Your involvement with fantasy sports?

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

I just can't see the appeal in fantasy sports. Devoting your time to analyzing stats of little importance for something that doesn't truly exist. All it does is create the false mentality that these people can run a franchise better then their real life counterparts while sitting comfortably on the couch with Cheetos stains.

Eh, this point of view makes much more sense to me than what Czech is saying, even if I don't agree: I don't consider myself to be much of an armchair GM, and I don't particularly suffer any delusions that I could operate a basketball team. Having said that, I don't happen to think that general managers (at least, not basketball general managers) have any special qualifications that other people don't have. I mean, it's not brain surgery; it doesn't require genius. It's not like there's a special school that you have to go to to be a GM. I'll admit that I don't follow any sport but basketball enough to know how complicated those jobs are, but most GMs in basketball got their jobs either because they were an ex-player, and used that to get their foot in the door, or know people that know people. I don't think that there are five GMs in the NBA that have proven an ability to do anything that couldn't be duplicated by a knowledgeable fan that was given a bottomless checkbook to work with, or even a soft salary cap. I mean, hell, they let Isaiah Thomas be a GM twice after he literally ran the CBA out of business, and both of the teams he ran were gawd-awful. I'm sure even alfdogg could do that...

 

I consider myself a basketball junkie, so the notion of not merely just having One True Team™, but also going so far as not watching other teams play unless its a game of "national interest" is an anathema to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, Czech, but my interpretation of your comments is that nobody should ever watch a game between Atlanta and Minnesota, unless they're either a Hawks fan or a Timberwolves fan, since that's not a game likely to be a "national interest" game any time soon...

 

... And I don't understand that line of thinking on any level. On any given night during NBA season, there's between five and ten games... and, if my DVR had enough tuners, I'd watch every single one of them; in fact, I ordered a second DVR just so that I could double the number of games I get to watch this season. I have my One True Team™ (Kings), one team that I like and happens to be much closer geographically (Bobcats), and one Team I Hate™ (Lakers). But, that doesn't mean that I only pay attention to them: I haven't been shelling out three bills a year since 2002 to just watch the Kings and Bobcats... I'd watch basketball 365 days a year, if it were on: I watch the NBA, I watch the WNBA, I watch men's and women's college, I watch International basketball on NBA TV... I'm kind of looking forward to four years from now when my son starts high school, so that people stop giving me weird looks when I go to to watch the high school teams play.

 

As far as fantasy leagues go, I'm watching the games anyway, so fuck it. Besides, I've always been something of a nerd, so I like the number-crunching aspect of it. Plus, I like the fellowship: I pretty much only participate in fantasy leagues against people I know, so I like the banter that goes on.

 

It's a phenomenon I'll never understand. Beyond the obvious social boner of a Cubs fan going "WHOO SCOTT ROLEN!!!...what, he's on my fantasy team,"

As far as this goes, I have a very simple, two-step method for avoiding this type of conflict:

 

1 - I never put players that I don't like, or from the Team I Hate™, on my fantasy team, regardless of talent level. Ever. I'll never have Kobe on my fantasy team, I don't care if he is the best player in the world, or anyone else wearing a Lakers uniform. Since the Lakers are the only Team I Hate™, and the only team in the entire league that I actually feel passionately about besides the One True Team™ (in that I want them to lose 82 games a year), then I never find myself put in the position where I'm rooting for a player to do well on a team that I don't want to win, because there are only two teams in the league that I actually "care" whether they win or lose.

 

2 - I try to avoid having more than one player on the same team whenever practical, so whenever I have a player on my fantasy team that has a game scheduled against the One True Team™, I just keep him out of my lineup. That way, there is no conflict; I don't have to worry about hoping that Chris Bosh drops 30 and 15 against the Kings, but yet we somehow win, anyway. Problem solved.

 

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I tried fantasy football once, made a team and never checked it again. I don't have the attention span for that sort of thing. I love football, and I love picking games (poorly,) and making predictions, but to really sit down and analyze stats and tweak a lineup..nah. I have no problem with fantasy based analysis on television, though. I just interperet it as "this guy thinks Clinton Portis is going to have a big week this week. I hope he runs all over Dallas, too." or whatever.