BALL IS LIFE

So I’m in a fantasy basketball league. I was roped into it last year buy some of my coworkers. It is a pretty time consuming activity especially since it is one of the longer fantasy seasons. But I enjoy it. I think of it as something that keeps me plugged into the outside world. It gives me a reason to watch one of my favorite sports. I watch basketball all the time. I know a bit about the game, but fantasy is another beast. It takes into account a lot of things that most people do not get to think of. Like minutes played, missed shots, and missed free throws. All of these combined goes into a total amount of points that a player receives.  

I would be a liar if I said that I was very good at starting off. I made many mistakes. Like drafting players that seemed good in real life, but they were 3 star players in fantasy. I made trades that were not very conducive to the success of my team. At one point I was at the point as to which I did not care. Other people in the league new that as well.

Luckily my former boss took me under his wing and gave me pointers on how to make decent trades that would end up in my favor. BTW I say former boss because he resigned from his position. I don’t want readers thinking that I was fired or quit. But eventually I got the hang off fantasy. Sadly, I was a bit too late. I was already in second to last place in the league. There was a “loser’s tournament” that I did well in. I was making moves like a champ. I would send trades just to spark people’s interest and pull it before they got to accept or decline it. When they would send the same trade and I would deny. I’m such a tease J .

One time there was a slight schism in the league and the current league manager was essentially voted off the island. Since I was the new guy in the league and had no biases, I became the league manager. That is not necessarily a position I can put on a resume but that is still a lot of responsibility. But I feel that I handled it like a champ.

Then it came time for this season’s draft. I had a no B.S. mindset. This is not a game. BALL IS LIFE. My draft order did not allow me to have a great position but I still got a solid balanced team compared to some other players. Now people send me trades and I carefully think about them. I consider the quality and the name value of the players that I could potentially receive in a trade. I used to look at their points for previous games. Then I learned that players have ups and downs, even the all-stars.

All in all I learned a lot while going through the whole fantasy cycle. I think that this year will be a much better experience compared to last year. I’ve already started off better compared to this time last year. I may not be first, but I will definitely give them a run for their money.