GarageGabs

Fantasy Basketball fills a definite void for many of us….it’s that time in between football and baseball, when you can just have a little fun with fantasy. Well, that doesn’t go for all of us. Personally, I take fantasy basketball pretty seriously. Pretty seriously being that I show up for the draft, edit my roster daily, and even on occasion I will drop a player who I find out is injured. Not a huge amount of dedication is required to achieve these goals.

My friend Mike however, he is a different creature. Mike, like myself is a fantasy veteran. He takes every league seriously. He takes basketball VERY seriously. Over the years, Mike has developed sort of a reputation in fantasy basketball….he’s the guy that ends up with injured players….and he’s cursed.
Let’s do a quick review:

Last year Mike had the honor of owning the following players on his team called “Death Row”- (A fitting name for much of his squad) Shaquille Oneal, Manu Ginobili, Ron Artest, Emeka Okafor, Carlos Boozer, and Kenyon Martin. Mike proclaimed early in the year that Ron Artest was the steal of the draft (4th round pick) and could very likely win the MVP award. A bold proclamation, but Mike is not one to send mixed signals. Anyone that knows anything about the NBA, knows that the group of players I listed had somewhat of a tough time last year:

Oneal: Shaq’s career took a turn for the worse last season (despite a 4th NBA Championship) as he played in only 59 games, averaging a career low 20 ppg.

Ginobili: Coming off a fantastic NBA playoff and finals performance, Ginobili was bugged by injuries all year, missing 17 games and never blossoming into the player it looked like he was becoming. He seems to be back on track this season, go figure.

Ron Artest: Mike’s MVP pick played only 16 games for Indiana before being benched(He said he’d rather rap than play ball) as they tried to trade him. He eventually would end up in Sacramento, but of course, Mike had given up on him long before he got back to playing.

Carlos Boozer: Boozer “aggravated his hamstring” early in the year causing him to miss most of the first half of the season. Again, Mike didn’t have the resources to hang onto Boozer, so he had to drop him. I picked him up upon his comeback and rode his 16 & 9 to a championship.

Emeka Okafor: Missed 56 games due to injury.

Kenyon Martin: Missed 26 games due to injury and was as likely to get a DNPCD as any 12th man in the league.

In summary, just these 6 players missed 197 games, and were hobbled in many of the games they did play in. And you thought there was a Madden Curse.
Mike never gave up though. He hung on to several of these guys early, but eventually started working the waiver wires. Mike ended up making a league high 180 moves,(the next closest was 66) and made it into the playoffs where he was one and done as the 6th and last seed. Quite an accomplishment for someone that seemed cursed.

Mike learned a lot from last year. He came into this years draft refreshed, wiser, and ready to make a bigger fantasy impact. With the 6th pick in an 8 team draft, Mike was poised to prove that there was no “Newman Curse”. He snagged last years Mr. Everything, Elton Brand with his 1st pick…..Allen Iverson with his 2nd…..Andre Kirilenko with his 3rd…. Gerald Wallace in the 5th, and sleeper Marvin Williams in the 9th. This of course, wasn’t his entire draft, I just mention these guys because they stand out in a certain way.

Which way you might ask?

In the “Newman Curse” way.

Elton Brand? He’s not having a “bad” year, but compared to what he did last year, Brand is average. He’s down in every category, across the board, most importantly, scoring which is down nearly 4 points. “Newman Curse”

Allen Iverson? Statistically he’s having a fine year; if you don’t count the 6 consecutive games he missed while the Sixers decided what to do with him. Six games is no big deal right? It is when you are dealing with your 2nd round pick, and leading scorer.

Andre Kirilenko? Missed 5 games due to injury and is currently mired in the worse slump of his career. Jerry Sloan has even spoke of no longer starting AK-47 due to lack of production. He can now currently be had on our waiver wire. “Newman Curse”

Gerald Wallace? Hasn’t played in 2 weeks due to a bum shoulder and was severely limited early in the season due to a multitude of injuries. “Newman Curse”

Marvin Williams? Mike’s super sleeper (I agreed with him) missed the first 17 games of the season due to injury. “Newman Curse”

Mike has fought through the adversity of his own personal curse with diligence to to this point in the season. He’s currently sitting in 4th place, at 79-69-2 and easily leads the league in roster moves with 63. (the next closest is a whopping 10)

The Newman Curse keeps finding strange ways to sneak in and bite Mike though, the most recent was in the case of J.R. Smith. On December 11th, Mike dropped an injury prone Gerald Wallace, and Udonis Haslem to aquire J.R. Smith and Jarrett Jack. Jack is now on the injury list due to a concussion. More interesting, J.R. Smith would play just 4 games in a Food Stamps uniform before being suspended 10 games for his role in the Nuggets/Knicks brawl on December 16th. You can’t tell me there isn’t something to this curse.

What I’d like to know is how Tony Allen never found his way onto Mike’s roster?

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