OKC's NBA Franchise Purchases Tulsa D-League Affiliate

THE NEXT COMING? TRUE HOOP's Henry Abbott wrote D-League Utah Flash Owner Brandt Andersen is "kind of the Mark Cuban of the D-League, in that he's a big spender, an outside-the-box thinker, and a youngster!" Andersen has brought a "brand of class, optimism, and deep pockets to a league that is used to long bus rides, small pay checks, and dreams of bigger things." Andersen recently hosted the Iranian national basketball team when they played in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league in Salt Lake City. And Andersen said, "I have offered to take the Flash to Iran next year. I talked to (NBA Deputy Commissioner) Adam Silver about it, I talked to the Iranian delegation. The Iranian delegation is excited. This would be the first NBA team ever to go to Iran. Adam Silver seemed to think it was a good plan. I'm going to push pretty hard." Abbott wrote, "Personally, I hope the trip happens. Sports have a long history of succeeding in enabling international relations where politics fail. This could be one more such instance" (ESPN.com, 7/31).

LITTLE BIGHORNS: In Reno, Justin Lawson reports the city's D-League team Thursday formally unveiled their new Reno Bighorns name. Nevada's state animal is the Bighorn, and the "green, blue and brown colors in the [team's] logo also represent Northern Nevada." The green represents the "trees along the mountains and the blue is for Lake Tahoe, while the brown ties in Nevada's deserts" (RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL, 8/1).

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