by Brett Edwards
NBA.com has declared today "Fantasy Frenzy" day! And why not. With the season just 15 days away, anyone who plays fantasy hoops has to be preparing for their draft, and today's full slate of content can prepare even the most clueless of fantasy players.
The frenzy consists of a variety of content, all devoted to getting you ready for your fantasy season. There are multiple live chats, previews on Sirius Satellite radio, and even an NBA TV special. The NBA is really doing everything they can to hype up the fantasy angle for their league.
I know that the NFL has managed to get an entire generation of fans by simply promoting the fantasy angle for their sport, and I don't blame the NBA for trying to do the same. The problem is, fantasy NBA just isn't that fun.
There are too many categories that are simply for stat geeks, like FG%, FT%, 3PFG%, turnovers, etc. Once you get beyond the big 3 categories of points, rebounds, and assists, you turn into a box score junkie who loses all comprehension of who the really good teams and players are. You end up looking for that next fix of "blah blah had 4 steals tonight, YES!," which totally defeats the purpose of watching the players and teams that make the game so exciting.
There other reason why fantasy NBA just doesn't work for me, is that the season is WAY too long for me to stay interested. Last season, I played fantasy for the first time in like 12 years. Anyone in my league will tell you that I drafted the best team. But I had a few players go down with injuries for 10-15 games, and since I have a life I couldn't stay focused enough for seven months to be adding, dropping, starting, and sitting players on a daily basis. So of course, I lost. The reason that fantasy football is the perfect storm is that you only have to worry about it once a week, and it's only for about four months, playoffs included. 16 games in 16 weeks versus 82 games over 28 weeks...fantasy football works because it's not ultra-time consuming and it's only once a week.
So if you're into fantasy hoops, check out NBA.com for a full slate of content. As for me, I'll be getting my satellite account set up to watch all of the games without worrying about how many turnovers Devean George has.
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