The Road to the NBA.

I've been playing NBA2k10 a lot recently, and the My Player mode is pretty addicting. You basically create your own player, play through summer league and training camp (if you get invited) trying to make an impression for a roster spot. Very realistic and thought provoking at the same time. Obviously, I made Victor Lu, #25, Point Guard. The only bad thing? This happened to my player.

--------

If you went to an NBA summer league hoping to make the team as an undrafted free agent, of course you would have to temper your expectations. After all, you've never been scouted, recruited or considered NBA-level before by any general managers, but you are willing to put in work regardless. You know you're good enough to catch on with a team, but you have to make everyone else believe it too.

Let's say you have a successful summer league and put up decent numbers -- enough to catch the attention of several lower-key scouts at the games. Your agent promotes you around to numerous teams and miraculously, you receive a training camp invite from your favourite team, the Toronto Raptors. You arrive at training camp in the best shape you've ever been, and you become so fixated with securing a roster spot that it consumes your life. It's the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you plan on dreaming of when you fall asleep. You invest so much time and effort into your game and your performance, but because you could see progress, the exhaustion and the drain become rewarding in the end.

The coach seems impressed with your effort, but does not show his hand regarding your position on the team. However, you start making cut after cut after cut, and on the last day of the camp he calls you into his office and you're being interviewed by him, the assistants and the GM. You answer all their questions as honestly and straightforwardly as possible because you know today is judgment day;

I want to make this team.
I will accept whatever role you need me in.
I will give all of me.

Instead of welcoming you into the team or politely declining your offers, the GM decides to postpone your status. Instead, he tells you all the things you've been doing right -- a real diamond in the rough.

You hustle.
You have terrific basketball IQ.
You're a good teammate and a consummate locker room leader.
There is definitely room for a player like you on this team.

A few days later, you receive a call from your agent. He tells you that the Raptors thought you would be a versatile asset to an NBA team and was extremely pleased with your performance throughout the summer league and training camp. However, the Raptors feel that the team is not ready to commit to your contractual needs moving forward -- it may prove to be detrimental to the salary cap this and next season. Hence, their decision has left you to opt for two choices;

1. Play for the NBDL affiliate until the GM clears enough salary off the books to potentially call you up and offer you a 10-day or a pro-rated contract for the rest of the season.

2. Have the Raptors release your rights so you can pursue an opportunity with another NBA team.

You are dumbfounded and you feel blindsided knowing that you definitely made a strong impression at camp. Your contract is a one-year entry level minimum deal with a team option for the second year. How could this handcuff a salary cap over $50 million a year? Why did the team not discuss this with you earlier during the camp so the contract could have had the chance to be restructured if needed? You call the GM, who doesn't pick up or return your calls for several days. When you finally reach him, he quickly tells you he is due for a meeting with Chris Bosh and can't speak for long. He does stay on the line long enough to tell you there are no guarantees that you may be called up -- "just a heads up," he says.

Well, nobody said business in the league was fair. You and your agent know you're absolutely capable of competing at the highest level in the NBA, and can definitely provide your ability to another team if necessary. To toil away uncertainly in the D-league when you promised yourself to never settle for less seems like a step backwards and a compromise to your integrity. However, this is the Raptors you're talking about, the hometown team you've become attached to, and the only team you've thought about playing for lately.

The real question here becomes: what is more important to you?

• Is playing for this team worth a stint in the D-league where you may never be called up?
• Or do you take the risk and try to find another team willing to offer you a roster spot?

What do you guys think?


p.s. Lake Show tonight!