Kevin Durant will be a player to watch this season.
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Let me guess, many of you started playing fantasy football and mastered the game, so to speak. Am I warm? I thought so. After that it was probably fantasy baseball, which, if you weren’t accustomed to the immense player pool and daily changes, probably took a bit longer to grow accustomed to. Yah, it’s okay to admit it—fantasy baseball is just a harder game, period. Well, somewhere in between lies fantasy basketball. And, if you’re reading this, you’re new to the game and are ready to embark upon a new and exciting journey, a quest if you will toward a championship, and hopefully, fantasy greatness.
For those few souls that have never played any fantasy game of any kind (outside of the bedroom, anyway), let’s take a moment, if we can, to strip everything down to its essential elements. Fantasy sports boils down to exactly this: “managers” or “owners” take turns drafting (a not-so-fancy word for choosing) real, honest-to-goodness NBA players that will comprise that “owner’s” fantasy team. Over the course of the 82-game NBA season, all the statistics that these real-life players accumulate will be reflected on a given owner/manager’s fantasy team. The goal of every owner is to assemble a collection of players that will compile statistics that are superior to those of the competition, who in this case are other hard-working Joes and Janes, just like you.
Well, if you’re new to fantasy basketball, or new to fantasy sports altogether, this article is sure to be riddled with useful pieces of, well, “knowledge” that will undoubtedly prove useful to you on your fantasy quest. Just think of yourself like Frodo from Lord of the Rings, only you presumably aren’t being stalked by evil forces, you have internet access, and would prefer not to walk to the ends of Mordor with a computer-generated, naked Golem. The SportsGrumblings.com staff should be able to do most of the nasty legwork for you, and, as your guide through this perilous journey, I can assure you that I’m usually wearing pants.
Like Frodo’s quest, your journey is all about a ring, or a trophy, tee shirt, or maybe just bragging rights. Whatever the symbol, your fantasy basketball endeavor is all about power—the power that only a league championship can bring. Sure, Frodo and his traveling companions learned a lot about themselves along the way, but these lessons would have fallen on deaf (or dead) ears had they not been successful. While not winning your league isn’t likely to result in death (even I haven’t played in a league with so steep a penalty), losing is seldom fun, even if you happen to learn a valuable lesson at the expense of victory. Like any game, and fantast sports are just that, the desired result is victory, and that, my good readers, is what I hope to prepare you for.
Damian Schaab is a Sports Grumblings staff writer and the author of the highly acclaimed “Pen Names.” He is here to offer readers his insightful analysis on any number of topics, both fantasy and non-fantasy alike. Damian can be reached for “expert” advice via email any time. His address is at the bottom of his columns.