I did not attend the East Coast Invasion at the Roxy. I didn’t crash the 2 Kings dinner thrown by LeBron James and Jay-Z. I didn’t wind up in a secret basement humidor club with World Wide Wes, Phil Knight, and J. Prince. I’m sure at some point I was sweating, but it probably had more to do with a room service quesadilla than with molly, and it did not happen at Empire Night Club with Trinidad James and DJ Khaled. I went to Charles Barkley’s surprise party, but the closest I got to all of the lights was nodding appreciatively at Dodgers play-by-play man Charlie Steiner when he said to me, “I don’t know about Flo-Rida. I’m more of a New Ride-as of the Purple Sage man myself.” It probably says more about me that I got the joke than it does about Steiner that he made it.

This week in Reno, Nevada, dozens of NBA scouts and executives are gathering for the annual NBA D-League Showcase, a four-day event that offers talent evaluators a look at the best of what the league has to offer.

Plenty of members of the national media are in attendance, as are a handful of scouts representing teams from Europe and Asia. Over the next few days, we’ll look at a number of topics surrounding the showcase, but first here’s a quick introduction to the event.