State Of The State

ABC (Always Be Cashing)

I’ll write a separate post on MLB, which is a mixed bag so far, but those of you who receive this newsletter might recall last October my then 11, now 12-YO daughter Sasha and I teamed up to draft an NFBKC (basketball) team.

That season just ended, and here are the results:

We finished 16th overall, second in our league to take down the $700 prize. (We had to sweat it as Russell Reisner, who finished third, was tied with us heading into the final weekend, and we had to gain a point in rebounds and field-goal percentage to secure the cash.)

Sasha, despite investing $0, got $100 for her efforts, and I got $600, though only $250 of that was profit. Her key contribution was insisting on Brook Lopez in Round 6, who was crucial to an 11-point finish in blocks. (I wanted an injured Bradley Beal who we wound up getting in the next round anyway.)

It’s funny because I have *never* cashed in the NFBKC before, and this despite getting free entries every year when I worked for RotoWire, and partnering with knowledgeable hoops guys like Andre’ Snellings and Shannon McKeown. But Sasha did the research for a month, and we drafted the team together. The one error we made was narrowly going with Steph Curry over Luka Doncic at No. 6 overall, mainly because Doncic had a quad injury (that turned out to be minor.) Had we taken Doncic, I suspect we would have finished in the top five overall.

The crazy thing (and this was lucky) was our first nine picks stayed on our roster all year: Curry, Kevin Durant, Myles Turner (what a stud down the stretch!), Pascal Siakam, Paul George, Lopez, Beal, Khris Middleton and Clint Capela. I can’t remember any league in any sport where I was able to keep my first nine picks on the roster from wire to wire.

And I have to give myself a little credit. During the year I picked up Collin Sexton (who we drafted and dropped), Immanuel Quickley and for the stretch run Vasilije Micic, Chimezie Metu, Scotty Pippen and the beast that is Payton Pritchard (69 points, 12 boards, 23 assists, 29-43 (67% shooting!) and seven threes over the season’s final two games.) I knew the Celtics would be resting people and that Pritchard would get run, but he carried us over the finish line.

All told, an enjoyable year, and winning money with Sasha, who insisted on the cash (100 euros) this morning and without anything taken out for the euro-dollar exchange rate (1.066 dollars to the euro), was great.

Now she wants to do the NFBKC playoff contest ($150 entry), but is on the fence after I said I’d need at least $10 of her winnings as part of the entry fee, and she’d get paid in proportion to her investment.

No more freerolls!