Introductions: "The Best Fantasy League Ever"

Just about every guy I know plays some form of fantasy sports (the sport/game/nerdy hobby of drafting real-life players onto your team and comparing your team's statistics versus others).

It was only recently, while reminiscing and trading war stories with a friend about playing fantasy basketball that I realized that this game that we play provides the same range of enjoyment comparable to hanging out by the pool on a hot summer day.

If  you sit around in your sweatpants and don't even suit up in your fave pair of billabongs to just dip your feet in the pool, than you can expect to have no fun at all.  What if you decide to follow Stevie Franchise's example below and dive on in?  Well, you see that face.


Today, I was asked by Timothy Lee to take the 12th spot in a fantasy basketball league (officially called "the best fantasy basketball league ever").  After initially being very offended that I was only being asked to join because someone had dropped out, I ignored my bruised ego from being an alternate (a la Unibrow Davis) and requested to join the league, but not as a general manager, owner, or player.

I was motivated by the fact that overall fun-level of playing fantasy basketball does depend on your overall love for the game, but it also depends on the ancillary activities of the league that I requested Tim let me provide to the league.

For some, joining/registering a team in a league is like choosing to put on your swimming trunks. You don't have to actually dive in and try to do any backflips, cause you can just sit, and watch while those around you partake in belly flops and the sort.

For many, drafting your team and choosing to never update your roster so that you inexplicably leave Shawn Marion on the bench for the whole year, is also enough.  You filled a spot, drafted a squad, and although you're leaving perfectly good players in digital limbo by never playing them. You have stepped out and dangled your toes over the ledge.  Maybe you'll dive in next time.  Towel up. I guess you can go home now.

For hopefully a good amount of you, you will laugh and cry as you watch the progression of the league from drafting your squad in October to the last week of head to head matchups in May.  You'll have heated discussions over Chipotle about obscure fantasy value comparisons of Martin Gortat and JJ Hickson.  Your family, wife/girlfriend, and common NBA fan friends will turn a snooty nose to you about why you care so much about your "fake team".  But really,  how do you explain why the wolf cries to the blue horn moon? You, my friend, are diving head over heels, Tom Daley-style into the deep blue sea of fantasy basketball.

So my response to joining this league this morning was that I would like to do something different.  I acknowledge that a year of fantasy basketball where someone has to be the Charlotte Bobcats is not always the most fun.  Also, not everyone will be as jazzed by the monotony of adding/dropping/trading/starting and benching players.

 However, my mission is that if  the ins -and-outs of the league are covered, weekly updates summarized, entertaining league (fantasy and the one owned by David Stern) news and highlights reported on, even if your fantasy team is the Bobbycats, you'll still have a good time logging back in to stay up to date on what is going on in the league.

In continuation of summer day pool analogy, please turn your eyes to the kid who is stalled on the diving board.  He's already committed himself to joining his bros for some splish-splash but now he's having doubts staring down into the chlorine filled-pool.  This is where I'm figuratively entering the picture.  I'll be the kid who runs up behind you and sticks both my arms underneath your armpits and throws both of us hopefully screaming and laughing into the pool for a wicked good time.

Your Pool Buddy,