All good things must come to an end. That includes my second annual NBA Predict the Future contest. Once again, this year’s results came down to the wire with us, in the end, declaring a brand new champion.
Everyone, please congratulate faithful reader, bar patron and the real estate mogul personally responsible for finding SportsChump Manor, Mr. BFaber. Fabes has won this year’s grand prize, but more importantly, bragging rights for the calendar year. He’s promised to wear his crown proudly. Figures it would take a Spurs fan, right?
Congratulations to you, sir. Now here’s a quick look at some of the questions we asked back in November:
Questions 3&4: Will the Nets make the playoffs/host a home playoff series?
Most of us (7/10) figured the Nets would make the playoffs but not host a home playoff series. They ended up a 4-seed, winning 49 games but losing to the Chicago Bulls in the first round. It looks like most of us were right by not putting too much faith in the Nets.
Question 5: Will Mike Brown finish the season as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers?
This may have been my favorite question of the contest. Talk about giving away free points. Not only was Mike Brown fired while the ink was still drying on my original post (he was let go five games into the season), I should have asked whether he’d have another coaching gig before the playoffs ended. He does, as he was recently hired back by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Question 6: Who will lead the league in scoring?
It would only make sense (ballhog) that the guy who led the league in scoring (ballhog) would be the one (chucker) who took the most shots, right? Wrong! Carmelo Anthony ranked fourth, not first, in total field goals attempted this season, but he still landed his first ever scoring title, breaking Kevin Durant’s string of three consecutive. For the record, none of us picked Carmelo to win this category.
Question 7: Will the Heat win more or less than 66 ½ games?
Here’s the question I’m most proud of. Someone get Las Vegas on the phone, my bags are packed. I swear I didn’t check Las Vegas’ over/under win total for Miami before writing this post. I came up with the 66 ½ all on my own. The Heat finished with 66 wins. Too bad I had the over.
Question 8: Who will lead the league in assists?
The Boston Celtics suffered a huge blow when they lost their point guard Rajon Rondo to injury. Having played half the season, however, he still qualified to lead the league in assists per game. I would have considered giving eight points to the person who correctly named the player who led the league in total assists but considering none of us mentioned New Orleans Hornets’ point guard Greivis Vasquez (who?), I figured I’d award eight points to those who listed Rondo and move on.
Question 9: Who will win league MVP?
Duh!
Question 10: Who will lead the Lakers in field goal attempts?
In retrospect, this was a pretty silly question. All of us said Kobe Bryant. All of us were right. Remind me not to ask this question again next year. A more appropriate question might be who will be on their 2013 opening day roster.
Question 11: Who will be the first player to score 50 points in a game?
Kevin Durant can pretty much score 50 points whenever he likes. He was the first to do so this season, dropping 52 on Dallas in mid-January. Side note: Durant shot 21-for-21 from the free throw line that night.
Question 12: Which Los Angeles team will have the better record: Lakers or Clippers?
Remember when some of us actually debated the answer to this question? FYI, six of us, including yours truly chose the Lakers. Not that it matters. Neither team made it out of the first round of the playoffs.
Question 13: Who will win Rookie of the Year?
Damian Lillard won this year’s ROY Award in a landslide on his way to becoming the most famous Weber State graduate to play in the NBA.
Question 14: Which team will end up with the worst record in the league?
I so wanted to pick the Orlando Magic here but I thought I might be accused of being a bitter fan. Nobody, including me, picked the Magic to finish with the worst overall record. They did. Can we stop talking about it now?
Question 15: Who will lead the league in double-doubles?
Yet another swing and miss for my readers. None of us listed the eventual winner, David Lee.
Question 16: Who will lead the league in triple-doubles?
Despite having played only half the season, Rajon Rondo still led the league in triple-doubles with five. FYI, LeBron James, your nearly unanimous, league MVP had four.
Question 17: Who will finish with the third best record in the Eastern Conference?
I can’t exactly remember what I was thinking when I asked this question. I mean, I knew the Heat would finish with the best record and probably assumed either the Celtics or Knicks would end up the two-seed. I think I was just trying to see who we all thought would be third best. That team would be the Pacers. Only two of us picked that correctly.
Question 18: Who will finish with the second best record in the Western Conference?
Same thing here. I think I was trying to see how many people would say Lakers. Two of us actually did. They shall remain nameless to not cause further embarrassment. The correct answer was the San Antonio Spurs.
Question 19: When will Derrick Rose return?
He still hasn’t. None of us got this right.
Question 20: Who will be the first player fined for flopping?
Half of us chose either European or Latin American players. I call racial profiling. The first player in NBA history to ever receive a monetary fine for flopping was Reggie Evans. Remember that for it’s bound to make a great trivia question someday.
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I would like to point out that despite depending on my pet monkey, Drunky McDrunk, to make these predictions as well as filtering the data through my Woodford Reserve cooled-mega-brain, I still managed to chip in 61-pts from beyond the 3-pt. arc, some mistakes were made, and clearly blame must be assessed, therefore I am, much like MSNBC, assigning the blame to “Producer Error” any further questions, comments, criticisms or observations can be directed to my publicist, Tim Donaghy, who assures me he will promptly issue a crisp, timely, and completely honest, “No comment”
Upon further review I realize in my alcohol-induced fog I managed a tepid 43-points not 61, and at this point call into question this whole farce of a charade disguised as a sand trap. heads will roll and quite frankly next season I may use a niblick…
LET’S GO BULLS!
LET’S GO BULLS!
LET’S GO BULLS!
LET’S GO BULLS!
LET’S GO BULLS!
LET’S GO BULLS!
LET’S GO BULLS!
Miss Cleo say no badda call me !
The Heat and Knicks are either toying with their intended victims in the second round , or they’re completely overrated in terms of their achievements this past regular season . Which do you believe it to be ? Be careful how you answer .
Left you a response to my most recent piece .
You may have missed the following as well .
In the land of milk and honey
Tophatal …………
Remind me why the Rays still play baseball rather than softball ? That team now has the aptitude to lose with alarming regularity , and yet Maddon still comes up with asinine explanations for those losses . Plain and simple the team simply isn’t good enough for the long haul .
Up 7-0 last night their dumb asses allow the lowly Blue Jays back into the game and they end up winning 8-7 . Explain that one to me if you can ?
Tophatal ……………
Chris
Gary Washburn (The Boston Globe) an NBA writer with a vote in the MVP race was the only voter who didn’t vote for LBJ . It deprived James from winning the award with a unanimous vote . Wasburn’s reason ,. he cites that LBJ and the Heat would have won their division without the superstar on the court . But he believes that ‘melo was more deserving as he drove the Knicks to their winning season . Now we know why writers such as this , should not be seen or heard from ! What a dumb explanation . It’s the body of work that counts not an emphasis on suppositions . Or doesn’t an @ss clown , such as Gary Washburn realize that fact ?
Courtesy of Business Insider
Tophatal …………..
So Deron Williams believes that it`d be nice to ave Jerry Sloan back in the fold coaching the Nets . Lets put it this way Sloan wouldn`t want to fold Williams draws much less coach that s#it#ead of a point guard , who to this day remains a lying piece of crap and a “ coach killer “
Tophatal ……………
Miss Cleo will be calling give er take on the postseason . Apparently in crystal ball se didn`t see either the Heat or Knicks losing game ones of their conference semifinals .
Tophatal ………..
Wow… that’s some close comp. Gratz to FAbber for killin it.
My take on the Mayweather vs Guerrero bout .
In the land of milk and honey
Tophatal ………..
In the land of milk and honey
Duck…
Had I been in contact with Donaghy, I’m sure we could have shaved off another couple points… allegedly.
Or was he the one that gave you 61 instead of 43?
Snake…
Don’t look now but my Nate Robinson post is forthcoming.
Al…
A nice little run by the Knicks on Tuesday showed they have the talent to run the Pacers out of the building.
They’ll still need to win one in Indiana, however.
And Al, not only did the Rays cough up seven the other night, they choked away another one on Tuesday.
Maddon, we have a problem.
Al…
Someday we’ll have computers handling the MVP voting.
I’m not sure if you caught TNT’s discussion of the lone vote gone awry but they recalled back to Shaq’s year where he missed the unanimous vote by one as well. That year’s party pooper was the one and only Fred Hickman, who voted for Allen Iverson.
Shaq still hadn’t forgiven him.
Pest….
Fabes came into the bar the other day, just to gloat.