Barring birth of a child or a White House visit, this is my favorite event every year (and no it’s not red carpet premieres or globetrotting around the world scouting locations). It’s fantasy basketball draft– by far.

Yes, that's a microphone for each team to announce their draft selection.
This year was no different. While I’d love to continue sharing with you what this world is all about via this blog , I think it is better if it’s done by someone who is the best in the business– Bill Simmons.

Please read his blog here and then come back for the visual tour, courtesy of Offender Jerome.

As you can see, good nourishment is of the upmost importance when it comes to the draft. This year it was 5 1/2 hours.

and of course always stay hydrated.

We project the draft board for all managers to see...

and with each new selection strategies shift.

Brian Tyler of course supplies the score for each team's selection. Mine is 'Eye of the Tiger.'

My co-commissioner announcing the new free agent exception rule to the managers before selection.

My brother Jimmy (of team JAM) going old school with his research.

The return of Greg Louie and team Korean Zombies (he also was on Skype with Evan from New York and Team Anson and David on the road).

'Da Flying Chinaman' and 'Darth Beacon'

Sal 'the machine' Gatdula

Rookies Rick Fox and Jason contemplating their pick.

Greg D'Auria's secret list

Greg D'Auria checking more stat info on a player.

Lou aka Lou da youngster in awe.

Me trying to make a trade with D'Auria.

Rick Fox trying to hustle me.

Rick Fox trying to hustle D'Auria.

Rick Fox trying to hustle Jimmy Tsai.

Spoelstratospheric!!!

JAM!

CONAN THE LIBRARIAN!

KarmaSquat!

Study hard Lou da youngster!

Commissioner ruling.
Let the games begin!!!!
Merry Christmas
This is outstanding. The fact that Rick Fox is a member of the league just puts it over the top.
Keep your eye out on Rick Fox. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9klMSfQYJCw
After reading Simmons article about this league, my friends and I created a league somewhat similar: we have 14 teams, 12 man rosters, 65 mil hard cap. However, we are not sure how we should do the add/drop players system. Can you please help with this?
every member has an excel sheet of the master list of players’ salaries and also individual team’s roster and their salaries. every time there’s an add/drop/trade the team’s manager has to post their new team salary. it’s not as hard as it sounds if the excel sheet is prepped correctly.
We have the excel sheet prepped correctly, we are just not sure if you should be able to freely drop players or not. The two options we are considering are:
-free add/drop where you remove the dropped salary from your team and add the added salary to your team
or
-when you drop a player you must eat half of that players salary
could you give me your opinion and how does your league do this process? Thanks again for your help and for allowing Bill Simmons to write about your league!
are you guys playing with a hard cap?
also you guys have a waiver process?
our limit on transactions is 65.
we can add/drop freely. waiver wire is 24 hours and plays a big part. it actually determined our winner last year. every time a team does a new transaction they are required to post their new roster and salaries. the player’s salary is dropped and could be picked up by others. this way for example if a player gets injured they can go find a replacement while the injured player goes into the pool. i.e. Brook Lopez just got dropped and now it’s a cat and mouse game to see when someone will pull the trigger on him.
hope this helps. let me know if you have any other questions.
This definitely helps. We are using a hard cap at 65 million. Do you prefer head-to-head each category or head-to-head most categories? Also, are you an Oregon fan? While I am not, me and the assistant commissioner of my league actually met our freshman year at UO, but we both transferred.
We play rotisserie. makes everyday count.
love visiting oregon and big fan of the letter O
Hey Justin
Big fan of your work. I’m the co-commish with Nicholas in the league we set up. We appreciate the inspiration for the league. It basically changed the way we play fantasy basketball. It was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had during a draft. As far as categories though, do you use the basic 9 (points,rebounds,assists,fg%,3pm,steals,turnovers,blk,ft%)or are there any other ones that you use that work better in this format? We appreciate the advice.
[...] 2011, his greatest memory of the year was the day of his fantasy league draft. Not only did Justin document the event with photos from Jerome, but no less than the great Bill Simmons proclaimed Justin’s fantasy league the best ever. This [...]
Thanks Rajeev. We split the rebounds into Offensive and Defensive. makes it more even. Good luck with this year. Btw, look out for our fantasy podcast. Had a great time trashing talking with some other teams.
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