Wikipedia wrote:The Los Angeles Lakers have purchased the rights to an NBA Development League team, becoming the first NBA team to do so. Like the parent club, they will play their home games at the Staples Center until the Ontario Community Events Center is completed in 2007.
The Lakers held a "name the team" contest with an unusual format. As with the NCAA tournament bracket, the site featured 64 possible team names. By the first week of June 2006, only the D-Fenders and Breakers remained as finalists.
On June 5, balloting closed. Three days later, the team was supposed to announce its new name, but did not do so. It has been reported that Breakers was the winning name in the poll, but there still has no official announcement as of June 29, 2006.
source: Wikipedia
But if you go on their temporary official site, and zoom in on the bracket, you see the D-Fenders are the winning name
"D-Fenders". Weird name for a team, even for a D-League one, hey. Even if it's just about unveiling a name, things are starting bad I guess (they are already 25 days late). I hope there is not anything bigger involved. Nevertheless, I like the fact that one team completely owns a developmental one. I don't know if a D-League with 30 teams would be interesting to see, but that team could help the Lakers stack promising players, not only rookies and 1 year pro players, but also role players who haven't found a home elsewhere. I also hope that the Lakers will truly use this team by sending some of their prospects, including Andrew Bynum who may not be ready yet for the Big League
