THIS POSTING IS SO INCREDIBLE, THAT I BESEECH YOU TO KEEP READING TILL THE END, FOR THERE IS AN ASTONISHING PUNCHLINE.
The NBA tips off today with the Chicago Bulls versus #1 Miami Heat, Los Angeles teams, the Clippers and the Lakers, meeting, and Orlando at Indiana. The first two games are on TNT, with Fox Sports carrying the third. There is also an NBA channel that gets games and talks about the NBA 24 hours a day. I'm sure this excited around 1% of my readership. BUT HANG IN, FOR THIS COULD BE ONE OF THE STUPIDIST THINGS GOING ON TODAY. Frankly, I last year did not watch even one complete NBA game. This year I pondered forever about whether to have any fantasy teams, then realized yesterday that the league was to start in two days.Well, I signed up for three teams, two for free, and one at a cost of $25. You ask, what is a fantasy team? Here is how it works, say for the one I actually paid:
- Statistics are kept by a centralized computer in eight categories:
- points, steals, rebounds, field goal percentage, blocks, assists, 3-pointers and free throw percentage
- team numbers are compared with one of the 9 teams in your league--called head to head competition, and at the end of the week, there is a winner
- this goes on until...
- ...a few weeks before the end of the season, when the top teams compete in playoffs, leading eventually to one champion
- How do you form a team? There is a draft, which for me took an hour this afternoon, when all ten "coaches" went through a process of selecting their players on the internet, administrated by ESPN. I chose these players (and I never before heard of half of them):
| PG | Mike Conley, Mem PG | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| SG | Paul George, Ind SF, SG | 7:00 PM | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |||||||
| SF | Wesley Matthews, Por SG, SF | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| PF | Serge Ibaka, OKC PF, C | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| C | David Lee, GS PF, C DTD | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| G | Jeremy Lin, Hou PG | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| F | Nikola Vucevic, Orl C, PF | 7:00 PM | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |||||||
| UTIL | Joe Johnson, Bkn SG | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| UTIL | Kevin Martin, Min SG | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| UTIL | Nick Young, LAL SG | 10:30 PM | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | |||||||
| BENCH | OCT 29 | 2014 SEASON STATS | RESEARCH | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLOT | PLAYER, TEAM POS | ACTION | OPP | STATUS ET | MIN | FGM/FGA | FG% | FTM/FTA | FT% | 3PM | REB | AST | STL | BLK | PTS | PR15 | %OWN | +/- | |||
| Bench | Jonas Valanciunas, Tor C DTD | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| Bench | Wilson Chandler, Den SF, SG DTD | -- | --/-- | -- | --/-- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | ||||||||
| Bench | Gerald Wallace, Bos SF DTD | ||||||||||||||||||||
- What are the odds of my doing well?
- Anyway, when there is an NBA game on TV, I am rooting only for my players, and hope everyone else gets injured or plays poorly. It's ruthless.
- It's not as simple as that, for there is a lot of strategy as to who to keep and who to obtain off a free agents list. Note, for example, that I have four DTD players. DTD stands for an injured player who is not that seriously hurt, thus, Day-To-Day. As I said, I have not kept up.
- As there is no limit to games played, I will over the year, DAILY, give up on six of the above and find players with good statistics who are playing on any given day.
- Thus, you need to keep on top of injuries, etc., and find the exact right time in the morning to make adjustments.
This is every day. There are five games on Christmas, and this whole nonsense goes on until April 24. Unless I give up, I will be involved for almost six months. In the meantime, Major League Baseball starts around April 1, so I will then draft three more teams, taking me into October of 2014. Yes, this is still October, so I will be locked up for a full year. Worse, I will be watching many, many games to gain an edge on the competition. Certainly, the time wasted is incredible. If I win, and I usually don't, I might get a t-shirt. Why do I do this? Good question, except that there are 34 million Americans similarly involved:
- 80% male
- 90% Caucasian
- Average age of 32
- 78% with college degrees
- Average of 10 years doing this
- 27 hours/week consumed managing your teams and and watching related games on TV
Is this crazy or what?
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke an all-time record, increasing 111 to 15680. Apparently, the Federal Reserve will be keeping its stimulus for several more months. The S&P 500 also hit a record high, up 9.8 to 1772.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke an all-time record, increasing 111 to 15680. Apparently, the Federal Reserve will be keeping its stimulus for several more months. The S&P 500 also hit a record high, up 9.8 to 1772.
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