Yep, Will Voigt.

Jeremy Tyler, the San Diego prospect who dropped out of high school as a junior to pursue a professional career in Europe, has been looking for a team since April. The issue is not that there is no interest from the Old World, it's that handler Sonny Vaccaro wants the right fit (and the best deal).

In May, concerns were raised that Vaccaro aimed too high, that if Tyler landed on too good a team, he'd spend two years wallowing on the bench. Coaches in Europe can't afford to allow their top teams to suffer growing pains for the benefit of an American who will leave at first chance.

Well, Tyler reportedly has a team -- Olimpija Ljubljana in Slovenia -- and DraftExpress's Jonathan Givony thinks it's a bad idea.

A true minor league system, something similar to what has allowed Major League Baseball to thrive, has seemed a natural for the NBA for years.

Perhaps the league with the most underdeveloped young talent is on the brink of landmark movement.

The Houston Rockets announced Monday they are entering into a single-affiliation partnership with their NBA D-League squad, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, making them the first such NBA team to do so. Under this agreement, the Rockets will take over the Vipers basketball operations, while Alonzo Cantu and his local ownership group in Rio Grande Valley will continue to oversee the business operation. Rockets GM Daryl Morey will oversee the Vipers basketball operations starting this upcoming season.

I am one of the countless lucky individuals who finds himself on the D-League's daily e-mail distribution list. Normally, this entitles me to receive such fascinating news alerts as (in all caps, mind you) "IOWA'S DEMETRIS NICHOLS CALLED UP TO NEW YORK KNICKS."

Not exactly breaking news, but you can't blame people for trying. So typically, I glance at the announcement, select the message, and hit the "archive" button. (Hey, GMail has a point: Who needs to delete when you have over 7303.442525 megabytes (and counting) of free storage?)

A message that came in Monday, however, immediately became required reading. Because it was an announcement that promised an "innovative 2009 playoff format," and the details definitely did not disappoint.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day. Want to submit an item? Hit us up on Twitter (@NBAFanHouse, #essentials).

* "During a recent trip to Toronto earlier this month, Matt Bonner talked with the media about how the combination of his grandfather - a 'Newfie' as he affectionately referred to him - and his wife being from Canada has led him to feel a strong connection to this country. Bonner also recently discovered that he has some cousins who are Canadian. Because of these factors Bonner has decided to file the necessary paperwork to gain his Canadian citizenship. Not only that, but he's also expressed a strong desire to play the Canadian national team." -- Hoops Addict.

Saturday's Slam Dunk Contest was quite entertaining. Dwight Howard and Nate Robinson put on a great show with their Superman and Kyrpto-Nate act. However -- minus the comic book showmanship -- the dunks themselves might have been topped in another dunk contest earlier in the weekend.

In Friday's D-League Slam Dunk Contest, former first round pick James White put on a show that lived up to the folklore of his dunking ability. After the jump, take a look at some at the dunks White threw down during the D-League contest.