Augmented Reality

Check out my post on Medium at https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/dea45d2cf9fb

Aquaponics + Roofs = Save The World

I wrote a short piece about aquaponics on Medium. Check it out if you'de like. https://medium.com/the-ingredients-2/4dc42c59c759

The Airport Life

Being one of the people who has to check in people on flights is an extremely difficult job. I hadn't ever really given that particular job any thought. I've never missed a flight, so I've never had to deal with the frustration of hoping that someone gets caught in a traffic jam or gets stuck in line. Today I missed my first flight. My ticket said departure was at 7:55, I showed up to the front desk at 7:47. 

The door was closed. 

I was the first person on standby, and the 12 people behind me were shit out of luck. They weren't happy. Not that I was excited to have missed my flight, but the attendants have a job to do. I was disappointed, angry at myself for always cutting it close. For a fleeting second I felt frustration towards the attendants; I used to be a server in a shitty italian restaurant, and I could see myself in them.

Three people complained to see a manager. The attendants knew the drill. They had been through this before. They were numb to the angry voices and the snooty attitudes.

I could see my self putting in an order for a paying customer, bringing it out, and having the comp their meal because it wasn't cooked correctly. Or the order had something extra that they insist they had asked not to be included, but was included anyways. I could see myself registering the words going through my ears. Not feeling anything, just registering. Like an automaton. I was the desk attendant. She doesn't have to comp people's meals, but she gets reemed day in and day out by those who missed their flight.

We were the people who couldn't set our alarms fifteen minutes early. We are the people who are entitled to having a seat on a plane, even though we missed the first boarding call. 

I sat through two departures. At noon, my name was called to get on a flight to Dallas. I was the last person to board sitting in the very last row. I'll probably have to wait another four hours to get to my final destination.

At least I set my daily fantasy lineup. Wouldn't have if I made my flight. I cashed for the first time:

So close! DFS #5

Seriously, the name of the game is pitching. If you can find cheap, effective pitching and are able to put your odds into stud hitters, I'm starting believe your odds of cashing are increased. I was 16 points from the money, and my pitchers shit the bed. Slowly tweaking my metrics by how I choose my pitchers, but I"m generally going with ones who play against less than stellar offenses. It's all about the odds, I believe the dice will start rolling for me soon. 

A Word on Being a Sports Fan in Florida

I went to a bar with some friends to watch the Heat beat the Spurs last night. Huge place, 10+ pool tables, darts, and T.V's in every conceivable corner. It was packed. I was surprised (or maybe not so much) to see about a 70/30 split in the establishment. The minority of Spurs fans were nearly as loud as the Heat fans in the place.

The thing about Florida, is that we are a special case when it comes to sports. Tampa and Orlando are hub cities. Many people move in for a few years, get on with their careers, and move away to another city. Many people who live in Florida are immigrants. Many people in Florida are snow birds come to retire and play golf in the sunshine state. Miami is basically another country. If you don't speak spanish, good luck.

The Tampa Bay Rays (that aren't even located IN Tampa) and Buccaneers are mocked around their leagues for lack of attendance. The only time those venues sell out are when the Yankees, Red Sox, or some other team from the northeast comes down. Buena suerte trying to sell out a Marlins or Dolphins game. The Dolphins and Bucs ranked 29th and 31st in attendance in 2012. Rays ranked dead last (luckily the organization still turns a profit) last year. The Marlins were 18th, and that's all from the first half of last year, before their epic fire sale. The Jaguars did alright at 20th, and are one Tim Tebow trade from being number one in attendance forever. The Magic were at 15th. To be honest for a lost year, I am impressed that they were so high.

Back to the bar. So the Heat win, and the place gets loud. Real loud. Like Miami loud. For a good five minutes, people are celebrating giving high fives, dancing, things you usually do when your team wins an NBA championship. About fifteen minutes after the game ended, the bar was less than half as full as it was while the game was going. Fifteen minutes! I know people have to work the next day, but for some reason I was disappointed that the celebrations didn't last.

Florida is a tough place to be a sports franchise. We have beaches, golf courses, the weather is wonderful most of the year. Our major cities are extremely spread out. Polar opposite of Boston or New York. It's extremely difficult to live without  a car here (funny, we have some of the highest interest rates in the country), and with sports closely follows drinking. It's not convenient to reach our stadiums, most people need to drive 30+ minutes to see their teams. Combined with most people living in Florida not being from Florida, we may have an explanation as to why Florida sports teams have such a difficult time filling their seats. Maybe this next generation of Floridians will change things. We're such a wonderful mix of cultures, and with sports being the one common denominator we can all share, it saddens me that many don't participate.

I was rooting for the Spurs.

DFS Baseball #4

Got my ass kicked yesterday.

Played in the early Moon Shot. I was 30 points from cashing. Trevor Cahill got pulled from the first inning after getting hit by a ball. Figure if he'd had a regular start I would have been right around my average of 10-15 points from cashing. Stults also did not quite perform up to par. This has been a fairly consistent trend the last couple days so I'm changing it up today, going to see if I can get some value pitching and spend on hitters.

Trades (!)

Trades throw curve balls into fantasy leagues. They can mean the difference from winning championships to completely ruining your season. You have your managers who always scheming throwing out low ball offers on a weekly basis and you have those who clamp down on their team and refuse to take any offers ever.

Most of the time you want to facilitate trades with the end game in mind. To help you get into the playoffs with the best chance to win, or you have locked your spot in the playoffs and are maximizing your odds.

Some basic rules:

1. The best deals are made when both sides win.
2. Buy low, sell high.
3. Do not make a 1 for 2 unless you are extremely confident both players will produce.

Some scenarios to consider trading a piece on your team include injuries to your team (or an opponent's) and playoff and regular season schedules. Look at trades as if you're fitting together a puzzle. Sometimes your puzzle is missing a piece and you just need that one player to round out your team. You want your team to be as top heavy as possible when headed into the playoffs. No need for depth if you're not going to use it. If you have depth in one position, try to swap that depth for more top end production. You want to maximize for upside, not reduce downside.

This is where the scout in you can really excel as well. Look for extraneous factors that may be inhibiting players production. Look for reasons players might be over producing. If you had traded for Doug Martin before week six last year, you came out on top. Sometimes the luck monster hits you in the nuts and you trade for Fred Jackson right before he gets hurt.

Here is a thread of trades that went wrong for people: http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyfootball/comments/1519jt/i_traded_aj_green_and_it_cost_me_a_playoff_spot/

Learning Daily Baseball Day #3

I was 13 points from cashing yesterday. I didn't have time to really do my research and Tigers bats have been hot so I took a flyer on stacking them today. Took into account the decent weather, seems like I stacked the wrong team unfortunately. Took a chance on Detwiler playing an anemic Philly offense, and did well until he let up three runs and four hits in the 6th.

I feel like I'm getting close to putting it all together. Odds seem much better in playing the Moon Shot games, I'm going to stick with those for now.

Learning DFS Day #2

I'm trying to focus on getting good pitching, and this was a win for me yesterday. My strategy in picking hitters was going through baseball press, and seeing which hitters were hot (batting around .300 or better) with favorable match ups. I got stuck with Soriano because I had one outfielder slot open and 3k left. I know I could have found some better value with pitching but I want to continue this strategy for a week or so to see how it pans out for me.

I also noticed that the scoring output for the Daily Dollar was MUCH higher than the $2 Moon Shot. I think because you can have multiple entries in the Moon Shot, people get baited into putting as many shitty lineups in as they can. I was 154/527 with a score of 77.35 (top 100 cash out) two days ago, and 139/170 with a score of 73.20 (top 40 cash out) yesterday. I think today I'll play both with the same lineup and compare.

Also, when you set your lineups check the weather! I thought I wasn't going to have a run yesterday because of rain delays for both the Cardinals and Braves games. Luckily they both finished but next time I'll be a little more aware of that. I probably shouldn't have gone with hitters in heavy, wet conditions either. 

The Year of the Receiver

There has not been more than four receivers to break the 200+ point barrier in one year since 2009 (based on non ppr standard scoring), per NFL.com. Here are last year's receivers and running backs who scored above that 200 mark:

Running Backs: Adrian Peterson 307.40 Doug Martin 262.60 Arian Foster 262.10 Marshawn Lynch 246.60 Alfred Morris 241.00 Ray Rice 222.10 C.J. Spiller 212.30 Jamaal Charles 204.50 Trent Richardson 203.70 Frank Gore 202.80 In looking at these numbers, I ask myself, which backs have already peaked? Which backs have coaches that are limiting their touches? I would knock Lynch, Rice, and Gore all down based on those questions.  You also want to look at which backs are in a situation where their upside may be capped. Are they in a balanced offense? Are they the only options on their team? Will the box be stacked eight strong every time they line up? Based on those assumptions, I would knock Spiller and Richardson slightly down.  I'm going to ignore injury questions, because by virtue of just being a running back you are more likely to get injured.  Receivers: Calvin Johnson 220.40 Brandon Marshall 216.60 Dez Bryant 207.70 A.J. Green 202.80 These receivers are in ideal situations. They are clear #1's on their respective teams, and in pass happy offenses. With the exception of the Bears, they have near non existent running games. They have all been have been with their quarterbacks for at least two years. A.J.  and Dez are 24, Calvin is 27, Brandon is 29. Each are coming into their prime or are right in the midst of it. Calvin put up 260+ fantasy points two seasons ago. I would argue that is is safer to pick one of these four receivers this year than all but the top six  or seven running backs in the above list. Not only because it is not out of the realm of possibilities that they produce 220+ points by year end, but because by virtue of being receivers they are less likely to get seriously injured.  With that said here are my current rankings for the 2013 season: Adrian Peterson Doug Martin Jamaal Charles (My biggest question mark. Is Smith a system baby or can he lead a team?) Alfred Morris Calvin Johnson Arian Foster (Has tons of touches over career, Houston will limit his opportunity) C.J. Spiller Trent Richardson A.J. Green Brandon Marshall Ray Rice (See Arian Foster) Julio Jones (Post hype sleeper - I think he is ready to break 200+ this year)

Learning Daily Fantasy Baseball

I discovered DraftKings about a month and a half before the NBA regular season ended. I instantly fell in love with the concept of daily fantasy sports, particularly for basketball and football. I don't know baseball very well. I enjoy watching the Rays but I've never really gotten into knowing the nuts and bolts of how baseball translates into fantasy. So I'm going to chronicle my struggles and shitty picks for $1 and $2 games for the rest of this season on DraftKings.

I did daily baseball for about the first month, and burnt myself out. Lost some money and never felt like depositing any more funds into my account. This is round two for me, and I have a little bit of a clearer idea in who to pick. 

The most useful site I use is http://baseballpress.com/lineup.php. If you wait about an hour before the first pitch, most lineups will be posted. Honestly, the most difficult thing about daily fantasy baseball is making sure all your players are actually playing that day! I made this mistake today as you'll see in a moment.  )-.-(

I've learned that if you don't have two pitchers that can put up at least 15 points, your chances of cashing out are much lower. I went with two inexpensive pitchers today, and hit gold with Kluber. I watched Hernandez get his face melted inning after inning. I'm still learning how to interpret match ups and figure out which pitchers will excel in which situations. I stacked the Rangers because they were at him in Arlington and the matchup seemed favorable. If I had squeezed 10 more points out of any of my hitters or pitchers I would have cashed. 

I also watched Adrian Beltre pop fly out with two outs and the bases loaded. So close, yet so far! Grand slam would have put me in the top 50 for sure.

Fantasy Football Calculator Mock Analysis #1

In thinking of ways to teach people how to approach drafts, I came up with this idea. Once a week I will be doing a mock draft on http://fantasyfootballcalculator.com  and analyzing my thoughts and strategy for every pick. I have made my personal strategy this year pretty clear in previous posts. To keep things interesting I will change up my strategy each week to show how you can take advantage of your draft in every situation.

Instead of doing mocks blindly and picking players you like, you should have a rough idea of who you are leaning towards and want to pick. This first draft I went with my favorite strategy. I chose the 8th spot and decided I would go WR/WR with my first two picks if the players I was targeting were available. You will see that right from the beginning my plan gets thrown off track and I had to adjust to keep the integrity of my team.

Without further ado, here were the results of my first draft:

1.8 - Agh! My plan gets foiled right from the start, as Calvin Johnson was my #1 target and gets picked up by The Don. Still feeling comfortable with my options, I chose A.J. Green as my first pick. This post explains my thoughts on the top four receivers. I felt confident that either Brandon Marshall or Julio Jones would still be available on the wrap around.

2.17 - Easy choice for me. I went with Brandon Marshall  because I am experimenting with a strategy that I will explain a few picks down the road. With the development of Alshon Jeffery and the addition of Martellus Bennet, Marshall has the opportunity to explode. Jay Cutler has options now. It may result in less opportunities for raw looks, but they will be much more efficient with the passes thrown his way. They will be able to utilize him in formations the Bears were unable to last year. Also, when shit does hit the fan, Cutler will always look to his other half.

3.32 - I was optimistic that Darren McFadden would drop to me, but alas he was taken by jm. At this point I start looking at which backs will have the highest usage. I want to load up on starting backs who will get the most touches and be on the field for the most plays. I'm looking at three players: David Wilson, Montee Ball, and Ryan Mathews. I took a chance and skipped on Mathews hoping he might drop to me on the wrap around. I don't have much information on Ball so I went with a high upside pick in Wilson. Huge upside. Though it is confirmed that Andre Brown will be the goal-line back I still felt pretty comfortable with Wilson and his ability to single handedly win me weeks.

4.41 - Argh! Foiled again! With Mathews taken I had to think quickly on who to pick. It was between Eddie Lacy and Christopher Ivory. If two backs have the same usage and upside, always take the one on the better team. The Packers have a very balanced run/pass attack and I felt fairly comfortable with the rook on Rodgers side of the ball.

5.56 - My favorite part of the draft. This is where your own value system for players comes the most handy. I did not like any of the running backs available at this point and there were still extremely high usage receivers on the board. Looking at Dwayne Bowe, Marques Colston, Hakeem Nicks, Antonio Brown, and Mike Wallace. All these receivers are high upside flex/WR3. I went with Bowe mainly due to health and being the clear cut #1 on the Chiefs.

6.65 - I was ecstatic when I saw Antonio Brown still on the board. Year after year the Steelers are always undervalued and I don't know why. Todd Haley is a pass happy offensive mind, and their defense isn't getting any better. I went with him over Nicks because of health reasons asa well. Having a fourth potential #1 receiver gives me the flexibility later in the year to trade for a real running back if mine don't pan out. To me, Brown was well above any of the available running backs on the board. 

7.80 - This is where I start stacking on potential high upside/high usage backs or protecting my earlier picks. I am good on receivers for the rest of the draft, so I opted to protect my David Wilson investment by taking Andre Brown. 

8.89 - I am very excited by Chip Kelly and the offense he is going to instill. Bryce Brown has the opportunity for double digit touches on a regular basis. If McCoy gets injured I suddenly have a #1 back on my roster as well.

9.104 - I liked Isaiah Pead but I'd rather wait and see how the pre-season shakes out before I make any decisions on St. Louis running backs. So I went with Ryan Mathews cuff, Danny Woodhead (if you draft Mathews, he should be on your list of number one cuffs to target. I'm a big believer in protecting your investments).

10.113 I am extremely high on Jermichael Finley this year. Has the tools but has never put it together mentally. Contract year. He's going to work his ass off to get overpaid by Miami next year.

11.128 - Finally took a quarterback! I alluded to this earlier, but by grabbing A.J. Green and Marshall, I wanted to see if I would have any issues snagging both Andy Dalton and Jay Cutler. Huge fan of players entering their 3rd/4th years and I believe that he has not reached his ceiling yet. Last year he was more than serviceable. I am a fan of doubling down on quarterbacks and their receivers when they are a clear cut #1 with extremely heavy usage. Both Marshall and Green fit the bill. 

12.137 - Went with Cutler. I felt extremely comfortable with the rest of my team. Don't always need a backup quarterback but by having Marshall I can always play the matchup with Cutler and Dalton. New offensive philosophy in Chicago as well. Feeling good about him not getting his brains splattered on the field this year.

13.152 - I'm a fan of Chicago's offense for fantasy, and even though I'm extremely high on Finley he is still a risk. Martellus Bennett has proven he can play, is 26 years old, and has some serious potential. He can block as well and will be getting very high usage on the Bears.

14.161 - I'm a fan of streaming defenses. I don't believe in drafting any before the 14th round of any draft. Ever. Went with Arizona, love their TD potential with their backfield. 

15.176 - With with Dan Bailey on Dallas. Plays in a dome and is on the same team as Tony Romo.

Analysis:

I am extremely happy with my final team. Didn't feel the need to reach for any players, nor did I end up with any serious liabilities. Felt like I got good value with most of my picks. I'm a big believer in having a balanced team and having trade chips at every position. I can guarantee this won't happen in real life though!

There are Two Types of Fantasy Sports Managers

There are two categories that fantasy sports managers fall into when drafting their team. They're either conservative or take risks. I believe to have the best chance of contending year in and year out for fantasy championships calculated risks need to be taken. This includes drafting unproven rookies, "reaching" for a player that otherwise may have dropped to you the next round, drafting players with an injury history, and so on.

If you take a player that is otherwise not considered a producer at a later stage in the draft (past the 2nd round), you potentially could have found a diamond in the rough and have a team that is more likely to win. Doug Martin and Steph Curry are perfect examples. One an unproven rookie, the other an injury risk. Both being drafted in the second or third round of drafts and producing at top 3 levels in their respective positions. If you had either on your team last year, you probably fared well in your league, if not won outright.

If you want to take flyers on players you need to make sure you have a panoramic view of the situation surrounding the athlete and ask yourself hard questions.

A few good questions to ask yourself are (this applies to football and basketball):

1. What is the offensive philosophy of the team? Do they like to spread the ball around or do they have that dude? 
2. Injuries. What kind of injuries has they player you are targeting had? Are they recurring (bad sign)? Or have they been freak accidents on different areas of the body?
3. Is the athlete in a contract year (2013 hint: this guy)? One of my favorites. Underperforming players in contract years LOVE to perform for one year and ride into the sunset with their paycheck.
4. Your position in the draft. If you are on the edges of the draft (1-4 or 9-12), do you reach for a player that likely won't make it back to you? Or if you are in the middle do you take a risk and hope that player makes it back around to you?
5. Video. Watch highlights of a player. Is this player an under utilized hustle guy who will produce if given the chance? How athletically gifted is he? 
6. Does the player have a handcuff I can protect my investment with? Will I be able to trade him later down the road?

These are just a couple things you can take into consideration. There are many more factors that go into making decisions like where the athlete plays, keeping tabs with the local beat, etc. In the end, go with your gut and ignore all the noise. Don't be afraid to pull the trigger on someone people are overlooking. Ask yourself the question "Who will I have been most pissed off about that I didn't draft?".

Changing How You Think About Drafts

Sleepers. Break out candidates. Busts. If you want to be successful year in and year out with your fantasy drafts you need to change the framework of how you think about them. Thinking about particular players and pigeonholing them in these roles will hamstring you throughout your drafts. You can like or dislike players all you want, but if you allow your feelings to cloud your thoughts on drafting a player you've already lost a step. It is about the value versus upside in relation to where the player is picked.

I'll use a personal example. Two years ago, I had Tony Romo. He did alright for me all year and I made it to the championship round of my league. He broke his hand that week and had a grand total 0.00 fantasy points. I lost by less than 4 (LeSean McCoy had about six points for me as well, talk about shitty luck). I don't like Romo. I'm not a fan of the Cowboys, and I don't enjoy watching him play. The next year I told myself I was not going to draft him under any circumstances. I get to my draft, and I'm sitting there in the 7th round with no quarterback and Romo staring me in the eyes. At that point, in the 7th round, with no quarterback, I decided to swallow my pride and draft Romo because the value for him that late in my draft was too good to pass up. I ended up having a battle in the semi finals of the playoffs and just losing. Fantasy football playoffs are a shit show once you make them anyway. But seriously. Fuck Tony Romo (for fantasy). I am NOT drafting him this year.

If you drafted Ryan Mathews last year in the first or second round, he was a bust. If you grabbed him in the fourth or fifth round(admittedly you probably didn't), he will have performed up to par to his draft position. This year, I believe he should be a late first or second round pick, and he's being drafted as late as the 5th! Even if you've been burnt by Mathews in the past, why would you pass up on this ridiculous deal. This is like companies buying thousands of dollars of debt for pennies on the dollar for just the chance of the person in debt to pay them back. If you want to argue, "Oh he's injury prone," I would disagree. Rob Gronkowski is injury prone. He's had the same injury and multiple surgeries in the same places. Mathews hasn't hurt the same part of his body once. It's about the value of risk versus reward, and right now burning a fourth or fifth round pick on Ryan Mathews is worth the potential reward.

Don't get stuck with telling yourself, "I have to get a running back with my first pick," or, "If I don't have a quarterback by the 6th round I'm screwed,". No. If you are drafting players for value and not position, you will have the advantage. You can trade for your needs. Be fluid in your drafts. Every draft is different, and pick accordingly.

Your First Two Picks Should be Receivers this Year

Your first two picks should be receivers this year.

You're sitting there with the first pick in the draft. Adrian Peterson may be your default number 1. Or you may be deciding between him and Arian Foster. Or the Muscle Hamster. Regardless, Calvin Johnson isn't even on your radar. Why should he be? Running backs have historically been the first couple picks of every draft since the beginning of time. Things don't change, ever.

I think this year, they are.

There is a BEYOND GODLIKE! tier of receivers this year. The top 4, in order are: Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Brandon Marshall, and A.J. Green. Factor in where these receivers play, who they play against, positional injuries, trends with goal line backs, etc. These receivers will pace the top running backs all year.


1) Calvin Johnson
2) Julio Jones
3) Brandon Marshall
4) A.J. Green

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5) Percy Harvin
6) Demaryius Thomas
7) Dez Bryant (I'd like to put him in the BEYOND GODLIKE! category but he has to prove he can play an entire year without losing focus)
8) Larry Fitzgerald

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EVERYBODY ELSE

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The drop off from the top eight receivers is much steeper than the top eight running backs. In fact, the running back class is quite deep this year. There are tremendous value picks in players like Darren McFadden and  Ryan Mathews who are one or two years removed from being legitimate first round picks. There are young backs who are being given the reigns like Lamar Miller and David Wilson. Teams like the Patriots and Eagles are running so many plays that Bryce Brown and Shane Vareen may be legitimate #2 or flex options. All these players I just named are being drafted in the third round or later.

Really the question is, who do you want to anchor your team? If you are injury averse, I would argue that you have even more reasons to be compelled to choose two receivers. Those four are true number one options on their respective teams. None have a truly effective running back to fall back on. When shit hits the fan, they look for their number one. After the top eight, you will not have consistent production across the entire year for receivers.

It is not out of the realm of possibilities to lock up two of those top four. Especially if you are sitting in the middle or end of your draft. Not only will you have game breaking production, but you will be keeping this game breaking production out of your opponents hands.

The Value of Fantasy Sports

I'm not sure most people realize the value of fantasy sports. They make you smarter. More analytical. They force you to look at sports in a different way, or else you lose. If you don't adapt your lose your money, your friends make fun of you for doing that making that stupid trade, you're always last on the waiver wire. It's similar to how they say video games like Starcraft improve your reaction time. Your judgements about specific players, coaches, even entire organizations change.

Sports is a subjective science. Everyone has their own opinion on a particular athlete and they are always right. When it comes to fantasy sports, the trick to winning is giving yourself the opportunity to be more likely to be right. I like basketball, so I'll use Greg Popovic and Kahwi Leonard as an example.  If you bought into the hype (which I did) last year, you saw Leonard as a sleeper. This dude is one of those guys who throws down lines. Points, rebounds, blocks, steals, the whole sha-bang. You'll think "If Popovic is worth half his salt he's going to use Leonard!" (I thought this as well). As the season went on, and Leonard was doing okay fantasy-wise for me. But he wasn't throwing down lines and winning me weeks up like I expected him to.

I started to ask myself why? I looked at his coach. What is Popovic's coaching style? Does he like to throw developing players into the fire and learn as he goes? Or is he more of a long term project that is going to be brought along gradually. You start to look at the Spurs as an organization. What kind of players are "Spurs"? What kind of players do they target? I started to realize, "Damn, Leonard is doing okay for me, but he's never going to be that dude,"(A least this year, -.^).

As someone who didn't have a background in basketball, I was learning on the fly. I still am. I just now know what a "dig" is. I started to look past the Show that is basketball and started noticing smaller, more nuanced things. Which GM's are savvy (being from Tampa I'm SUPER excited about the Magic), which players get thrown into the fire (Damian Lillard, who I picked too), who gets plays ran for them, etc.

I hate the argument that "I stop loving the game and just look at it from fantasy,". Fuck that. You can still love a team or a player and play fantasy sports. I have an irrational love for Steph Curry (Fuck the person who auto-drafted him RIGHT before I was about to last year). It's actually doubly awesome when your favorite player or team is kicking ass AND throwing down a ridiculous line! It's twice the adrenaline.

Just saying, more people who are sports fans should play fantasy sports. You'll get smarter, I promise.

Why you should root for Serbian Tennis players

Serbian Swag. Remember that term. Serbs have a penchant for reacting quite hilariously to unexpected turns of events. Every single one has a certain Serbian Swag to them; I'll let the videos speak for themselves (Victor Troiki meltdown was the inspiration for this):

• Victor Troiki's awkward car ride to Roland Garros:

• Novak Djokovic (#1 in the world) calling out a fan in the stands:

• What happens when you put former Women's world #1 Ana Ivanovic and current Men's World #1 Novak Djokovic on a court together:

• Common mistake, but Ilija Bozoljac isn't fazed:

• Janko Tipsaravic even has Serbian Swag he gets pissed off:

• Even the ball boys wish they were Serbian:

You wish you were Serbian.

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I would have made my Knicks/Pacers picks but unfortunately the game started right as I finished my post. I would have picked the Knicks to get hot at home as I'm watching Melo sink his first three field goals. heuheueheue

I'll take Golden state to win and take the over on 194.5. They what the Knicks wish they were with a real home court advantage. Also don't be surprised if Tim Duncan and company get in early foul trouble.

Titus Young Sr. and Jason Collins

What I've been thinking about since I read about the recent Titus Young Sr. news, here are some facts:

• Titus Young Sr. and Jason Collins were both born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. 
• Titus Young Sr. went to University High School in West L.A.
•  Jason Collins was a short 15 minute drive down Wilshire at Harvard-Westlake School in between Bel Air and Beverly Hills. 
• Both athletes are at critical junctures in their respective careers. 
• Both are African American Athletes in sports staying relevant by highlighting the less savory aspects of what it means to be an Athlete in America. 

The beauty of sports is that it can bring together people from all sorts of backgrounds and have them work together for a common goal. These two went to school 15 minutes from each other (different time periods), and have polar opposite career paths. I will not pretend to guess how each person grew up, but I will bet my bottom dollar that each had a different style of support from the day the were born.

My picks for tonight:

New York vs. Indiana

Tonight will be more about the offense than defense (though the performance on the defensive end has been fantastic). Tyson gets to Melo's head and Knicks finally start moving the ball around like when they were on their winning streak. I'll take the over on 179.5 and I think NY will cover -5.5, but lose in a close one.

Golden State vs. San Antonio

It's hard not to pick Mark Jackson's squad to cover every time. I will pick it again, and the Warriors will cover the -7. Pop has thrown almost every conceivable defensive look at the Warriors and they have adjusted accordingly every time. The league wants this series to go seven. Taking the over on 195 and Golden State to lose a close one and cover the -7.

First (!)

https://soundcloud.com/tycho/a-walk

I would have loved to write a wonderful post about something interesting, but I need some more time to hash it out. So in light of me doing my first fantasy football mock draft and the NBA playoffs, here are my top ten rankings that mean absolutely nothing.

Top ten fantasy football rankings (ppr):

1) Adrian Peterson

2) LeSean McCoy

3) Doug Martin

4) Arian Foster

5) Calvin Johnson

6) Brandon Marshall

7) Julio Jones

8) Ray Rice

9) Trent Richardson

10) C.J. Spiller