Painful Injuries

'Serious' League: Pau Gasol

Biggest mistake of draft was picking this guy in the early second round. What was I thinking? It definitely taught me to do better research next season before going into a draft. As quoted from Gasol himself in The Examiner:

"Every time I put a timetable in my mind, I get disappointed, so I can’t afford that anymore. It’s a matter of time before it gets better. When, who knows? They can't tell me, I can't tell them, I can’t tell anybody. I wish I knew for certain because it would help my mind and spirit."

Great. He better not be selfish by just trying to be healthy in time for the Playoffs! Ugh, that's what I get for drafting a Laker.

'Fantasy 09-10' League: Devin Harris

I loved him last year and then I stupid traded him away. When I got him on auto-draft, I was psyched. Then he only gave slightly above-average numbers in the only two games that he's played this season. And then after giving me hope that he'd be back after 10 days at most with his groin injury, I find out that it'll be another 2-4 weeks! And from the way he's talking, he's leaning more towards 4 weeks. I feel bad for the New Jersey Nets fans. I'm sure this is way more painful for them than it is for me. At least as a Warrior fan, I've gone 1 win.

'NO BITCH@$$NESS ALLOWED' League: Kevin Martin

I'm still speechless about this. And it's the 18-man deep league so an injured K-Mart is still better than everyone else that's left on that Waiver Wire. But out for 8 weeks?? I don't know if I can deal with this. I've got an ass of a team, with the only true scorer being Dwayne Wade, and even he couldn't help me out considered I played against Kobe Bryant who just had to go off for 40+ point games twice in one week, the week that Martin gets injured.

What do I do? Hold on to him? Try to sell him for low? Throw him out in the Waiver Wire and pray that someone becomes a miracle? Advice, would be lovely right about now.

On an un-fantasy related note, I can't believe the Kings are on a two-game winning streak while Kevin Martin is out. Well, OK, so they played the Warriors which isn't that big of a deal. But they beat the Jazz and my old-fashioned mindset has me thinking "Whaaaaat? Tyreke Evans, who are you?"

Most BS Trade Offer Ever

In the deep league that I play in, I got offered the following trade from team Holler Front~!!:

Daequan Cook, Chris Anderson, Jarrett Jack, and Anthony Randolph
for
Aaron Brooks, Jeff Green, Nick Collison, and Danilo Gallinari.

SERIOUSLY??

I take offense to this trade. First of all, 3 of my players average 30+ minutes on the floor. NONE of his do. Green and Brooks alone outscore all four of the other guys. Gallinari is like my HIDDEN GEM right now. And as much as I don't like Collison, I'd rather take the risk of someone still on the waiver wire and throwing him out there then going through with this trade.

Fantasy is LIFE.

I'm in 4 different fantasy basketball leagues this season. The excitement is almost embarrassing.

My second draft was on Friday for my boyfriend's roommate's league, "Fantasy 09'-10'." Unfortunately I had to miss the live draft due to going out to dinner for my brother's birthday so I had to rely solely on my lack of pre-ranking skills. My biggest fear was that I was going to have a plethora of guards and not enough big men to hold down my boards and blocks. Lucky for me, I got first pick. Unlucky for me was that my fear came to life. Below is what happens when you are on auto-draft with the #1 pick:

• Chris Paul
• Jose Calderon
• Devin Harris - like I said...plethora of guards. At least I know I'll win in dimes.
• Josh Smith
• Jason Richardson
• Marcus Camby - never in a million years would I ever draft him. UGH.
• Anthony Randolph
• Eric Gordon
• Zach Randolph
• Wilson Chandler
• Andrei Kirilenko
• Francisco Garcia - WTF.
• Michael Beasley

With a quickness, I dropped Garcia and picked up Greg Oden as he's set to start for the Blazers. Some good in this team but overall, not the happiest for this one.

My third draft was on Sunday for my boyfriend's friend's league "NO BITCH@SSNESS ALLOWED" (boys are so original). This is by far the deepest league I've ever played in with 18 managers and by the second round, I was already having a hard time. My fantasy-addicted cousin Kevin always tells me that the only fun leagues are deep leagues though so I am excited to see how this pans out. I'm definitely on a roll this season because I was graced with the #2 pick.

• Dwayne Wade - Undeniably ecstatic to have him. I have all the faith in the world in him.
• Mehmet Okur
• Kevin Martin - This pick resulted in an argument between me and boyfriend as we were sitting next to each other and he had 7th pick. I glanced at his computer really just to see what people were saying in the chat since my own computer screen is too small to see anything and accidentally saw who he had on his queue which inspired me to pick him up. Needless to say, I was called a cheater all night long.
• Jeff Green
• Lamar Odom - STUPID STUPID STUPID DECISION
• Jermaine O'Neal - I'm actually excited to have him.
• Aaron Brooks
• DJ Augustin - Raja Bell, don't come back!
• Al Thorton
• Danilo Gallinari - Picked him with a heavy heart. I'm hoping that since he's healthy and since D'Antoni loves him so much, he'll actually be useful.
• Nick Collison
• Vladimir Radmanovic
• Michael Finley - At least he starts.

Hate this team the most but the league itself has already proven to be the most interesting. I play my boyfriend (Ron Artesticle) first. All's fair in love and war, right babe?

4th and final draft for me is tonight. The people in this league are the folks I've solely been playing with for the past 2 seasons. They saw me first know nothing, having drafted 3 Warriors and come in super dead last and then saw me the second season as the girl who talked way too much shit, but for good reason. I made it to the playoffs and would have gone further than 5th if it wasn't for my opponent having Jose Calderon go off with 19 assists on the last day. This season is payback time.

Here's to a good season, gentlemen (and ladies). Trades, anyone?

09-10 Fantasy Basketball - HOLLERize 2.0

I think I'm ready to give up Farmville on Facebook.

My first of three drafts was last night. Thanks to the boyfriend for letting me and my roomies play with the boys. It's gonna be a fun season! Already got in a fight with my girl Trina (The Question Marks) though. She was lucky enough to get 1st pick and got Chris Paul after only finding out who he was that same day. And then she picked up Andris Biedrins (my FAVE) as her 2nd pick (retarded). So when she asked me to pick her 4th pick when she was in the bathroom, I drafted Raymond Felton. It's gonna be an interesting one!

Presenting to you Team HOLLERize 2.0 in "serious league":

1. Kevin Durant - From Rotowire: "He's a legitimate threat to lead the NBA in scoring this season." I believe in you!
2. Pau Gasol - I hate the Lakers but all's fair in fantasy basketball.
3. Jason Kidd - Dimes, dimes, dimes. That's all I need you for so please don't disappoint.
4. Mehmet Okur
5. Rajon Rondo - I'm getting trade offers already for him. Need to leverage this well.
   
6. Rashard Lewis - I completely forgot that he's suspended for 10 games. DAMMIT.
   
7. Nate Robinson
8. Luis Scola - NBA TV Fantasy Preview labeled him a "sleeper" and is expected to go off this season with Yao out and everyone double-teaming against Ariza. Let's hope so.
   
9. Zach Randolph - I called my boyfriend asking him what I needed. His answer was boards and blocks and I picked him. I was replied with a "SMH." I had him last year. I have a very love/hate relationship with him.
   
10. Chris Anderson - Simply for the blocks alone.
    
11. Eric Gordon - My saving grace last season and the best pick up ever. Let's hope you keep up the momentum playing alongside a healthy Baron Davis.
    
12. Chris Duhon - Why did I just pick up both of the Knicks point guards? Dammit.
    
13. Ronnie Brewer

Two more drafts coming up this week. I need Dwayne Wade and my boo Andris Biedrins in at least one of my teams!

"@NBA" on Twitter

I love summer and all that it promises but the fact that the NBA season ends and the NFL season doesn’t start until September is enough to make me yearn for Fall to come sooner. Thankfully, my addiction to Twitter has been able to feed my NBA hunger, even if it’s not always basketball-related.

As a “soon-to-be Marketing Professional,” (LOL) social media in and of itself has become a serious interest of mine. I’ve become a Twitter-freak, following all sorts of random people from Around the Horn’s Tony Reali to big-named Marketing execs to Martha Stewart to, of course, NBA players.

Honestly, I only got into Twitter initially because my brother couldn’t stop talking about how funny Shaq was. Following Shaq led me to follow Steve Nash who led me to follow Baron Davis…and now, almost half of the people I follow are in the NBA.

I haven’t seen much updates from Shaq recently but I’m assuming it has to do with his transition to Cleveland. Dwight Howard always brightens up my day with absolute randomness, like the time he broke his bed due to imitating a Keri Hilsen video. I first heard about Michael Jackson’s death from Shawn Marion. Charlie Villanueva, while not the most popular NBA player, has become of my favorite people to follow, especially since he personally replied to a comment I said about how I didn’t want a Lakers-Cavs Finals.

I can go longer about my NBA experiences via Twitter but I’ll stop there for now.

Twitter and other social media channels have the power to make people and things that used to seem so above us now be almost at our own level. I see the NBA players that I follow as actual people, who go through BS, who like to laugh about silly things, who don’t always have the best days. They are offering to share themselves with the rest of the world and I love it.

On another note, the NBA just reached 1 million followers, being the only other brand besides Whole Foods to reach that monumental number. The people who do social media for the NBA are pretty savvy; while the GS Warriors simply tweet up links of articles published about them, the NBA shares a number of videos, random stats, different featured profiles, and other things that makes me continue to be a follower. And they kept their word when they said they’d do a special shoutout to whoever ended up being their 1 millionth follower, no matter who it was.

I would do anything to be on the NBA’s social media team.

March Madness: "Bracketology"

For some reason, my newbie-ness thought that the term "bracketology" was universal so when I used it with my boyfriend with the utmost of confidence, he embarressed the hell out of me by busting out in laughter. What a jerk.

Playing NCAA Brackets was more along the lines of playing Roulette for me. I didn't have a damn clue about college basketball, and I barely even noticed the little numbers next to the school names until halfway through the bracket. Which probably explains why I'm last with only 35 out of 48 correct picks. I'm embarressed to admit that I didn't think Pittsburg would actually take it all the way. Maybe because the Sooners were in my head due to football, I don't know. Or maybe I got Oklahoma State confused with Oklahoma? I probably should have done a littttle bit of research before I went click-happy.

Oh well. I still believe in Memphis all the way!

My Addiction: Fantasy Basketball

It’s official: I’m not a blogger, I just like to talk when I feel like it.

With that being said, I would like to get back into the habit of writing in this again. In my defense, I’m graduating this year so ever since the fall semester started, school has been kicking my ass. But I won’t get into that boring stuff.

A lot has happened since my last post: the 49ers got a new head coach in Mike Singletary, the Arizona Cardinals actually almost beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl, A-Rod admitted to being on steroids, Tiger Woods finally came back, Don Nelson went crazy by sitting his starters…the list goes on. But let me talk about one thing that has taken over my life aside from school, work, sorority, and my boyfriend: Fantasy Basketball.

So it’s Week 19 and I’m currently getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter, 3-6. Don’t let that fool you though; I’m pretty proud of my team (even though I’ve made some horrific management decisions in the past couple of weeks) and I’m sitting comfortably at 4th place with less than three weeks until the playoffs. It’s not my fault that I’ve got 5 players not playing and my opponent’s ugly team decided to all of a sudden get better in a month’s time.

I started this season with a pretty random bunch, with everyone talking shit about all the guys I picked up. Mind you, I got the 12th spot in the draft.

• Deron Williams (injured or not, I know I wanted him)
• Dwight Howard
• Andris Biedrins (an accident, I didn’t mean to pick him as my third round)
• Devin Harris
• Andrei Kirilenko
• Rip Hamilton
• Zach Randolph
• Rajon Rando
• Travis Outlaw
• Drew Gooden
• Earl Watson
• Jason Kapono
• Marc Gasol

Looking at that list, I realize I only have half of the same people I started with. Here’s who I have going into the Playoffs (for now):

• Deron Williams
• Dwight Howard
• Aaron Brooks (a pick-up after dropping T-Mac, a guy I got in trade for Devin Harris and Biedrins—THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF THE SEASON)
• Monta Ellis (part of the Harris-Biedrins deal)
• Rip Hamilton (thank God for coming back into the starting lineup)
• Rashard Lewis (the only good thing that came from theHarris-Biedrins deal even if it still doesn’t fully make up for it)
• AK (after dropping him when he got injured and picking him back up a week later)
• Drew Gooden (because I have a gut feeling that he’s going to be amazing as a Spur)
• Marc Gasol (my SAVING GRACE this week)
• Eric Gordon (my favorite pickup, even if he’s injured his week)
• Larry Hughes (a pick-and-drop guy who I’ve finally decided to keep since being dealt to the Knicks)
• Zach Randolph (I need him back ASAP)
• Peja Stojakovic (got in a trade early in the season with DJ Augustin for Rondo—second biggest mistake of the season)

You don’t have to tell me twice that my team would be AMAZING if I had just kept Rondo, Devin Harris, and Biedrins but I couldn’t beat the excitement of trading. Monta being on my fantasy team definitely makes me dislike him more and more every game that he doesn’t play (as well as other reasons that I hope I can get into in time). Rashard’s numbers in the beginning of the season made him look so valuable but ever since I got him (when Jameer Nelson got injured), he’s only had one statistically beautiful game. And I won’t even get into my horrific decision to get T-Mac.

Inner struggles I’m going through right now:

1. To keep Monta or no? There’s talk that he’s unhappy at Golden State and that it’s actually some of the reason why he didn’t go with them to their recent road trip. His arrival keeps getting pushed back and with the playoffs in two weeks, I’m getting impatient. And who’s to say he’ll even put up numbers when he does come back? I’m so close to dropping him and picking up someone to help me get my blocks back up.
2. Drew Gooden—ugh. Sometimes, I have no idea why I’ve held on to him for so long. I’m counting on this gut feeling about the Spurs, but who knows? When healthy, his numbers are impressive though, but by next week, if he’s not playing, I’m going to have to take some action.
3. The trade deadline was yesterday therefore all I’ve got to choose from is whoever is on the waiver wire. Good enough pickups include Rashad McCants, Nenad Krstic, Thabo Sefolosha…and any of the Warriors bench considering Don Nelson’s going to be playing them more often.
   

Sigh. I hope this weekend fairs better than the rest of this week. $20 and my pride is on the line. I spent the majority of the season having my smack talk say “My new name should be ‘I can beat the boys’!” Figures it would come back to bite me in the ass!