Lights Out!

The Trash Talkers League has its roots in Georgetown. Most original members were all friends when we were going there for school. Of course we all loved basketball, and there were a lot of Hoyas in the NBA whose college careers we had followed when living in Washington. Guys like Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, and Allen Iverson to name a few.

Some of us had flirted with other types of fantasy basketball in the past. Without the Web, though, these were high maintenance affairs of checking box scores and updating point totals manually. I still have the websites I made to follow our leagues back then. It was fun, but it was a pain in the ass.

Once Yahoo started offering fantasy basketball, it was a no-brainer. We started the first Trash Talkers League and it has taken off since. We all know how it is a great way to follow the NBA, but it also offered a great means for friends to stay in touch after college and living all over the country at first, eventually the world.

Head-to-Head
In the beginning, we played a rotisserie game with 10 owners, but that quickly changed and we finally settled on the Head-to-Head style. H2H keeps everyone involved much more than rotisserie leagues, as every week you have a chance to win. We also have a “chump tax” (Blount tax, named after owner Louis Blount) that the bottom two teams must pay, and in this way everyone always has incentive to stay engaged.

75 Move Max
We have a limit of 75 moves per season. We implemented this for many reasons. First, it forces you to really think about who to keep on your roster. Second, it helps prevent all free agents being on the waiver wire from excessive add/drops. And lastly, it forces you to really build a team and not add/drop every day for the sake of getting games played. We call this strategy the “Wave of Mediocrity,” or “Wave” for short. It can be useful at times, but the move limit means each move has a price.

Regarding the Wave, though we are all pretty fanatical about this league and spend considerable amounts of time on it, there is a point where it gets to be too much. The move limitation helps prevent rewarding owners who are the quickest on the draw at midnight when moves for the next day are allowed.

Eight Categories
We play an 8-cat game with the default categories minus turnovers. Let me be absolutely clear on this: TURNOVERS ARE BULLSHIT. I would recommend to all fantasy leagues to remove this category. I guarantee your enjoyment value will go up. While a worthwhile stat in real basketball, in my mind it has no place in fantasy. Unlike the other stats, players are rewarded in this category for not playing. It just doesn’t make sense.

So these are our settings. I’m sure commentary contained in future posts on this blog will be valuable to anyone into fantasy basketball, but the degree of helpfulness will be determined by your league’s settings.

So enjoy! And feel free to leave comments or ask questions. I’m sure someone will get back to you. The comments are a little messed up right now, but it will be fixed soon.

Lights Out!