And With The First Pick: FINALE

I couldn't have scripted it better if I tried. After six days, all three of my teammates have two wins. I didn't want anyone picking teams by their favorite teammate of mine, so the "teams" (a, b, and c) didn't actually correspond to a teammate of mine. But in either case, we need to find an actual winner, so we're going to do what my dad said I never had to do, and that's "duke it out." I think he only said that because he secretly wanted to beat people up for me. Actually I guess when you go around telling people you can and will beat them up, it's not a secret. Shout outs to Greg Boone.

Anyway, it's time for a winner. If you haven't voted all week I need you to vote today, if you don't vote today, Greg Boone might whoop your ass. Today, the GM's had to pick a team, where if the game was getting physical, and a brawl broke out, they would have the last man standing. For this one we're going back to anyone who has ever played an NBA game and hopefully, we'll finally get a winner. Make Sure You Vote for the team that would win the brawl.

Team A

1) Chris Childs

2) Matt Barnes

3) Stephen Jackson

4) Kenyon Martin

5) Shaquille O'Neal

Team B

1) Vernon Maxwell

2) Anthony Peeler

3) Charles Barkley

4) Anthony Mason

5) Kermit Washington

Team C

1) John Starks

2) Rick Mahorn

3) Ron Artest

4) Charles Oakley

5) Ben Wallace

Do What You Do       Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

And With The First Pick: Part VI

No matter what I've ever told you, or ever written, those who know me best know I'm no thug. No gangbanger, no tough guy, just regular old Jason. I grew up (14years) in the Bronx but went to the best schools and wasn't involved in a "streetlife" so to speak. However, when I moved up to the suburbs for highschool, things were definitely different, and I needed to "go back to the streets" for college. By streets I mean the West Village of Manhattan. Not as hood as it gets, but definitely more urban than where I was at. The same holds true for being in Germany. This town is far from the hood (which is a good thing) but every summer it's imperitive I get back to "the streets" I grew up in (and to do nothing besides play high level streetball tournaments).

Having said that, it's about time my teammates thought outside the box and brought their GM skills out to "the streets." Why wouldn't I end this series where it all began for me? The streets of New York baby. For the last team, these guys needed to pick a streetball team to compete and the famed Rucker Park. Obviously you want to win the game, but sometimes out at the Rucker, it's about putting on a show. Think the NBA all-star game, flashy dunks and moves to get the crowd on your side, then real competition in the last five minutes with the score knotted at 127. Out of these three squads...

Team A

1) Chris Paul

2) Jamal Crawford

3) Tracy McGrady

4) Amare Stoudemire

5) Dwight Howard

Team B

1) Baron Davis

2) Kobe Bryant

3) Carmelo Anthony

4) Blake Griffin

5) Kevin Garnett

Team C

1) Allen Iverson

2) Dwayne Wade

3) Lebron James

4) Kenyon Martin

5) Shaquille O'Neal

...WHO IS GOING TO BE NAMED KING OF THE STREETS???

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

And With The First Pick: Part V

Thank you for following the series and voting like you have...the buzz around town is growing, and my super-competitive teammates are in angst over who will be the leading vote getter by the end  of this all.

Today was the first day I let my teammates do any research. Due to the fact that over the past 15 years, the majority of #1 picks have been Big Men, and I didn't want a team of 5 post-players I told them to check the archives for their teams of #1 overall picks.

 

Team A

1) Oscar Robinson

2) Lebron James

3) Chris Webber

4) Tim Duncan

5) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Team B

1) Allen Iverson

2) Glenn Robinson

3) Hakeem Olajuwon

4) David Robinson

5) Shaquille O'Neal

Team C

1) Derick Rose

2) Earvin "Magic" Johnson

3) Kenyon Martin

4) Greg Oden

5)  Dwight Howard

Those are still some pretty big teams huh? In either case...WHAT TEAM IS NUMBER ONE TODAY???

Do What You Do       Hallelujah Hollaback       ...blackhercules21...

And With The First Pick: Part IV

After 3 parts (all of which you should have voted on by now) there has been more non-Black players drafted than Black players drafted, not to say that there is anything wrong with that, but let's go ahead and even that out today.

Today's GM situation was picking a squad with American players who skipped college all together. You know, those guys who got drafted fresh out of highschool and never played a college basketball game. Here are the squads. No coaches today...

Team A

1) Monta Ellis

2) Kobe Bryant

3) Shawn Kemp

4) Moses Malone

5) Andrew Bynum

Team B

1) Sebastian Telfair

2) Lebron James

3) Tracy McGrady

4) Amare Stoudemire

5) Dwight Howard

Team C

1) Shaun Livingston

2) Louis Williams

3) Josh Smith

4) Darryl Dawkins

5) Kevin Garnett

You already know what to do...out of the 3 squads right here...WHO WOULD WIN IT ALL???

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

And With The First Pick: Part III

Have you voted/commented on Part I and Part II yet? If not, go ahead and do that for me. Thanks.

So I realized I rushed through the first two drafts days, with you and with my GM's. If in any of the next few days, you are in a Rock-Paper-Scissors situation, where one team can beat another, but can't beat both, then go with the team you feel has the best shot of going 2-0. Aka choose the rock. For anyone out there who thinks paper can actually beat rock, I got a blog for you coming up next week. Anyway, back to the battle.

Today's challenge is for all of my Whiteboys out there who think for some reason, Blacks are genetically more gifted or something (even though we may be). I had my three teammates pick their All-Caucasian Team (sans foreigners) I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if there were actually 15 of them, but to be honest, my teammates had a harder time finding Black coaches for their team. Here are the squads...

Team A

1) Pete Maravich

2) Doug Collins

3) Dan Majerle

4) Tom Gugliotta

5) Kevin McHale

(Coached by Lenny Wilkins)

Team B

1) Jerry West

2) Rick Barry

3) Chris Mullin

4) Tom Chambers

5) George Mikan

(Coached by Nate McMillan)

Team C

1) John Stockton

2) Mark Price

3) Larry Bird

4) Bob Pettit

5) Bill Walton
(Coached by Doc Rivers)

Today's question is no different, of the three teams...WHO WOULD WIN???

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

And With The First Pick: Part II

For those who haven't seen Part I feel free to scroll back down and vote on there first.

Part 2 hits home with my three teammates because we're all currently playing overseas. The question is to pick 5 starters and a coach for your All-Foreigner team. Again, comments on who has the best team is what I'm looking for, reasons for your pick are always greatly appreciated.

Team A 

1)Tony Parker

2)Rudy Fernandez

3)Andrei Kirilenko

4)Pao Gasol

5)Yao Ming

(Coached by Gregg Popovich)

Team B 

1)Steve Nash

2)Manu Ginobli

3)Mickael Pietrus

4)Toni Kukoc

5)Dirk Nowitzski

(Coached by Mike D'Antoni)

Team C

1)Drazen Petrovic

2)Peja Stojakovic

3)Hedo Turkoglu

4)Andrew Bogut

5)Arvydas Sabonis

(Coached by Phil Jackson)

I admit I put them on the spot with this one as well, and obvious choices like Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon were somehow overlooked. The thinking was European, although they did get that Canadian. But remember, we're taking each of these players in their PRIME and imagining that they all speak the same language and can communicate with one another. SO AGAIN I ASK...WHO HAS THE BEST TEAM???

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...

And With The First Pick: Part I

One of the coolest thing about being a basketball player is that people will see you around town and say something like "good game yesterday." Having dealt with that in highschool and college I can simply take it for what it's worth. The weird thing about being a "professional" basketball player out here is that now, when people see you around town, they may something like that "thanks for the good game yesterday, I have you on my fantasty team." That was a little bit crazier.

There is an actual Beko BBL fantasy league that a lot of Germans take part in. Now, I've been apart of teams where guys need to try to have great statistical games to either boost their worth or prove their value, but I've learned that it usually takes away from their team's success. The idea of an athlete being concerned with fantasy stats cannot be good for a team, but having said that, it still doesn't stop me from playing Fantasy Football every year. I was actually pretty close to an addiction in the past.

Anyway, I pushed for a team building exercise, because you can never have enough of those, it involved everyone to enter a Fantasy Basketball League. Not a BBL one, an NBA one. To ensure victory, I've decided to first, test some of my teammates' GM skills. They were asked to pick a team based on certain stipulations and requirements. Simple enough huh?

So HERE'S WHAT I NEED FROM YOU...THE BEST TEAM. This is a six part series and I need you to check back daily to vote on the results. Facebook, blog, email, smoke signal, or a really really loud scream, however you need to get the answer to me, let me know so I can total em up and post the winner. My teammates got a lot riding on this week long series so your participation is greatly appreciated.

The question was proposed to Ben Jacobson, John Little and Chris Oliver. Here was the parameter for Part I: Pick a starting five and coach for the NCAA championship game, only using players who played in college since the millennium hit. And here were the teams.

Team A

1)Chris Paul

2)Dwayne Wade

3)Kevin Durant

4)Michael Beasley

5)Andrew Bogut

(Coached by John Wooden)

Team B

1)Johnny Flynn

2)JJ Reddick

3)Carmelo Anthony

4)Blake Griffin

5)Emeka Okafor

(Coached by Mike Krzyzewski)

Team C

1)Deron Williams

2)Ben Gordon

3)Kenyon Martin

4)Al Horford

5)Greg Oden

(Coached by Roy Williams)

I admit that this was dinner topic that turned into a blog series and they didn't have ample time to sit and think about it or research it. That's why you don't see a Shane Battier or a Jameer Nelson but I think they did okay for the rapid fire draft style we conducted.

REMEMBER: THIS IS BASED OFF OF THEIR COLLEGE TALENT...SO I ASK YOU...WHO HAS THE BEST TEAM???

Do What You Do      Hallelujah Hollaback      ...blackhercules21...