Chris Paul Craziness

Recently, the New Orleans Hornets attempted to put together a trade that would send their All-World talent point guard Chris Paul to the Lakers in a three way trade including the Houston Rockets. The Hornets are a franchise owned by the NBA, as previous owner George Shinn agreed to sell the team to the league so that they could find a suitable buyer that would keep them in the New Orleans area. As the ownership group, it is within the limits of the NBA's authority to veto any trades on the table involving the Hornets and their superstar Paul.

Not so fast...

When the news hit that they had done just that, the basketball world was turned on its ear. I couldn't believe it myself, as I had been really fired up about it when I read the news at work. I was calling upon the fates to destroy all the knees of that supposed-to-be team of Lakers, because deep down I knew that was going to be a very scary team. Yet as scary as it was, it was also oddly exciting.

The terrible thing about all this is that I -hate- the Lakers. Back when they trounced my Sixers in the finals so many years ago, I declared my eternal hatred for the Lake Show. I have felt redemption in their struggles, especially their down years before Pau came to town and in the playoffs this last year when they got handily disposed of and disgraced by a total lack of sportsmanship. Just the same, I cringed when I saw them raise the trophy those two years, dropping one and a half worthy opponents along the way. To this day, I have only drafted one Laker on a fantasy team, but for trade purposes because I didn't want to get a center that wasn't at least as good as Bynum. That one proved difficult...

Yet just as Bill Simmons described in his most recent blog post, even us haters can't help but get excited by the prospect of seeing a potentially dominant team come together. If they could have dealt for Paul, surely they would have also made a play at David West to complete their lineup. Bringing those two longtime teammates (All-Star teammates!) in to complete a lineup also featuring Kobe, Metta World Peace, and Bynum would have been truly formidable. Imagine that team getting thrown up against the Heat for the next three or four years! For the kind of money they would need to sign West, it might be necessary to amnesty one of their higher paid role players (I would guess Metta) but had the trade gone down as it was planned, they would have shed major payroll by shedding two large contracts while only taking back one. That would have been a scary lineup. No depth at all, since your key reserves wind up being Matt Barnes, Steve Blake and Derrick Caracter. But definitely good enough to match up with the Heat on any given day.

I aspire to be this guy one day.... how sad is THAT?

But the main story here is the Hornets. GM Dell Demps would have gotten a fantastic package of players to build a team around, yet the deal still was not good enough for the NBA ownership to allow the trade to be completed. Despite the leak of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert's e-mail to league officials condemning the trade and insisting many other owners agreed with him, the press release from the league claimed the veto came about from reasons they classified as a "basketball decision". This is obviously total BS, and there isn't anybody out there who's fooled. David Stern is pulling strings, and ultimately pulling the rug out from under the executives, players and fans who have been so invested in these proceedings.

But really, what kind of negotiating do we expect from the league executives? During the lockout, these were the people who were always considered icy and combative to the point that the players were ready to file anti-trust lawsuits against them. According to David Aldridge, you could say that as the ownership for the Hornets are just simply trying to drive for a better deal. It may be playing the devil's advocate a bit, but if you think about the position of the team from the owner's stand point, wouldn't you try to run up as many assets as possible in exchange for your ultimate commodity, a superstar point guard? If that letter never saw the light of day, you might actually believe that these frugal bastards that currently run the Hornets were actually trying to play hard ball with this trade.

All of that being said, I don't know how much more the Hornets could expect to get at this point. They could potentially have to ship out another player in return for additional draft picks, which Aldridge seems to think will help the deal become more satisfactory. That seems to be the key to me, is to sweeten the deal with the potential to harvest young talent to help make the Hornets a potential Oklahoma City clone down the road. This is where things get tricky, as both the Lakers and Rockets will never have attractive draft picks to offer since both are playoff contenders. If the Hornets want younger talent in return for their superstar, then is it possible they need to try to find a new third team (leaving Houston with a pissed off group of players) or find a way to bring in a fourth team with helpful draft picks that could really use Emeka Okafor or Trevor Ariza.

Pau Gasol just can't handle the awesomeness that is Trevor Ariza

If by some extreme circumstance we come to find that it really was a ploy to (somehow) get a better deal for the franchise, it would be seen as an expert move. At the same time, the risks are just as high that they might wind up asking for too much from the other teams. The worst case scenario for this team is that they can't find some way to get some return for Paul, who is virtually guaranteed to leave New Orleans at season's end when he can opt out of his contract. When everything is said and done, there might not be a better deal to be had than this.

As of right now, the three teams have been given the blessings of the owners to try and rework the deal that would send Paul to LA. Some wonder if any trade is suitable at all anymore, and if Paul truly is forced to stick in New Orleans because of the fallout from this decision then it will surely cripple the franchise after this year when Paul walks away to go and chase rings with Carmelo and Amare in New York, Kobe and Howard/Bynum in LA or any other potential super team in the works with a big market team.

Today was the official opening day of the NBA season, and the stories rage on. This really is gonna be a crazy, crazy season...

What a catch

This past weekend, if you were flipping through the channels on TV then you might have come across a college football match up between the Marshall Thundering Herd and the East Carolina Pirates. If you did happen upon this game just before halftime then you got to witness just a hell of a catch by Marshall receiver Aaron Dobson. In case you missed it, here it is again:

Wait, he caught it....how? His back was still turned to the ball! Forever coining the phrase "the onebackhanded catch", Dobson just cemented his status as a unique pass catcher. With college football coming to a close soon he won't have many more chances to get on the highlight reels this year, but that's ok because I don't think I'll be ready to stop watching this amazing display until next year anyway.

I mean..... seriously? Try and catch ANYTHING like that. Okay, so it's possible to do with some smaller objects like a spoon or a AA battery. But try and do it with something a little bigger than your hand like a football is, something like a cantaloupe or maybe your neighbors new born. Get's a lot tougher huh? To help illustrate my point a little more, here are all the big factors at work here:

1. Dobson is covered- Often times in football, when you have a big strong receiver like Dobson is, it's not uncommon to loft a ball up and let the big man jump and make a play to catch the touchdown. This is a textbook example, as the big wide out runs straight to the back corner of the end zone and QB Cato doesn't hesitate to put it up for him. As the camera pans to follow the play, we see Dobson is getting jammed and played by one of the ECU safeties. Well, whats a little physicality between friends, right? If you thought it was hard to catch that spoon earlier, imagine how much more difficult it would have been to make while trying to fight with a 6 foot, 180 lbs defensive back that's trying to keep you from being able to catch the thing. Yeah, good luck with that. By the way, in order to overcome this coverage he did have to jump for the ball, so add that extra degree of difficulty in there as well

2. This is not an accurate pass- Did you happen to see how far Dobson had to reach to gobble that ball up? Yes, that does look like a full extension of the arm in the air to pull the pass down. When Cato threw the ball, the only thing he was trying to do was get some air under it to let his big target out there make a play. It's not like he knew where Dobson was going to be at the time, so all you really can do is toss it up and hope your own guy makes it down with it. Despite not being in the right position, Dobson was still able to maneuver the coverage just enough to get one big mitt under the ball. Going back to the pass, it would have been a lot easier had he gotten a more accurate toss. Despite having to fully extend the arm for the catch, he's still able to swing his arm back in to his body with the ball safely in tow. Just making the catch isn't always enough, as a heads up play by one of the few defenders in the area could have been enough to knock the ball out before Dobson could secure the catch. This wasn't the case though, as I'm sure the defenders might have been just as in awe of the play as we all are.

3. This isn't a short toss- Take a look at where this pass is thrown. The ball is lined up and snapped from the 13 yard line, and Cato throws the ball just a step inside the twenty. Dobson makes the catch just inside the back boundary of the end zone, which measures another ten yards so we'll say he was about 7 yards inside goal. This pass was complete for more than 25 yards. This wasn't a little pitch and catch, this is a quarter of the entire field we're talking about here. Making ANY catch for that long is a great play, touchdown or not. Yet Dobson has to take it up another notch with the way he hauled it in AND score to help even the game up going into halftime.

Dobson and Marshall would go on to beat the Pirates in OT. Had this play not made it through, ECU could be sitting on another win right now going into the final week of regular competition among the college ranks. Dobson would wind up with a game high 110 yards and two scores on four catches. Lets hope for more highlights like this on down the road from Dobson and all the other athletes in football. Maybe one day we'll even see him in the next line of extreme NFL promos like these

Weird Sports

I do love to post about sports in the blogspace, but this time it's less about sports and more about the fun things sports present us with. You get to meet fun personalities, see amazing feats of athletic ability and sometimes even be moved by the real emotion of the game and the stories of its athletes. And then sometimes you get crazy, aggresive and just plain stupid stuff to watch. It's entrancing to watch sometimes.

Since most professional athletes are at least semi-famous, their respective leagues are going to sell the shit out of the image of their star athletes. What does this mean for us normal, mild mannered internet users? There are going to be a lot of great photos of these guys out there. In that light, I submit to you these two young men, whose pictures were posted rather close to one another on the Fantasy Know-It-All site rotoworld.com. I noticed an odd resemblance in their "profile pics" when checking the site, see if you can pick it out for yourself...

Tyreke Evans                                  John Wall

 Do you see it?

Look a little harder....

They only smile with half of their faces??

It's a weird phenomenon, why would two different people have a similar type of smile that way? The only connection I can think of is coach John Calipari. Both of these guys played a year under the coach, though at different schools: Evans played for Coach Cal in his one year at Memphis, while Wall played for him at Kentucky in 2009. The trend doesn't only apply to point guards, as fellow Kentucky one-and-doner and Evans' Kings teammate DeMarcus Cousins sports a similar smile.

I can't wait to see him try to drag his fat ass up and down the floor this year

Since I am one of the people lucky enough to have Paint on my computer, I was able to merge the images to see what it would look like if each of these guys were to combine their powers of stroking off one side of their face to actually get a full smile going. Since Cousins and Evans are both using the right side of their mouth to show some teeth, they canceled each other out in the combo. By doubling up the images and trying to combine their names, we came up with some interesting alternate identities for these guys next time they have to lay low for whatever reason. The results were delightful, to say the least...

Joreken Evall

JeMohncus Wusins

I think the guard combo is a much better look then the two Kentucky products. The faces line up much better, that's for sure. My photo editing capabilities are fairly limited, so I'd be interested to see what kind of mash up someone with some of that new fangled photoshop technology could do with them.

So Good, It Should Be Illegal

Some things in life are just unfair. It's a fact of life. We are not born equal. Think about it for a second, and tell me you don't know some people who were born with natural advantages.

Sometimes, it can be hereditary. Some people are just born with a body that facilitates extraordinary feats. This is especially evident when looking at athletes. Having a physical advantage in sports doesn't always lead to victory, but you can't tell me that having the right genetic make up does naturally predispose some players to success. Just look at all those 7 foot guys who get thrown on your college basketball team. They might not be fast or skilled enough to make it in the big leagues. Or they might not be solid enough to play out a full season (ask Patrick Ewing how hard it can be on your knees when you're that big). But guess what? That kid just got a scholarship to come and get his degree for free, and you didn't simply because you weren't tall enough.

Besides, tell me you haven't said to yourself at least one time, "Well I could dunk too if I was that tall!"

Other times, it's just being in the right social situation. It's obvious that people born into higher class families will usually lead more successful lives. Having education, health care and guidance available at all times helps to maximize your opportunities, not to mention how impactful it can be for a child's development to have stable living conditions. Again, this doesn't guarantee success. We all know that one rich douche out there that manages to flaunt the fact that he is super well off without having worked for any of it. He probably wound up running some lower tier car parts store somewhere. At the same time, we were also here to see the whole George W. Bush thing and how coming from a successful family worked out for him.

As unfair as it might be that some things out there just have that natural advantage, this section is more to highlight all those wonderful things in the world available to all of us that exemplify this quality. This might be a semi-regular posting, so I feel the first one needed to be kicked off with a bang! With that in mind, I submit to you....

ZAXBY'S: SO GOOD, IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!

Where do I begin!? First of all, if you happen to live in some sad, repressed part of the world where you can't indulge in the wonder that is Zaxby's chicken, I weep for your soul. The best bet is to pack your bags (now) and jump on a plane, train, boat, goat, or any other Seuss-ish vehicle and get your ass to one ASAP. If you aren't sure where to look, I would head to the area around Tallahassee, Florida. I went a few months ago with my father for a football game at his alma mater FSU and counted five different Zaxby's locations within the 20 minutes before we found our hotel. They are crawling with them down there.

So what kind of chicken do you want? Chances are, they got it. 

Chicken Fingers? Check. 

Wings? Check. 

Chicken salad? Check.

Chicken sandwich? Check.

BONELESS WINGS? SUPERCHECK.

But that is just your main entree. You get some variety, as delectable sides like texas toast and fried white cheddar bites are available as sides along with your standards like fries, slaw and onion rings. The best part of this is the dipping sauces, most notable the aptly named Zax sauce. It's on the tangy side of indescribably good, and it makes every single french fry and celery stick taste like sex. As a side note, I do also approve of their use of crushed ice in drinks. Firehouse does that too, and it doesn't matter THAT much but I still am a fan.

To this day, Zaxby's is usually used as a comfort food on those days when I need a real pick me up. In all honesty, I can't recall a time ever when Zaxby's was spoken of negatively by anyone. The only bad feelings that should be associated with that magical place is how bad it must feel not to have one nearby. I hope to never have to eat another human being, but I swear if I ever do... Zax sauce is a must. That may or may not be true, since it would also be acceptable to use Groucho's 45 sauce. But this is a guarantee: full stomach by the end of the ride, every time. 

Zax Sauce: Making cannibalism a lot tastier

Few things in life get to be as good as Zaxby's is. Sorry Chick-fil-a, Popeyes and KFC

Sunday preview

The first slate of NFL football games begins in just under an hour, I'll be watching on RedZone and will be ready to update here with my impressions and thoughts of however many games I wind up watching. Before we get to that, though, here are my predictions for the outcome of the day.

Best Game of the Day: Cincinnati at Baltimore, 1p- The Ravens emotional leader, Ray Lewis, is sidelined with an injury on the day, but don't let that fool you into thinking the stout Baltimore D is gonna be any less nasty. Terrell Suggs will lead a defensive effort that should give Bengals rookie QB Andy Dalton some trouble. The young signal caller has been quietly impressive ten weeks into the season, leading Cincy to a 6-3 record, well above expectations for a young team that jettisoned former leaders QB Carson Palmer and WR Chad Ochocinco via trades. He will be missing his primary target, fellow rookie receiver AJ Green. He has been ruled out after sustaining an injury in last weeks game.

Andy Dalton: Closet Ginger

The saving grace for Cincinnati in this game? Their defense has been playing superb ball and Ravens QB Joe Flacco has been yawn worthy, especially in the fantasy game. Ray Rice has been declared the main offensive weapon for Baltimore, so expect the Bengals D to shut down the run and force Flacco to throw to his shaky corps of receivers. Wideouts Torrey Smith and Lee Evans have been less than effective at moving the chains (in Evans' case, he needs to actually get back on the field) and should be limited by the Bengals secondary.

In the end, a veteran Ravens team grinds out a win to continue their playoff push.

My prediction: Ravens 23 Bengals 16

Rack em'

Highest Scoring Game of the Day: Buffalo at Miami- I feel firmly that Buffalo can blow out Miami at home. I also feel firmly that the Bills D is beatable, and with Brandon Marshall in such a sync with Matt Moore, we could see a bit of a shootout. The key here for Miami is Reggie Bush and if he can continue to be productive. Nobody will be as productive as Fred Jackson, who should consistently find his way in the Dolphins secondary both running and catching passes. Bills WR Stevie Johnson is questionable, but if he plays then Ryan Fitzpatrick shouldn't have any problem keeping a lead on the fish.

The Bills contender status has long been exposed as a farce, but when you play a 1-8 team it has to inspire some measure of confidence in your guys. And a little bit of confidence goes a long way.

Hopefully he scores more off the field than he does on it

My prediction: Bills 31 Miami 21 (52 total points)

Fantasy Player of the Day: Aaron Rodgers, QB Green Bay- Taking the safe pick here. Rodgers has been the most productive QB in recent history, constantly winning despite being so one dimensional on offense. Playing a weak Tampa Bay team, it wouldn't be surprising to see him put up another 300 yard, 3 TD performance. Maybe even a rushing score from the athletic QB is in the cards.

My prediction: 37 fantasy points (Standard Y! scoring guidelines applied)

4:00---4:00---FOUR O'CLOCK UPDATE---4:00---4:00

Some quick hits off the bat:

- My Panthers are going to let me down again. The built a big lead in the first half behind a superior defensive effort, but have since let the Lions regain the lead. Cam just threw an interception, but there is still some time. We're not dead yet, but we sure are going to make it easy for them to kill us.

- The Bengals-Ravens tussle has been a higher scoring affair than I predicted, yet there is drama brewing. Under three minutes to go and Baltimore is getting ready to punt. The Ravens defense will have to preserve a seven point lead to secure their seventh win of the season. Dalton hasn't been very sharp with three picks on the day to go with only one TD pass. They find themselves with 59 yards to go at the two minute warning.

- The Cowboys were able to run up an early lead in their matchup with the Redskins, but Washington has fought back into the game. After a Rex Grossman touchdown toss to veteran journeyman Donte Stallworth near the end of the game prompted the 'Boys to kneel after the kickoff to send the game into overtime. Tony Romo has looked sharp, throwing for 252 yards and 3 TDs.

- Aaron Rodgers has certainly not been the fantasy player of the day, but he did come eeriely close to hitting the stat line I had predicted. He was inches away from a rushing touchdown in the first quarter, and BJ Raji came in for the half yard touchdown run on the following play. Later in the game, in a string of pass interference calls on the Tampa Bay secondary, Rodgers had a touchdown pass to Donald Driver interfered with that would have given him his third touchdown through the air. Maybe the chips will fall right for me next time!

- Adrian Peterson left the game against the Raiders in the second quarter with an ankle injury. He was carted off the field, but appeared later on the sidelines in a t-shirt. That game has since finished with Oakland winning by six. Hopefully the injury isn't serious, because losing Peterson would certainly signal the death of the Vikings offense. On a more personal note, AD has been leading my fantasy team to new heights, and I certainly don't want to lose that anymore than I already did today.

The second group of games is getting ready to start, have fun watching and thanks if you're reading.

The Best Thing on TV, vol. I

Ever since I have returned to dwelling in a place with cable, I have found myself watching a bit more TV than in previous years. I do most of my viewing during the evenings when I'm unwinding from work or trying to fall asleep, but even in this short window I feel like I've seen just about everything worth seeing on there. If something is ever so awesome that I just can't take it anymore, I'll put it in volumes to come in this same section.

Today's Best Thing on TV? The character Rafi from FX's series The League.

Why is Rafi the best thing on TV? Because he is clearly the noblest and truest character on a show just chock full of douchebags, liars, crooks and... whatever Andre is. Expertly played by Jason Mantzoukas, who has most recently been a writer for the [as] comedy show Children's Hospital, Raffi is always one of the highlights of any episode he appears in.

Completely outrageous and extremely quotable, Rafi raises the bar on a show that is already one of the nuttiest shows on television. If you've never seen The League, here's the lowdown: It's a show about a group of long time friends that live in Chicago and compete against one another in a long tenured fantasy football league. The show is semi scripted, which means most of the foul dialogue these characters spew is actually improvised by the actors themselves. I feel this really gives great insight into these actors personalities. The great thing is that the scripted parts always wrap up the story with fantastically tragic and hilarious results, so you never leave any episode feeling dissatisfied.

Rafi himself did not appear in the show until the second season, when he was invited to join the league after out-of-towner Vince drops out. Ever since we've gotten to see Rafi's fun filled exploits, including taking advantage of a sex addict in the back of a car, buy a mexican teenage bride, steal a car, film a porno, snort a toilet seat made of cocaine, impersonate a sex offender, try to fight women, run an annoying visitor out of town, and shit in the pool. Like I said, NOBLE!

That is a face you can trust.... to shiv you when you aren't looking

In order to properly display his awesome, here's a list of the three best Rafi clips on the internet!

3.) Rafi appears early in the third season as a conspirator to the final punishment for the loser of the previous season

2.) Rafi knows how to have a good time. 

1.) Excuse the poor quality, but this is definitely a Rafi highlight film!

Rafi is TV gold, look for him when you watch The League on FX every thursday at 10:30.

My Favorite Vegetable

Outside voice:

Things are getting out of hand here people. The news I'm hearing is that in order to keep unhealthy food on the school lunch menu, people are pushing to classify pizza and french fries as a vegetable based meal. From what I understand the motivation for this push is to fight Obama's attempts to focus school meals around more nutritional sustenance. The argument is that the government should not dictate what kids can and cannot eat. The idea here is that the amount of tomato paste and vegetable toppings available on pizzas are enough to meet the federal standards for a classification in the vegetable realms.

I always wondered where pizza fit in on that thing...

I don't know about you guys, but I fully support this move. By this logic, it would be safe to assume that any other food that uses some form of tomato sauce as a key ingredient should also be considered a vegetable. Spaghettios, Bagel Bites, and half the menu at Olive Garden just got promoted to the "recommended 3-5 servings a day" class on the food ladder. I know that I could possibly eat 5 Hot Pockets in a day, but I just don't feel that's going to very constructive as I work towards my fitness goals. But hey, at least it's good to know that it does meet a national standard for nutrition. I'm working a calzone a day into my daily meal plan as we speak.

In all honesty though... Isn't this kind of ridiculous? I'm not saying we need to take pizza out of schools, that would be a sure way to spark a revolution amongst the students. Nobody wants to see the live action version of Pumped Up Kicks here. I guess the thing that amazes me the most about this particular congressional endeavor is that we have people trying to convince us that something we have known our entire lives was A LIE! I have never once had anyone tell me that I couldn't have dessert unless I finished all my deep dish. It's like when that they told us Pluto wasn't a planet, and everyone my age was like, "Yeah, fuck that."

Official Gardener of the NFL

Inside voice at the jump.

TEBOW???

Really?

 

Outside Voice:

Tebow? Really? It's inconceivable to think that a guy who looks so bad and made so many bad passes (9-20, 104 yards on the night) could come out of this evening's game with the W. If there is one thing the Jets have always had a reputation for,  its a stiff defense. Yet they couldn't stop as one-dimensional an offensive attack as the Broncos employ since they got smashed by Ndamukong Suh and the Detroit Lions. It's an amazing performance by Tebow, but what does this say about the Jets? Do we really think anybody in the AFC is thinking about the Jets in the back of their mind as a serious contender anymore?

Tebowing has quickly become an internet art form

The intense scramble down the field by Tebow in the closing minutes of the final frame was a display that will help cement his "weekend legacy" in the media. A time burning 95 yard drive down the field was capped by a 3rd down quarterback keeper that the Broncos signal caller took to the house to put Denver up 17-13 with just under a minute left in the game. After a good stop by TE Dante Rosario on the kickoff, the Denver defense sealed the game by putting serious pressure on Mark Sanchez in the final seconds. On one crucial 3rd down for the Jets, Broncos rookie Vonn Miller shed a blocker and sacked Sanchez to put the Jets in a 4th and long situation with the game on the line. Sanchez converted on the play, but the Jets offense was ultimately subdued by the Denver pressure. The game ended on a hail mary pass for the end zone, which was knocked down as the final ticks tocked away.

The Denver Broncos are not conventional by any stretch. We all know their game plan with Tebow at the helm: run, run and run some more. Even if Tebow did take a medium to long range pass, with good enough play in the secondary, it would be safe to say his accuracy is nothing to be feared. But the fact that the Broncos keep putting up wins behind Timmy, despite his deficiencies at his position, cannot be ignored. I, myself, even started to cheer for the Broncos at the end of the game (I was actually more pumped for the defense, which kept the home team in the game) and was delighted to see the final toss get batted down.

Steve Young has argued that the Bronco's success with this style of play is not sustainable. We will have to wait and see exactly how long Tebow can keep the magic going with time. It's safe to say that with Denver's run oriented game plan, combined with their inability to move the chains in long yardage situations, all any opponent would need to do to gain the upper hand is get a touchdown or two early. Should the Broncos have to overcome a double digit deficit or survive a shootout, their game plan will ultimately hinder their ability to make a solid comeback. With games against high volume offenses like San Diego, New England and Buffalo upcoming on their schedule, it will be crucial the Broncos can sustain their defensive prowess or they might find themselves in a hole they just don't have the firepower to get out of.

Now it looks all pretty

It's all pretty now, with that big ol' world back there and all my fonts switched to Verdana. This is probably about the only time I'll ever worry about how it looks, so if you don't like it you'll just have to get used to it. To show your appreciation for this, here's a dog on a dog.

Boom. More later...

5:00 am

So here it is, 5 am on Thursday morning. Apparently I partied a little too hardy in the evening, passed out, and now here I am awake. Not a person is available to chat on Facebook, and I don't feel any sleep coming back on soon. Which is why it's perfect to have a blog! I'm sure we will have many posts like this in our time together.

I feel like, in order to stimulate that part of me that likes organized press, I should come up with a format for my blog posts. So when I update here, I'll use a couple different sections to discuss my specific thoughts and feelings. As the blog IS called All Those Voices in My Head, we'll call these sections a certain voice. My inside voices will be about me and my own psyche and feeling, outside voices will be for things happening in the world around me. That way we can all have a little structure to my lunatic rants and raves.

For tonight, all I have for you is an outside voice.

The elongated labor battle in the NBA is starting to drive me crazy. It might seem weird, but fantasy basketball has been a serious endeavor for me for the last several years, all through high school and college. It might be a little sad that I'm so addicted to it, but the fact is that it wouldn't be so much fun if there weren't the six or seven other regular guys that have been in the league every year with me that keep it so competitive and engrossing. It's unique when you come across a whole group of like minded people, a group you can engage in friendly competition with for so long and develop such a camaraderie that you all come back year after year to take another stab at winning a championship.

Why fantasy sports? The answer is simple: for those of us who aren't athletic enough to play those sports anymore, we have to find another way to get in depth and close to the sport we love. With fantasy sports, you get to be the manager of your own (fake) team. For me, this entails doing hours of research and number crunching to try and figure out who will be the best players for my team. The real work doesn't start, however, until after the draft.

In all fantasy sports, the draft is critically important. This is especially true in fantasy basketball (FBB) because the scoring is so diverse. This is another great part of our league, is how developed the scoring is to truly gauge the composite performance of your team. Because our league is so advanced in these regards, strategy in the draft is crucial. The addition of a single player can render certain players obsolete because of their normal statistical performance. The course of your draft can be derailed two rounds in. Because I love basketball and have followed it closely enough over the years to really get a feel for what teams and players I particular like, my own personal influence gets to show through as well. Let the record show that in this particular regard, I have never ended a season with a Laker on my roster. There was the great Bynum debacle several years back, and he was traded before Christmas. Never again.

When all this work and analysis yields success, you feel like the best. There is no true way to know what is going to happen in any given game. Stats can show trends, but how a player will perform on a per game basis is total guessing game. But then you nail it, sometimes in spite of the odds. In a way, it's kinda like roulette: it just feels good when you make the right decisions and win that jackpot. At the same time, it's also kind of like studying for a test. Did you play a guy tonight who has been fighting injury problems? Is the opponent of your starting center notorious for lock down post defense? Do I feel more comfortable starting a more productive player for two games in the week than a bench warmer with the advantage of the third game in the week to play? Without putting in the proper time studying player roles, team performance and injury news, you can shoot yourself in the foot. But after all the study, it feels amazing to get that good grade on your weekly test that is your FBB match up.

Playing the game can bring you all those great feelings. But there's a pretty big difference when you look at the payoff. If you win the roulette game or make the grade on that test in the real world, there are some obvious benefits that come with it. Fantasy basketball is the exact opposite. I am not going to put "2012 NBAFans Day 10 Champion" on my resume. There is not a single woman I know of who would find me more attractive because I had the best regular season win-loss record in '07. Hell, there isn't even a trophy that exists outside the internet realm to commemorate an ultimate victory. It's not about that though.

It's about the people I play with. As I've mentioned, we've been at it for a relatively extensive amount of time and have a pretty solid competitive relationship. To be able to win amongst those guys is a privilege, because they love it and follow it like I do. There are rivalries and personalities. We cheer each others successes and poke fun at one another just like you would your drinking buddies. Once you put our history into the mix, it makes our FBB league like a summer camp or something. You always can't wait to go and see your friends and talk shop and play the games.

Except, this year there are no games to play. No history to make. No time spent with friends. No shared experience with these guys who live all over the world (two of our guys are Russian) and for who knows how long. I've loved doing it for so long, and now the guys who I have watched and studying and followed for this much time don't have my back. I do blame the owners for this mess, yet we all know that in any argument blame belongs to both sides.

I guess it just doesn't seem fair that in a time so trying for me, I don't have that escape. There's not much to fill that void with. It's a sad situation that is likely to carry on to new lows. I just hope that if that is the case, they get there fast so we don't have to start to wonder if next year's season is at risk as well.

Here we are

Hey everyone! Anyone? Maybe soon. For now, this is just a startup post. I want this blog to be a good outlet for my rants and ramblings. Will this be interesting to people? I do not know. However, I hope to put some time into this blog and make it as awesome as it is gonna be. Or not, we'll see. Who knows.


This is all for now, because I'm in no state to rant or ramble. But I hope this will be the beginning of something good. Good night folks.