Give Me The Rock

The On Deck Circle seems like a more likely candidate for a Carnival of MLB, judging by the name at least… but they’ve got Carnival of the NBA #56 over there, so check it out.

The latest NBA Carnival - Carnival of the NBA 55 - is up at Daily Basketball. This on is presented in a sweet calendar format for easy browsing. As mentioned in the Carnival:

The theme for this “issue” of the Carnival is “Make up your own NBA holiday.” … Bloggers for struggling teams wasted no time in degrading their coaches, with holidays right after the end of the season.

I’m a little disappointed no one created “Celebrate an NBA Dancer Day”. Now, that would be a holiday we can all enjoy.

In other linkage related news, Hardwood Paroxysm has a great interview with D-League President Dan Reed about the past, present, and future of the D-League. Unlike Isiah Thomas, the man at least has a coherent plan.

Also, Blake at Hoops Addict has an interesting article with ideas about how to better develop the D-League.

And since I can’t stop talking about the D-League, apparently Portland, Maine is getting its own D-League team in 2009. Really? Maine? Seriously? So New York can’t get a D-League team, but Maine can? I can see possibly why this league is having some problems. Still, as a current resident of the state, I’m saving my pennies for some season tickets. I just hope Rod Benson is still in the league then.

Finally, I am so stoked that Mad Libs is making a comeback, I’ve broke out the TMNT PJ’s for the occasion. Nels had an inspired Day 148 post and now Jeff W has a great Smitch vs.Oak Mad Libs post on The Score.com. I’m anxiously looking forward to the next Mad Libs post.

Today is a sad day. Today is unlike any other day. Today is the day that Fantasy Basketblog has shuttered it’s shutters. (At least for the conceivable future*)

And I applaud them for having the grace and dignity to just call it like it is, instead of just leaving people hanging for a very long time.

In the mean time, check out the rookies: FantasyBasketballPros.com, NBARoto.com, and HoopsFantasy.com. None of which have as cool a name as Give Me The Rock or Dropping Dimes… but they do have excellent, dedicated bloggers behind them. Some of whom are doing stuff that hasn’t been done before in fantasy basketblogging. And we now all know how much I value dedication and perseverance. And an indomitable will to win. I mean, if I wasn’t going to make my next custom T-shirt say “Bring Metal Down” then it might just say “W2W” …

* Is there such a thing as a birthable future? Or is that just the future that happens after it’s conceived?

The most recent addition to the Carnival is up and brought to you in full-on projection mode by SportProjections.com.

Who ever thought the Big Diesel would be trading for the gas-sipping Japanese import?

Yeah, worst intro line ever. But guess what? It gets worse. Why? Because I’m just throwing a whole bunch of links out here. Honestly, I was working on another sort-of-almost-basketball-and-writing-related project last night and didn’t open my feed reader until after writing this morning’s post. And since Pau Gasol’s LA premiere was still the Number One headline on NBA.com, I didn’t even know until the whole Shaq Matrix trade until, well, a little while ago.

So here we go:

Fantasy Sports Experience

Fantasy Basketblog

FanHouse

Hoops Fantasy, who appear to have deleted their CSS file…

CBS Sportsline

Gamespot, oh wait…

The Association probably has my favorite. No fantasy implications, but full of awesomeness. That counts for a lot on my scorecard.

A week after The Blog Resurrection Carnival… here’s a Fantasy Basketball Carnival. Maybe not totally concerned with fantasy basketball…

Craig Kwasniewski, who uses his full name to post, is a man after my own posting style. It will be immediately apparent what that means.

Farid, who doesn’t appear to use his full name, posts in a manner which I will never do. Yes, he videotaped himself. Farid is a braver man than I. But not as good looking. Or, at least, you’ll have to take my word for it. Unless you do some clever internet stalking. You can probably find a picture of me somewhere. And if not, there’s a picture of a dude who totally looks like a bizarro version of me. My wife and I look him up sometimes when we want to watch movies like The Ring, The Others, The Host, or other creepy movies that start with The.

Stephen, another one-name celebrity, also thinks you should pick up Tyrus Thomas (among others). The also in that sentence is because I recommended that as soon as Skiles got fired and/or relieved of his duties as head coach. I know that T-Time doesn’t have the kind of game log that speaks to his fantasy potential. But I, and I’m sure many Bulls fans, know that it’s more the coach’s fault than the player’s.

Speaking of fantasy potential, bv, a writer know only by initials, talks about just that in the latest Fantasy Basketblog post.

And just to throw this out there… there is now something called the Universal Fantasy League which somehow combines Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball, and allegedly many other sports into one giant league that you can play in with your friends. After reading the overview, though, this sounds like a fairly lame attempt to merge all fantasy sports. It’s basically just picking teams and getting points when that team wins. If we’re going to have a fantasy league that includes the big three (and other) sports, I can only imagine playing in it if the roster positions are divided into something like: Offense Leader (pick from PG, QB, Hockey Center, Outfielder), Scorer (pick from SG, RB, WR, RW, LW, Infielder, Soccer Forward), Defense Leader (pick from Basketball Center, LB, DE, Pitcher, Goalie, Goalkeeper), Defender (pick from Defensemen, CB, Safety, SF, PF), and a Util spot just so you can have a player or two that you like on your team. I don’t know enough about other sports to throw in people at other positions… tennis anyone?

Of course, in my version of the Ultimate Fantasy Championship ™ (patent pending), I’m going to need someone like Patrick to figure out how to statistically analyze and normalize all the scores so that each and every player in each and every sport has value.

YaySports is back. Mad props to baked potatoes.