I appreciate those of you who have reached out to me since this morning. Pretty sure Gainsville would be disappointed if I didn't follow up my banishment with a 20 page essay, so here we go.
First and foremost, no hard feelings with any of you. It's just fantasy basketball, afterall. Contrary to how it might seem, I never took this all that seriously. Off the top, I just want to acknowledge that everything I did and said in this league was well within the league rules and guidelines. With the exception of one team (ChampKind), I've made consensual trades with every single team in this league and each one of you was given the same exact opportunities to succeed as I did. The past Summer when things got heated, the commish at the time (Byennie) asked me to step away from responding on Celticsblog and wait until the Yahoo league was set up. I complied with his request. While I completely admit I manipulated you guys into bad trades, it was all within the rules and the spirit of fantasy basketball. The banishment was a surprise given the timing. I hadn't made a trade in 2 months, had very little trade discussions leading up to the deadline, there hadn't been any drama in the league since Summer, and as far as I could tell things were pretty quiet. I received no warning or explanation. Eja and Byennie ignored every e-mail I sent them today. Ultimately it doesn't matter why the ax fell weeks before I broke the record. It is what it is at this point. I'm genuinely not trying to cause additional drama over it.
With that out of the way...
Fellas, I've spent the past two years having a blast in this league with you guys and I feel like a proper farewell is appropriate. I hope you'll take this as good-spirited as I intend it. I understand there's some bad blood here from some of you so feel free to ignore this post if necessary, but I just wanted to clear the air and have some closure as you guys push on without me. Two years is a lot of time to invest into a strategy game. I've made some friendships through this league. Let me try to close this out right.
Explanation of my Mindset Heading Into This: Part of the reason I visit this forum in the first place is a real love the GM/Trade/Draft aspect of the NBA. I love fake trade ideas. I love contemplating the next move. I've been playing franchise basketball sims for 15+ years (NBA Live, NBA2k, Fast Break Basketball, Draft Day Sports, VirtualGM, etc). They are fun for a while, but I always run into the same issue... they stop being challenging. Within a few years, I have a juggernaut that goes 82-0 every year. At some point, it gets boring so I start over with a crappier team and do it all over again. Playing with real people is only barely more challenging. I have won basically every fantasy basketball league I've ever joined over the past decade. I love pulling off crazy trades. Inevitably, I upset people. Happens in almost every league I'm in. I participated in one of the first CB fantasy leagues back around 2006. Within a month, I had built by far the most dominant team in the league (Roy Hobbs was 2nd). I ended up pushing it one trade too far, the commish unfairly vetoed it, and I quit in disgust. I vowed to never join a CelticsBlog-based fantasy league ever again.
Since then, I've been asked to join countless leagues based on this forum. I've probably been asked to join the DKC league about a dozen times from different folks. I never had interest. When barefacedmonk reached out to me about this league, I was pretty straight-forward with him. I told him that I had a tendency to get overzealous in fantasy leagues, burn bridges, etc. In-fact, this was my actual response to him:
I would, but I vowed to never again join the CB-based fantasy games. The first year they did the games, I absolutely dominated... I made dozens of trades that effectively gave me unquestionably the best team in the league. I was taking advantage of people left and right. Before you knew it, my team was 9 stars deep. Then I pulled off another killer trade and the commish tried to veto it. I caused a huge stink over this... and vowed to never do it again. Lol
But BFM was persistent. He explained the premise of the league. He explained it had been going for 9 years at that point, it was a keeper/dynasty league, I'd be taking over a bottomfeeder team, and that the only drawback was that the league was dominated by two unstoppable teams (Utah and Pitts) that were basically impossible to surpass.
Impossible?!...
This intrigued me. Maybe this would actually be a challenge. Not yet understanding the league, I asked him if it was mathematically possible for my team to win the title THAT year. He said no. Understand that at this point, I was driving the tank bandwagon for the 2013-14 Boston Celtics on this forum... with that epic 2014 Draft coming I really wanted to see the Celtics bottom out and go full youth movement. Suddenly, this Lucky17 Points League sounded pretty awesome. Maybe I could amass a ton of draft picks and youth, have a real challenge against established teams, and follow the full-on tank movement I desperately wanted the Celtics to try. So I signed up.
In Defense of my Strategy: I knew from the start that I'd tank two full seasons, try desperately to land a couple cornerstone prospects, and then after year 2 of the tankjob, figure out who were long-term keepers and trade the rest for veterans that could help me win immediately. But I also knew that the league was filled with some cutt-throat members. Barefacedmonk had warned me before I even joined that I should watch out for Pitts and Utah, as they had a tendency to win every trade they made. This got me jazzed up. A non-money league with some real gamers? I was pumped! I dove in head-first. Yes, I oversold guys I thought were garbage... that was part of the game. Yes, I undersold guys I wanted... that was part of the game. I postured about my position. I caused bidding wars at every opportunity even when other bidders didn't exist. I created fake press releases as a pseudo-media, fabricated rumors to create trade hysteria, manipulated discussions and kept the focus on my team... The more the focus was on my team, the more my team could be involved in discussions. Eja nailed it when he compared me to Trump. It was accurate. Talk a lot, say some outlandish stuff, keep your name in the presses and you'll find yourself front and center in everything. Also, while I was diligent in making sure the rules were very transparent and public (it wouldn't be fun to win if I had an unfair advantage), I most definitely exploited aspects of the rules that were little understood - such as adjusted standings. This allowed me to do things like trade a #10 projected pick for a #8 and #15 projected pick. If my opponents were too lazy to keep a daily spreadsheet, you best believe I was going to exploit that. Every trade I made was by the book. Every comment/discussion I participated in had an ulterior motive. I wanted to build a winner. I wanted to compete with Utah and Pitts. BFM told me it was impossible. People were ready to quit the league when I joined, because the league was so top-heavy. I wanted pretty badly to defy those expectations.
But alas, I ran into some of the same pitfalls these leagues always run into. Any league that allows members to vote on vetoes is essentially doomed... and I suspect that 98% of the drama I've been involved with in this league was rooted in that. Veto campaigning was a real issue in this league. Too often teams were causing flame wars over trades they were jealous over. Too often teams were forced to defend their trades out of fear for the veto hammer and end up fanning those flames. As my team pulled 300+ trades in my short time here - most of them landslide victories for my team - it inevitably lead to drama. There were also a couple members of the league who saw my team for the threat it was, and cleverly played the political angle trying to sway public opinion away from me. I actually appreciated that, as it added to the challenge. Kevin and Pitts in particular were masterful at it.
So yes, I burned bridges. I always had the best of intentions, though. I tried to make it fun. I tried to keep others engaged. It may have been misguided (like in the case of the Flutter feed or the tourneys), but I tried my best to help this league be awesome. I just wanted to reach the top of the mountain and didn't want to see this league fold before I got there.
The situation with BFM this Summer was truly unfortunate. He took it too far. Anyone who has seen some of the PM's he sent me during that time knows this. I honestly did NOT try to get him banned. A CB mod saw our blow-out, reached out to both of us separately, and BFM proceeded to get himself banned from the forum. As byennie mentioned this summer, BFM was given every opportunity to stay in the league and was disrespectful and insulting to the point he needed to be removed. If I had it my way, he'd still be here. I really would have loved for him to see my team do the impossible. He recruited me, after-all.
Reaching the Top:So now 2 years after joining, I have built what is indisputably the greatest team this league will ever see. It's on the verge of breaking the all-time record and dominating this season by a pretty wide margin. It also has an average age of 24 years old with only 1 starter (Rondo) 30 years old. I honestly was probably going to quit at the end of this season anyways. The last two months have been boring. There was no challenge left. It wouldn't have been much fun to just sit on top winning championships every year. I kept waiting for Ubuntu and Pitts to pull off huge deadline deals to narrow the gap. Honestly, I half expected one of them to concede by sending the other quality vets in an effort to dethrone me. When the deadline came and went without a single move, it felt like the journey was basically over. I did it. Now what? *sigh* I took a lot of smack talk from some of you guys over the past two years. Plenty of people calling my players "Fools Bronze" and claiming my assets were garbage. It was clear a lot of you guys were ignoring me when I posted 551 points in a single day. So I figured I'd boast a little. I was at the top, probably leaving at the end of the year... might as well gloat about my accomplishment. As far as I can tell, this is what was considered the final straw for some of you. That's unfortunate, seeing as there is literally a section of the league called "SMACK TALK", good natured bragging has never been against the rules, and talking smack has always been a part of fantasy basketball leagues. But if that's what did it, so be it. I just wish byennie/eja would have warned me about this so I could have avoided it... as I did this Summer when I dutifully went silent on CB.
My Farewells to Each of you: Genuinely, this is the most fun I've ever had in a basketball-based fantasy game. I loved every second of it aside from getting stalked and threatened this Summer. But pulling off the trades and orchestrating heated 6-team deals was a real thrill. I made some friends in this league that I hope to keep in touch with. Some of you aren't fond of me and I totally get it. Whereas I saw Pitts/Utah as a challenge, others might see a dominant Leprechaun team as a fun-sucking impossibility. I don't blame you for this. A lot of you are just in it casually and my enthusiasm was overwhelming. I honestly have no hard feelings with any of you.
Gainsville - I appreciated your patience. You brought up valid points about my failing memory when it came to redundant trades. I took action to prevent that. I still respect you a lot and hope we see each other around on the forums.
Mkogav - There's no team I wanted to impress more than yours. I felt like the Kobe to your Jordan. You had already done this... I wanted to get up there with you. Respect, man. Good luck doing it again.
Pitts - Really loved our Celtic discussions. I'll really miss talking with you in particular. You're hilarious. You and Roy Hobbs are the two best Celtic pen pal I'll ever have. Thank you for giving me a challenge over the final year. You're fiercely competitive and it made this a lot of fun. If everything you said to me was all mind games from you, so be it. There was nobody else to chat with at 3 in the morning. You consistently cracked me up.
Harry/MMSB - I really dig both of you guys and had some really fun discussions with both of you along the way. I lump you together, because I almost feel bad about how badly I destroyed your teams through trades. At this point, my worst player would be the best on either of your teams... If you voted for me to be removed, because you felt like you were taken advantage of, I can't really blame you. I can't really deny it. Harry, in particular, I'm sorry about Embiid... I honestly think he has a real future. Rick, you got hit with some really awful bad luck. Be careful about trading away your future 1st rounders - they have real value. You're one of my favorite people in this league though. I wish you the best.
Birdman - Dude, I freakin love your method of trade discussions. I don't know if it's intentional, but you somehow were the only one who would get me to consistently bid against myself. You encouraged multiple trade offers, but never sent counters... so I'd just keep outbidding myself while you ignored me. You drove me crazy, man. Good luck with your rebuild. You're a quality guy.
Ya'll Hate - If anyone has a chance to sneak up on the contenders heading forward, it's you. One of the best GM's in the game. You know your stuff. You're a level-headed guy... great to chat with. You would have been one of my nominations for commish had it went to a vote.
Juggs - You never took any nonsense and I appreciated it. It was really hard to pull of moves with you. You knew your stuff and weren't going to be played for a fool. Negotiating with you was fun. I'm still mad I lost the Kevin Love bidding war, though.
Brahma - I think people are upset about some of the trades we made, but anyone who has ever tried to trade with you knows how stubborn you are in trade negotations. I think there was about 5 times where I tried desperately to snag one of your guys... you always gave me your bottom-line up front. I always tried desperately to get you to back off your bottom-line and you'd never budge. More than any other team, I found myself just coming back and accepting your original offer. Best of luck in the lotto.
Kwhit - A straight-shooter and you don't take any of this too seriously. You were always willing to discuss trades. Seemed like a fair guy. You had a way of putting things in perspective. My girlfriend took me to Red Lobster tonight so I could sob about my fantasy basketball banishment over chedder biscuits and lobsterfest. This whole thing is ridiculous. You're right.
IndeedProceed - I've known you for a long time on this blog. Have always considered you a friend around here. Glad we can go back to talking about the Celts without posturing over trade discussions.
Bada Bing - You should have traded me Ty Lawson. Where you been, man?
ChampKind - I think you've literally made 1 trade in the two years since I've joined this league. You clearly weren't having fun. I hope my departure will make it fun for you again.
#Lovetotrade - Kev, I've said numerous times you're one of the best GM's in this game. Consistently impressed. You're also a master manipulator and play mind games, but you do it sneaky quiet... which I could never do. Tons of respect for you. Congrats on your writing gig.
Eja - Before you made yourself commish, I never took you too seriously when you'd snap at me or say I was banished from making trade offers to you. I always kind of thought you were kidding around. Every once in a while, it seemed like we got along pretty well. I could sense something was up when the Parker/Okafor trade was vetoed in record time with very little discussion, but the literal banishment this morning was definitely a shock. I do wish you would have reached out to me and found a better resolution... at least let me finish out the season. But for what it's worth, I think for the most part, you've done a pretty solid job as commissioner.
Suicide Squad - You know your stuff man. You'll do well in this league. You got flack for the David Lee trade, but ended up actually winning that one. Thanks again for the posters/signatures. I'm pretty impressed with your photoshop skills.
Byennie - Wish I had heard from you on some of this stuff. Technically, you're still lead commish in this league and as far as I can tell, you didn't make a single comment on any of this publicly or privately. But we've been told you've been dealing with some important life stuff... so no hard feelings, man. Sorry about this Summer. Thanks for your patience.
Diggles - See, I told you Aaron Gordon was going to be a stud. I regret that trade so hard. Good luck, Jay. Hang onto Gordon for dear life. He's got high 40s potential. Sorry about Bennett and Shved, though... those guys suck. Had a lot of fun chatting with you, man. Good luck.
Wrap Up the Quest for the Record:So, I tried reaching out to eja, but he doesn't seem too interested in talking to me. The timing of this was peculiar and felt a bit unnecessary to me given that no rules were ever broken I did nothing to really warrant it, but it is what it is. I would have liked to have at least seen my team through the end of this season. Utah's record is 32019.29 points (35.49fp average) and my team is currently sitting with a 35.36fp average. But with my team posting daily averages 40+, it seems like it could very well break the record. Without being able to set my lineups properly, that probably goes away. With guys like Lillard, Hayward and Russell sitting on my bench Tuesday and no way to insert them into the lineup, it kind of asterisks anything that happens from here on out. Even if you immediately replace me, the replacement likely will not understand the max game strategy and end up inserting guys like Porter and Zaza into the line-up (both who are struggling) which would damage the final point potential. Mostly, I'm just curious to see if I would have actually pulled it off. I invested 2 years into this game... I don't really have interest in sitting on the Throne for the next 20 years of inevitable championships, but I do at least want to see if I succeeded in pulling off what BFM called "impossible". Will I break Utah's record or not? Without being able to set the lineup, we might never know. That doesn't sit right with me...
So for what it's worth, if letting me set my lineups for the remainder of the season is not an option, I'm going to just keep a daily spreadsheet for the remainder of the season to see if I did in-fact break the record. Considering I only have about 20-29 games left to play at each position, my season should officially be over in a few weeks either way. You're all welcome to follow my progress in a public spreadsheet:
http://publish.smartsheet.com/93af33f89d274e589df6438657273553That way, you can put my actual final point total in the record books. Best of luck everyone.
TL;DR: Thanks guys. It's been a blast. Here's hoping I break the single-season record:
http://publish.smartsheet.com/93af33f89d274e589df6438657273553
Topic: Lucky17's Yahoo! Points Hoops League: 2015 Offseason REBOOT (Read 102132 times)