Commissioners' Note

Welcome to the Shakalaka Dynasty League!

In this Commissioners’ Note, we’ll detail all the rules and guidelines that we will play by for the first year of the league. Some things are more important than others, so read all the way through and ask questions if you don’t understand.

First, a bit of history:

NBA Jam is a super-fun basketball arcade classic that combines exaggerated gameplay, timeless commentary and the ability to play as some of your all-time favorite hoopsters, including Horace Grant, Rony Seikaly and Tom Gugliotta. If one of your players made three baskets in a row, he would become “on fire” and gain the capabilities of unlimited turbo and increased shooting ability, which made players like LaPhonso Ellis suddenly difficult to defend.

“Boomshakalaka!” was obviously the most distinctive of the many phrases that the game popularized, although “Grabs the rebound!” and “Jams it in!” are held in similar esteem today.

Now, things that matter:

Your Commissioners:

This league will have co-Commissioners due to the amount of upkeep that is required in order to start and maintain a successful and competitive keeper league. Jesse’s team name is Filmont Fudruckers, and Joel’s team name is Prince&TheRevolution. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact us via AIM or e-mail.

Jesse – AIM: jb02186; e-mail: lvxlibertas@gmail.com
Joel – AIM: JFS171; e-mail: joel.stubblefield@gmail.com

Trading Policy:

The trading policy is the backbone of what is going to make this league good. We have played with this system for many leagues and there have been few problems to date.

Trades are vetoed ONLY if there is collusion involved between both trading parties. More or less, collusion will be defined as any attempt by one manager to unfairly advance the position of another owner (or give some sort of glaring advantage to) at the expense of his team and/or the league. Assume this scenario for the purposes of demonstrating an example of collusion:

Jesse is in last place heading into early-March (a few weeks before the trade deadline, and Jesse has been eliminated from contention) and he trades Carlos Boozer to Joel (and Joel is in sixth place, fighting for playoff position) for Andres Nocioni. Unless Jesse is genuinely stupid, there is no reason for him to make that trade. 1. Jesse has been eliminated from the playoff race, so there isn’t much of a need for him to trade anyway unless he is acquiring keepers or draft picks that have some intrinsic (and obvious) future benefit. 2. It’s an appalling trade anyhow. Usually, those are good indicators that something fishy is going on.

Also, assume this scenario:

::ring-ring::
Prince&TheRevolution: "Hello?"
Filmont Fudruckers: “Hey Joel, what’s up?”
Prince&TheRevolution: “Hey man, not much.”
Filmont Fudruckers: “How much is Kevin Garnett worth to you?”
Prince&TheRevolution: “Well, I’m heading down to the local Piggly Wiggly and need to buy a pack of smokes, so how about $3?”
Filmont Fudruckers: “Check is in the mail.”

Although ridiculous, this is also a no-no.

If collusion is suspected by any owner, it is that person’s responsibility to call it to the attention of the league. Likewise, we will try our best to exercise good judgment before allowing a trade to pass. If collusion is suspected, then we will put the passing of the trade of interest to a league vote, whereupon the majority of the uninvolved trading parties (10 uninvolved owners, so the majority = 6 or more) will decide if it should be allowed or vetoed.

For no other reason will a trade be put to a league vote. If one owner really gets over on the other and there is no valid reason to suspect collusion, then more power to the guy who was savvy enough to rip the other off. This policy is so that negotiating and trading are encouraged. The league is more enjoyable, in our opinion, when all of its owners are interested in trading at any point during the season.

Methods of Contact/Contact Information:

Each owner will be expected to provide their e-mail address and AOL Instant Messenger screen names for negotiating purposes. This is mandatory and there are no exceptions. All of you have computers that are capable of downloading and installing AIM because you have the internet (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this) and it requires very few resources to run. This league is only as good as the availability of its owners and their participation.

In our forum (link below), there will be a thread for everyone to post their contact information. Joel has posted his information first, and everyone simply needs to do the same. If you do not register for the forum and post your information by the first week of the season, Jesse is probably going to bother you.

Keepers:

This season, we will be keeping six players for next season (2009). You can keep any combination of positions – there are no restrictions.

We can increase the number of keepers in subsequent seasons pending the league’s interest in doing so, but we chose six so that the draft pool would not be depleted of talent every season, and would need to see a strong argument to increase the number. Many regard the draft as the most exciting element of any fantasy sport, and we do not want to entirely eliminate the anticipation of drafting.

Trading – Players and Draft Selections:

You are allowed to trade any combination of players or draft selections (in future regular drafts) for any combination of players or draft selections. Again, to facilitate trading, we have limited restrictions. All we ask is that you exercise good judgment in deciding what is best for your team. Lopsided trades upset the competitive balance of the league, but we believe we have recruited knowledgeable and committed owners who know what they are doing.

Forum:

You will also be required to join a forum where we will track owners’ contact information, rosters/keepers, trades, league records and other miscellaneous things. The reasons for this forum are three-fold: 1. It will be useful for looking up how to get in touch with an owner. 2. The Yahoo! league does not have the capability to track traded draft selections. 3. The forum will also be convenient for you to keep track of the league during the offseason, including access to every owner’s final roster (and thus potential keepers). Since the forum is useless if it is not updated, each owner is expected to post every trade that is completed in the appropriate thread. Trades must be posted by one owner and confirmed by the other owner involved. TRADES WILL NOT BE PASSED UNTIL THEY ARE POSTED AND CONFIRMED ON THE YAHOO MESSAGE BOARD AND THE FORUM. Forum participation is mandatory and vital to the convenience of the entire league.

Forum link: http://shakalaka.forumotion.net/forum.htm

Please register as soon as you have free time. We ask that your login name for the forum be the same as your team name in the league. It’s just easier to know who is posting.

Finally:

Above all, have fun. Trash talk is encouraged, but we hope that no one says anything too personal. We’re all men, so we’re not going to regulate what is said on the boards. If you’re offended by something, you’re probably taking it too seriously. That’s just a forewarning that we’re not going to lock out an owner if he says that your mom is fat.

Our aim is to create a highly competitive keeper league that you’ll want to tell your friends about. You have access to TWO commissioners (how many other leagues have that?), and we try to be well-organized while making ourselves as accessible as possible. Please take advantage of this and don’t be afraid to ask us any questions or discuss anything you’d like to see changed in the future. We can’t say that we’ll always be able to give you what you want, but we do promise to act as fairly as possible while considering what is best for the league.

We hope you enjoy this season as much as we will, and that you’ll be an active part of the formation of this league as we get all the kinks worked out.

Good luck to everyone for the 08-09 season.

Your commissioners,

Jesse
Joel