RENO -- Basketball players from around the country are bringing their A game to Reno this week in hopes of attracting the attention of professional basketball teams.

The NBA Development League Showcase will feature all 16 NBA D-league teams, and it’s all happening right here in our biggest little city, for the second year in a row.

The showcase provides an opportunity for NBA D-league players and coaches to perform in front of key NBA decision makers this week. Scouts from every NBA team, as well as international scouts, are attending the showcase to see if they can sign any D-league players.

President of the NBA D-league, Dan Reed, says generally the showcase moves around to different cities every year, but he says it made perfect sense to come back to Reno again.

“We had such a terrific experience that it was really an easy decision to come back again. The event center is terrific. The casinos and hotels are close by,” Reed said. “The scouts really enjoy the experience and the RSCVA and Herb Santos and the Reno Bighorns have been terrific partners throughout the whole process.”

“This showcase is most pressured-pack job audition you could ever imagine. Think about it, you have a chance to go from your current job to a job that pays you millions of dollars per year,” Reed said. “You become a global celebrity and a lot of it comes down to how you play in these two games in front of the entire scouting community.”

Managing Owner of the Reno Bighorns, Herb Santos Jr., says he would love to see each of his Bighorns players get a chance to play in the NBA. “We got the best basketball, anywhere, other than the NBA, is right here in Reno,” Santos Jr. said. “I mean all the NBA eyes are centered in Reno, Nevada watching developing talent as these guys are playing to get their chance to make it on an NBA basketball team.”

Reed says the league is currently in the process of taking bids for next year’s showcase location. He says Reno has applied again.

The first 4 of 16 games tipped off yesterday at the Reno Events Center, home of the Reno Bighorns.