Sports Lounge

As a Sixers fan this season has sort of bummed me out, but I have been checking out the playoffs. I guess I will root for the Knicks as a Carmelo fan. I know everyone hates Carmelo. I'm a Syracuse fan, so I don't.

'Melo hate is just as arbitrary as any hate for any player in any sport. Here's an example-

Some OKC dude hit a buzzer beater 3 against the Rockets at the end of the game. AWESOME shot. I hope he makes more of those. It was fun to watch. All that said, OKC lost by 7. My wife was quizzical as to why I was cheering for the OKC dude. I replied, "They lost. But he hit an incredible shot and I hope he makes more shots like that. Just not when they play the Rockets and it matters".

Also, look at it this way- The Sixers may not be in the playoffs but there is a Dr. J commercial starring Magic Johnson airing every other break. That counts, correct? Or they could stop trading away Andre Igoudala. Just sayin'...

No matter who wins the Finals tonight, I'll be able to say "At least the _____ lost".

Well, at least the Spurs lost.

That was a really good series even if I don't care for either team. I was pulling for the Spurs. I figure their legacy is about the same either way, but this Heat team going 1 for 3 in the Finals would be a relative failure. Oh well. I am now officially in my sports off season. Wake me when football starts up again.

Rockets sign Howard. Which is where he should've gone in the first place. It's a good fit. He'll have Harden and Parsons who are goofy off the court and nasty on it. Hopefully Lin stays because he's an above average player when not asked to carry a team. Hakeem can help elevate a healthy Howard.

I don't mind that a lot of people don't like Howard. I don't know him but I think he can win a championship with the right people and influences around him. I'll probably even pick up an NBA game for the first time since Yao/Francis. And it's an excuse for a new jersey.

Yeah I like Howard on the Rockets. Very curious to see how that works out.

Well it's getting to be that time of year again. It's time for fantasy football and pick 'em! I am assuming Trip is doing the CBS Pickem again, right? I just want to gauge interest in fantasy. I think we need a solid 8 to do it. No randoms. They are the worst, obviously. Another thing we can consider is combining fantasy and pick'em. There are ways you can do it where correct guesses in games give you points in your fantasy matchup. Might be a neat thing to do. Season starts in just a little over a month! Hooray football!

Football cant get here soon enough. Cant wait! And count me in for fantasy & pickem of course.

I'm in too for both. Figure I'll give the pickem a try this year.

Do you want to just do the pick em over on Yahoo so everything is in the same place? I'm not sure I like the idea of it factoring into Fantasy, but at least so people just have to go to one place. Would probably make it so people forget to make picks less if they are keeping track of their fantasy team on there anyway.

I'd like to get in on that pickem thing if you guys start it up and have room.

Also, wouldn't it be interesting if Riley Cooper had a break out season catching passes across the middle? Think about it; Eagles up by a few TDs, Vick calls for plays across the middle, and by some chance Cooper holds on and doesn't get annihilated.

Yeah, my sense of humor is a little dark. Cracks me up to think about it though.

I'd prefer we set it all up on one site as well but if we cant I will still do both. Whatever you guys decide is good for me.

Yeah doing them in the same place seems like the way to go. We'll have to take a look at what they have on Yahoo. Matt you do any pickems over there?

There really isn't a limit to how many people are in the pickem spiddy. Once we get it set up we'll let you know.

Also great off-season for former Gators eh? Go Noles!

I don't, but I can't imagine it would be too difficult to set up. I'll take a look at it later tonight and I'll set it up... unless you want to run the Pick'Em, and then I'll show you how to do it. Let me know.

You can go ahead and set it up.

I don't really know what to make of all the PED stuff in MLB right now. It's a complicated issue that doesn't affect me or change who I root for so whatever.

BUT, as I'm watching A-Rod squirm through interviews I can't help but think how Jr would've done if he'd juiced. I'm thinking 800 homers. Or close to it.

Who do you guys have in the Italy/Argentina friendly? I kid, I kid.

Wish I had some soccer friends in here. I'm going with Italy 2-1.

Any word on the Fantasy Football stuff yet? Has it been set up and I just missed it?

Well, it looks like there will only be 4 or 5 players this year. Me, Killa, Trip, Hagen and Greenman. That's not enough for a league. We'd need at least 3 more for an 8 team league. We could get by with 6... but its pretty lame, because there's really no strategy. Everyone has a stacked team.

So whats the plan? We not doing it or we going to allow random people to join?

Neph says he's in and Kay said she'll join if we need an eighth person.

Well even if they both do it, that leaves 1 spot short. I mean, we could just open it up to Yahoo and let a random person join... but that'd be lame. Also, Trip, you should just make your pick 'em on CBS, because Yahoo separates its college and NFL pick 'ems. It's kinda dumb.

Damn. This really isn't going well. I guess I will set up the CBS pick em when I get the chance.

Yea this really sucks. I was looking forward to doing some Fantasy Football this year.

I just read that there are some strict rules about attending actual games. (NFL) That changes my thought process in picking games. If you guys put that together...

Ok so I know fantasy is out now but are we still doing the pickem? And if so are we going to just use the same CBS pool we had last year?

Definitely still doing the pick em. I've been thinking about it and was wondering a couple of things.

-Do people want to pick college games still? I do, but I realized at some point that maybe me and hagen are the only ones that watch a lot of college. I know Matt watches some as well, but doesn't much care for it. I don't want to make people pick college if they don't want to.

-Do we want to add anything to the mix or is straight pick em good? They have confidence pools on most sites where you give each pick a weight and get so many points depending on whether you are right. We could do point spreads, but to be honest I don't find them as fun.

-Might we do a survivor league for the NFL as a supplement to the pickem (separate) since we aren't doing fantasy? Each week you pick one winner. You stay in as long as you keep picking a winner. The catch is you can only pick each team once during the season. I did one last year and it was pretty fun.

Anyway, we can stick with the pro/college combo one we do and even use the same group on CBS. That doesn't begin until this coming Thursday. I'll send out invites and links if we do. Or we can try something else. What do you guys think? Also CBS is the only place I know that does a combo but if you'd rather do just NFL we can move to a different site. I imagine no one really visits CBS sports except for our pools/pickems.

I like picking the college games. I don't follow NCAA nearly as much as NFL but picking the games gives me a little more reason to pay attention to it. Straight pickem is my preference but I am good with confidence pools if you guys want to do that. I'm down for a survivor league as well.  I think that covers all the questions you had. Hopefully the other guys respond soon and everyone participates. Whatever we decide just let me know. I'm so glad football is back!!!

Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I will probably stick with the CBS pool and do a Survivor one as well. We'll see if anyone else says anything tonight.