The Hoop-Ball community has exploded this season! We at Hoop Ball would like to reach out, to you the community, so you can get to know us a little better.
We're a week into this wild and crazy NBA season and the forums have been abuzz with questions, answers, rants and raves. You've been reading/listening to our stuff since, probably the off-season, so we thought it would be cool to share a little something about ourselves.
Here are the not-so-short stories of how we got into fantasy basketball and our Twitter handles. What's your story? Feel free to jump in.
Aaron Bruski, @aaronbruski
"My intro to fantasy basketball was fantasy football, which I saw for the first time right around the year 2000. The real-time scoring app I saw gave me the same kind of adrenaline that sports gave me and I knew the second I saw it that I'd be hooked. I joined the next league I could join and then I learned about this growing industry and in classic Bruski form, I started a company that was a few years too early. I backed off a bit, made it in the business world, and started to get serious again about playing. I won a national championship in football and started professionalizing my research, and then one night I had kicked a few too many backs I was reading Rotoworld and said, 'hell I could do that.' My email to them was much more audacious and a year or so later I got a reply. The interesting thing was that I hadn't really played fantasy basketball but I wanted to crack a game that I knew well (and loved) and that hadn't blown up like football had. So I threw myself into the writing, wanting to be the best and going full bore working for practically nothing. That led to becoming a sports reporter and ultimately to this website. It's been a very weird but insanely fulfilling experience and at the end of the day my favorite thing to do in this business is writing a blurb."
Dan Besbris, @DanBesbris
"I didn't get into fantasy sports until my freshman year of college, and I was hooked within a matter of seconds. What's this magic? A game that combines sports that I'm too uncoordinated to play with statistics and all of that translates into points? My first league was through CBS Sportsline, and I distinctly remember that one of their unique features was the ability to give your team a name with something absurd like 30-40 characters. My first team was called the Former President Gerald Fords. My roommate's team was the Super Ultra Fantastic Studmaster Coolguys. Scottie Pippen was a useful fantasy player. That was 16 years ago. Two years later I added League Pass to the mix. And now I get the shakes when I don't watch an NBA game. Now I like to talk about poop on videocasts."
Erik Ong, @FantasyHoopla
"I've followed the NBA since I was a kid, hearing that there was a player who was named "Magic." I'm a gamer through and through. One day as I was playing board games with some friends, the topic drifted to basketball and the NBA. Not onlyOne of my friends said "Hey, did you know there's a game on Yahoo! where we can compete against each other using NBA players' stats. We formed a seven-man league the next week. I was hooked and the passion for the game snowballed into my hobby-career today."
Jake Fitzgibbon, @JakeFitzYo
"I got into Fantasy Basketball about five years ago by just playing casually with my friends. We all loved basketball and thought playing fantasy would be a great, competitive way to further unleash that passion. I didn't start playing properly until I joined Hoop Ball over a year ago. I'll admit, I was a complete rookie when I first started. But, in my debut season with Hoop Ball I went on to win the Hoop Ball Writers league, taking out the man him self Mr. Aaron Bruski! - ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!"
Tama Carr, @TamaCarr
"I had always played basketball for fun, but growing up in Rarotonga I never had access to the NBA in any form other than the occasional Kobe or Jordan jersey on the street. Fast forward to 2012 when I was studying in Auckland, I remember vividly watching a young OKC team make a run at the title. Specifically, I remember James Harden hitting an insanely clutch 3-pointer over the Spurs in the WCF and it was then and there I decided to anoint him as my favorite player. They lost, he got traded, I decided to play fantasy, and the rest is history. Five years later and it's so much more than a past time hobby to me. I simply can't get enough of Fantasy Basketball in a day so if you wanna talk some hoops anytime, hit me up at @TamaCarr"
Dio Nikiforos, @philysstar
"San Diego circa 2007 and I’m visiting my buddy who is going to college there. After a fun couple days in Las Vegas for March Madness, we are back home exhausted watching some TNT basketball with the Rockets playing the Mavs. My buddy is screaming and cursing at T-Mac who has a really bad game as I’m enjoying some milk and cookies; I immediately ask him, “dude why do you bother, you are still an Orlando Magic fan right?”
“Oh forget it, he’s on my fantasy team, he’s killing me right now with all these turnovers and bad percentages”
“Can I sign up for it?”
“Sure”
Matt Sheeley, @mattsheeley
"How I got into fantasy: When I was 12 years old at a family reunion in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico, I was playing NBA Live 2000 with my 18-year-old cousin. We each built dream teams in the game to go up against each other. I mentioned how cool it would be for two super teams to face off in real life (little did I know that was coming about 15 years later). He then told me about this fantasy basketball thing he'd heard about. So for the next few years, we played in a 2-team fantasy basketball league kept on an Excel sheet. Things have clearly gotten bigger and better since."
Amarpreet Walia, @awalia100
"I was hesitant to get into fantasy basketball because I didn't want to deal with the daily sit starts and whatever. I had this friend a few years ago who wanted to go into a league but his knowledge of basketball was limited so he asked me to draft his team for him and recommend any good pickups and he would deal with setting the line up daily. He offered me a cut of the winnings as well and ever since then we've co-owned a team and it the deal works out perfectly for us."
This is so much fun - I can't wait to read through the rest of these yahoos
I'm almost positive PeeKay posted in this thread and it disappeared...
Your right Dan! Spent a good 30 mins on my post, came back to the site and it was gone 🙁
Where'd it go? I saw it in my emails!
Have you still got the email, Dan??
Yuuuuuuuuuuuup:
"PeeKay wrote:
OK……………..Where did it all begin?? My love of Fantasy Sport started in the early 90s. I’m sure most of you have heard of the Australia Football League (AFL)?? Anyway, one of the newspapers in Melbourne were running a fantasy comp based of the AFL game day stats. You had to select a team with a salary cap which was a form in the newspaper, then you had to post it into their office and then they would post the stats in the Monday paper. Mondays after school couldn’t come quick enough so I could read the paper and see where I finished for the week. Fast-forward a few years and this comp went digital. Currently, there are 3 different AFL Fantasy comps, each with its only tweaks to the scoring system. The only problem with the AFL is the games are weekly, so on a Tuesday, there isn’t much you can do with your squad.
This is where the NBA season fills that gap. I’ve been a huge basketball fan for as long as I can remember. MJ had a big say in that Before one NBA season a friend got me onto an ESPN Fantasy game called ‘Fast Break’ Every day you would be given a salary of $100 and you had to pick 5 players and a coach. My mate and I created our own league and just competed against each other. The best thing about it was that while the games were being played the site would update every time one of your players got a stat. It was the best thing ever! No need to wait for the Monday newspaper! We played in this comp for years, but in the end, I was kind of board as we started to notice that everyone would have the same squad. You would pick 4 guns and then look for the cheap guy that you thought would have a good day out.
Then in 2007, a guy at work noticed I was looking at my Fast Break side and the live scores and he asked if I played in a Yahoo league. I told him I’d never heard of it. He said if I was really interested he would get me a spot in his comp the following season. That following season approached, went through my first live draft and I’ve been hooked for over 10 years.
For years I stuck to Rotoworld and Fantasy Sports Portal for all my fantasy news, but recently I decided I needed to find a Podcast which I could listen to on a daily basis. I found Dan’s Fantasy NBA Today pod and have listened to it every day for a month, then I purchased the Hoop-Ball draft guide and then found the forum."
Oh nice one! Thanks.
Hey all. Good to know ya!
I wrote a very long, and likely unnecessary post, then decided to provide a summarized version instead. Yea I know, it’s still long!
Late in 2010, I had just left my full-time job when I was invited to join a league by a friend I hadn’t spoken with in some time. I had long fallen off watching (or reading about) basketball and he said this would give me a whole new perspective on a game I loved. I knew i’d have some free time to fill now so I figured it couldn’t hurt and joined up for the fun of it (even tho is was a $ league).
I finished 9th out of 12 in a H2H 9 cat (maybe 11 cat) league. Even thought I got beat badly, I had fun. I joined again the following year. The league ballooned up to 20 teams but I was ready. I still wasn’t really watching games, but I was back to reading about the sport. I believe I placed first in the season and got a bye, then made it to, but feel short in the playoffs. I had a shot at first but I didn’t realize the finals were a few days longer than the normal week. I used all my WW moves and thought I had won come Sunday, only to find out there were 3 days left. Lesson learned as I finished in 2nd place (which I’m still very proud of).
After that I placed 2nd to 5th over the next four years in 10-12 teams leagues until I finally won in 2015. A year where I played in 3 leagues: Placed first in 2 (one 14 teams, the other 6 teams) and second in the 3rd (12 teams)! The third was a points league which was the first time I played that format and I was co-managing as well (helping a friend try and win his company league). I had Curry that year in my $ league. In the points league, the guy who placed first also had Curry. So I’m not too mad at the loss.
In 2016 I fell off hard. I didn’t keep up with it as I should have, and I thought I could pull off a last minute “slide into 6th place” move. Almost had it but a late scratch all but sealed my fate.
This year I’m in 2 H2H leagues, my $ league and the points league (solo manager this time). I got 1st pick in both drafts and ended up taking Giannis and Curry. We’ll see how that pans out this year but I’m happy about it’s start!
Nice, Wesley. Let's make this your most successful year to date. Money won doesn't hurt, either...
