#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Howdy Folks! Winter Break has begun and we are less than a week away from Christmas! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there. I have been following the NBA for a long time now, and it always finds a way to keep the viewer entertained with a strong active league. Until very recently, I have been a huge basketball fan! Now, I am going to tell you why things have changed...the NBA and I, are seeing other people.

If you read my previous posts than you know that I am a hardcore So Cal sports fan, and nothing is ever going to change that. This means that I bleed Laker's purple and gold! The issue that I have with the NBA, is the commissioner David Stern and what he did to my Lakers.

About a week ago, the Lakers were preparing to trade for a player named Chris Paul. Paul is a proven superstar who will make most any team a contender for the title if he was playing for them. In order for LA to make a trade to the New Orleans Hornets and acquire Chris Paul, they had to give away some players. After all, you have to give something to get something right? Well, LA pulled the trigger and fired on a trade offer between NO and LA. Done deal right? WRONG! The commissioner David Stern decided to take the in limbo trade and VOID it. Many people may be asking...he can do that?! Well yes people, apparently he can.

Here were his confusing reasons....

Money talks people, in sports most of all. The issue David Stern and the NBA has is that there is not much parody amongst the teams in the NBA. There are a few huge teams in huge markets such as the LA Lakers, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, etc. These teams are consistently competing for the NBA title every year because they have the most money in the biggest markets and they have much more resources available to them to excel. The more money you have the better chance you have to win. This occurs in other sports also, but because of the type of game baseball or football is, these juggernauts that are built behind the dolla dolla bill y'all don't always have so much success.

Because of this parody and competitiveness issue, David Stern looked at this trade for the Lakers as an NBA killer! He apparently believes that if the Lakers got Paul then they would be nearly unstoppable...which is probably true. So as previously stated, the trade is vetoed by Mr. Stern and the trade is not allowed to process. THEN...days later it is announced that Chris Paul was traded to the LA Clippers. The in-town rival of the Lakers! Instead of Paul being allowed to come to the Lakers, he is now playing for the Laker's huge rival who may now even be the best in LA! Everything that has resulted from David Stern vetoing this trade has resulted in the Lakers getting bent over and taken down to Chinatown. Don't worry there's more...

Lamar Odom was a great player with a lot of value on the Lakers, and he was also involved as a piece of the trade for Chris Paul. Because the news broke that the Lakers were attempting to trade him, he became very unhappy when the trade was voided and he was stuck on a team that apparently didn't even want him. So, he demanded a trade. This virtually forced us to trade him to Dallas because everybody in the league knew that Odom was no longer interested in staying in LA.

So lets review the pros and cons for the Lakers. Pros, there aren't any. Cons, we did not get Paul, and we lost one of our top players for virtually nothing...

Jesus, Stern throw us a bone here! I understand that the league wants to be competitive, and you want there to be more parody...but you can't rig the league! IMHO he intentionally tried to screw the Lakers because they are a big market team and he wants the big dogs to act like little puppies. Because the Lakers play in a big market, the commisioner has literally rigged the league against them and is setting them up to fail. This pissed me off more than I could even stand. The commissioner immediately caused us to be taken out of serious contention for the playoffs and make us worse than we were before this “non-trade.”

Just wondering Mr. Stern, where were you when the Heat signed Lebron and Bosh and became the “Big Three” down in Miami? OR when Boston acquired Garnett to go with Allen and Pierce to become a juggernaut?! Nowhere! 

I quite frankly can't stand it, and I think that David Stern needs to be sent to a nut house. Because of this I am going to make the decision to watch very little of the NBA this year. I don't want to give Dictator Stern and his commie league any more rating then it deserves, and since the Lakers are literally being plotted against by the higher-ups in the league, what is the point? We have no chance now anyways! LA still has an opportunity to save our season by making some moves, most likely a trade, but at the moment we are almost hopeless. *Middle Finger to Stern*

Hit me up @DerekJ_AllDay if you hate or love Stern and his decision making, and give me your opinion on the matter! Have a great Christmas everyone!

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Derek on Twitter!

#NerdsUnite: Play on playa! (Breaking down the world of sports so you don't have to!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Derek - I met him when I was professor for a day at CSUF. Really rad dude, and he wants to come on board to help explain to us nerdy folk the wild world of sports. Smart dude, and knows his shizzy shiznat. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT DEREK!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @DerekJ_AllDay

Hello to all the readers out there, and a special shout-out to everyone that is about to start finals week. As you may know I am at Cal State Fullerton, and we are all running into the finals buzz saw starting next week. Honestly, finals seem to get more difficult every semester…and I am not sure if it is because of the school, or if it’s because I care less and less about what I am learning the more semesters I take. Regardless, I feel your pain, and remember that break is only weeks away!

Finals are not the only tests coming up though, after (Monday Night Football) the Fantasy Football Playoffs are going to begin! This gives me a perfect opportunity to dig deep into the world of fantasy games, and share the wonderful world of fantasy with you all!

I have to throw another shout-out, to Lindsay, who left a comment on my very first post. She was talking about how her boyfriend is getting her into sports, and that she is playing fantasy football with all of their friends. It’s  funny because my girlfriend and I are doing the exact same thing. She even beat me this last week!

The most popular fantasy game is Fantasy Football, but there is actually a fantasy game for every sport, and I seriously mean every sport. Besides the obvious sports like baseball, basketball, hockey etc…there are also fantasy games for soccer, bowling, fishing, golf, and racing (Nascar and Indy). Crazy right?! I always knew there was soccer and even golf, but I was amazed to find out years ago that there is fantasy fishing! So this means that there is definitely a fantasy game out there for everyone.

I will be speaking in terms of fantasy football, just understand that all fantasy games are different in some way. The entire point of fantasy “anything” is to construct a team of real life players into a sort of a super team. The way you create your team is relatively simple. In most leagues there are the same 10 (sometimes more) people playing all year long. You build your team during a draft that takes place before your sport’s season begins. The draft is the player selection process in fantasy. When you sign up for a league there will be a set draft time. At that given time, all 10 players hop on their computers and participate in the draft. The draft itself is a bit complicated, and how you draft is completely up to you. There are 16 rounds in the typical fantasy football draft, every round each player gets to pick one player in the NFL. It can be anyone in the league, anyone at all. Where you pick (1-10) is rotational. For example, if I get the very first pick in the first round, then I will have the very last pick in the second round, first in the 3^rd, last in the 4^th and so on. After all 16 rounds you will have your fantasy football team ready to go for the season.

Now that you have your team you might ask, how do I win? Well, scoring formats can differ, but the most popular format is called “Head to Head.” This is where you play against just one person in your league every weekend, and whoever scores the most points wins one game and gets a win or a loss put on their record. For example, if Marcus, Kevin, Charles and Papa Smurf were all playing in a fantasy league…then the schedule for the first game would be something like Marcus vs. Kevin, and Charles vs. Papa Smurf. The games take place weekly so all games Thursday-Monday of a given week count as a part of one fantasy game. The reason this format is so popular is because you play directly against your friends and other opponents, rather than just collecting points all year and indirectly competing against them. So then…how do you score points?

Drafting and beginning a league sounds more complicated than it really is, and the cool part is you can go to ESPN.com and take part in “mock drafts” which don’t actually count towards anything and are solely there for practice. The big questions heading into the draft are who to pick. There are a million strategies out there, and it truly is entirely up to you. The most important part is understanding the scoring system and picking players accordingly. No part of fantasy is complicated, but it does take some getting used to. You will be filling positions on your team such as quarterback, wide receiver, running back, tight end, kicker and finally defense/special teams.  All of the points earned are directly related to the players performances in their game that week. How many yards they got, touchdowns, field goals, sacks, etc. For the sake of length I will refer you to this link of how all of the points work.

Trust me, reading about fantasy is not nearly as fun as actually playing fantasy. Fantasy games are constantly evolving, and once you learn the basics which I have explained the best I can; your journey has only just begun. Constant debate rages on about drafting strategies, who to start and who to sit, and of course whose team is better! It gives you an opportunity to gain bragging rights and talk trash against family and/or friends which you WILL do if you play. It’s impossible not to!

Believe it or not you should be even more intrigued if you are not very interested in sports. If you get stuck watching football every Sunday and you just don’t care about the teams playing, then that is fine…but those games instantly become interesting if you have 1 or 2 players playing in that game that are getting you points to beat your best buddy in fantasy!

I am especially talking to girlfriends here…fantasy is the answer to all your problems while watching sports. If you are a girlfriend, or boyfriend for that matter, and you don’t like sports, but you get stuck watching them every week…why not join your significant other in fantasy? You could watch the games and have something at stake yourself! All of the games become so much more fun to watch when you are playing against one of your friends or your gf/bf! The other part is that you are guaranteed to learn about sports along the way!

All in all fantasy is a sports world where team allegiances are put aside, victory is the primary goal and bragging rights are at stake for the YEAR!

Questions about fantasy? Got sports on your mind? Tweet me @DerekJ_AllDay. I’m here to discuss all things sports.

#nerdsunite

#NerdsUnite: Meet @jeffw171, your nerdy sport-y lover!

Alritteeeyyyy then. So this duderino sent me an IM on Facebook last week while I was in Vegas asking if he could write for us. I asked him where his area of nerd-spertise was, and he said sports! Rad! We don't have someone of that! Took a look at his stuff, and dudes - totally didn't suck.

Nerds ... meet Jeff! Hit it!

When I approached Jen about an opportunity to write for her, she was more than willing to oblige and give me a chance to write for Talk Nerdy To Me Lover.  So my best idea for my first post was to introduce myself.

My name is Jeff Wolfson. I graduated from college not very long ago and have held a job in sports media since. I work for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network’s website MASNsports.com while also doing some writing on the side. In my years of helping to cover the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, I’ve learned probably the most important part of my personality: I’m a nerd that has a love of sports.

The nerd part of me is mostly hidden because I was always the athletic type growing up, but I always had a thing for video games, comic books and cartoons.  To this day, I still play video games, read the occasional comic book, and watch countless animated movies.

While writing for Talk Nerdy To Me Lover I will touch on sports from my take, but I may throw some nerd references in there just to keep my nerd credentials. I will have something new every Tuesday. Anyway, to contact me you can tweet at @jeffw171. I’d love to hear from you and get some feedback. You can also visit my personal Web site at www.jeffwolfsonsports.com. Looking forward to interacting with you!

Jeff will be posting every Tuesday. So feel free to tune in and check it out. Or not, whatevs - I'll just boutique direct target market you on Facebook either way ... and like stick it in your face and make you say Uncle. Does anyone even say Uncle anymore? Like is that still a thing? If I walked up to a 12 year old, and said yo! Do you still say uncle - would they even know what I am talking about? Wait, I shouldn't be going up to 12 year olds for anything ... at all ... ever. Am I still talking? Shut up Jen.

WELCOME JEFF!!!!

#nerdsunite

PS. If anyone is ever interested in writing for us, just shoot me an email with a sample post: JenFriel@TalkNerdyToMeLover.com I'm putting my manager hat on, and going to give everyone a day to post so we're not all freakishly random like we have been for the last year. Gotta orrgganniiiizzzeeeeeee!!! But yah! Look forward to hearing from you. HIZZUAH!!