A Bunch of Zeros

Jan 17, 2000... Bill Krieger

In response to Cap City's acquisition of Jason William of New Jersey, I would like to name the first-ever all-NIBL non-playing team. These are my favorite NIBL players that aren't even playing:

• F - Charles Barkley (Houston)... Shakopee's old man breaks down (of course)
• F - Jason Williams (New Jersey)... very appropriate that he's now a Tool. A massive new contract and he'll be back in 6-8 weeks, er ah, 6-8 weeks from now
• C - Hakeem (Hou)... Aruba loves old men too, great to have Hakeem coming back just in time for Ramadan
• G - Michael Jordan (Washington?)... West Chicago acid trip
• G - Bobby Phills (Charlotte)... Nobody is more serious about losing than Elk Grove

Point production from the all-NIBL non-playing team this week: 0.

Now you know that my middle name is "positivity", but man what's the last good NBA game you've seen? For me, the lose-a-Bulls have played a couple of interesting games. Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Toni Kukoc, and some of the other guys really work hard and really seem to care. That is in stark contrast to an amazing number of teams and players who don't give a rat's ass. How are fans supposed to care if the fucking players don't?

As Chicago fans, I think that our perspective of the NBA was warped for the Bulls incredible 8 year run. Not only did we see the best player and the best team to ever play in the NBA, but we saw the rest of the NBA at its best. For the majority of teams in the NBA, the highlight of their season would be a victory over the Bulls. For the players of these teams, they had to either perform or be humiliated by Michael, Scottie, Dennis and the boys. Every game we saw talent and effort, magnified by the supreme talent and effort of Michael Jordan.

So, what do we have now? The Lakers? Portland? Shaq, Tim Duncan, Kobe, Vince Carter? I guess the Lakers are good, and Phil has them playing defense (finally). I sort of wish Phil could coach Portland because that could be a real exciting, dominating team. San Antonio is ok, but c'mon. The East you can wad up and throw away. What is the All-Star team in the East? Zo, Grant Hill, Vince Carter, Iverson, Eddie Jones? Ugh.

Let me wrap this up... The bottom line: I used do the NIBL because the NBA was fun, and now I'm following the NBA because the NIBL is fun. Is that a sustainable situation (where the fantasy league is more interesting than the real league it's following)? I don't know, but we (The NIBL) aren't getting a rash of missing lineups or people dropping out, so we shall see...

yow, bill

PS - Regarding a recent Risk game, and my role as Poland to Mark Krieger's (Elk Grove) nazi Germany... Zieg Heil! Zieg Heil! Zieg Heil!

PPS - To end on a positive note... Michael Jordan's last shot in the NBA!