Fantastic Finish?

NBA fantasy games took over my life roughly about five or six years ago. Particularly the Yahoo Fantasy leagues since their program is very user-friendly, and well because of the fact that it IS the best and yet the most simple net-based statistics game!

This is becoming an NBA general manager with just a few clicks (Of course, a little basketball IQ would help as well) This is being a pseudo-NBA vice-president for basketball operations for an entire 82-game grind with a chance to prove that you can be better than Isiah Thomas (as a manager of a franchise) the former Piston great!

For five (or six) years you turned into a numbers maniac and a sucker for statistics--- add the fact that you became a parasite for everything and all NBA... If this was my girlfriend, we'd be married with children (eight, 5 boys and three girls)... Heck, we won't even believe in marriage, but we'd have kids anyway (eight still)...

And so, without further ado, here's an update of this year's Airball's performance in various fantasy leagues. Airball (which by the way is the team name) shooting for the stars (and cash) this season...

The first league (CSC Live 2008) is composed of friends and acquaintances (more than half of them i don't personally know.)

With a P20,000 cash-prize (less balato, ) for the 1st place (and only) winner, it is obviously the biggest of the bunch. (Entry fee by the way was a thousand bucks)

Yahoo Head To Head leagues requires the final 3-week+ to be the playoffs phase of the fantasy season. The good news is that i was able to crack a berth in this playoffs but ended up just 4th overall which means that i'd have to beat THREE teams in three straight weeks if i am to earn an extra 20 thousand pesos over the summer.

That said, the good news outweighs the bad news anyway you look at it. At least, Airball is still in contention and that means i can still drool over that cash prize...

Airball - CSC stars: Double double machines Carlos Boozer and Dwight Howard plus this year's surprise, Mike Dunleavy

Next up is the Solar Entertainment Forums league. Team managers are posters from the official Solar Entertainment (Solar Sports, BTV, JACK, ETC fans) Forums (www.solarent.ipbfree.com) and i'd like to believe that they are the most competitive relative to ALL the past and present leagues i joined. You CAN NOT have bad stretch really over the season because it will haunt you later on in the season. THAT IS what exactly happened to me this year in this league. i ended up 8th and was very close to notching the final spot but was short ONE game in the final tally (the 6th seed had a 0.560 record vs my 0.557 record) That, is the definition of a painful exit (Now, we can start comparing that to girlfriends as well but that deserves its own blog entry...)

Suffice to say, i thought this particular cutthroat competition helped me a lot in lots of ways. Don't relax and make the most out of every matchup. Grab points early and grab points NOW. When you start thinking about the future, the present is compromised. And that is ALWAYS bad in fantasy (Now, we can start comparing that to reality but that definitely deserves its own blog entry)

No rings for this one, but i definitely enjoyed it as i look forward to winning the consolation round (8th to 12th teams battle as well.. for a consolation championship) and to think, there was zero pesos involved in this one...

Airball - Solar Forums Stars (ok, maybe not): Jason Williams, who i picked in the Draft because he is JWILL and Udonis Haslem, who was injured during the final week and practically cost me a category or two.

We go to the third league (Finish Line) which consists of friends and officemates from our production team here in Mt. Anti. This is the "cheapest" league with just 300 pesos entry fee... 1st place gets half the total pot (P2,700); 2nd-1,350 and the pair of losing semifinalists getting P675 each... Now, that ain't big money my all means, but if you are playing against people who you see everyday, it's more than the money: It's pride.

By virtue of the anti-jinx rule, i will not mention that i am currently numero uno in this league which means i have a bye-week (automatic semis) and will continue the battle for the championship next on Monday. Again, by virtue of the anti-jinx rule, i can not mention that i am now assured at least the 600+ prize because of i ended up among the top two in the elimination round.

Solar - Finish Line star: Kevin Garnett sucked the entire year but recovers just in time to lead Airball to the promised land.

Finally, we visit the Solar Bragging Rights League. While the previous one is against officemates, this one is against officemates, bosses and people-you-don't-know-but-is-actually-a-boss... Clearly, before the start of the season, there was extra effort to perform better on this one... Sure, the entry fee was a record P1,200 and the prize is enticing as well (1st place - 8,400, 2nd- 5K+, 2rd-3k+) but you can't replace the fact that you actually one-upped your bosses (or some of them) at least in the fantasy ring. There's money, there's pride and there's bragging rights.

By the way, i am currently running 2nd in this league. The first place team is ahead by 18 points or so--- big by roto standards at this point of the season--- so by all means i have have accepted the reality that this could just be a battle for silver... Then again, even that silver is not an assurance as two other teams (maybe three) are right at the trail of Team Airball being just a point or two away... This will go down the wire, definitely.

Airball - Solar Bragging Rights Stars: Bryant and Davis: dynamic


Am i good or am i really good? So, is Airball in for a fantastic fantasy finish? or in for another disappointing ending? Fantasy or reality, you know it feels good to be ending up as a winner. We will see.
(*Photos from YAHOO.COM)