6/15 - And so the season mercifully draws to a close. Assuming there is an NBA season next fall, I'll be back! I'll put up some 1998 regular season stats early enough to help you with your drafting for the '98-'99 season.

6/13 - If you watched the game last night, you might have gotten the impression that Scottie Pippen had an off night, scoring only 6 points on 2-for-16 FG shooting. But with 11 boards and 11 assists, he was only 4 points shy of a triple-double! A Jason Kidd-like performance.

I was rooting for the Jazz, not because I particularly care who wins, but because I need more games to improve my standing. I may break into the top 20 yet. Go Jazz!

6/8 - At long last, there is finally a top 50 worldwide leaders page for the playoffs game.

Name      # Rosters
Eisley        50
Anderson      44
Kucoc         43
Longley       42
Burrell       40
Ostertag      40
Wennington    40
Morris        35
Harper        34
Russell       34
Rodman        29
Hornacek      23
Simpkins      21
Foster        19
Pippen        14
Vaughn         9
Malone         9
Carr           8
Jordan         4
Stockton       3
Kerr           3
Buechler       2
Brown          1
Booth          1
Inactive      52
Total        600

6/7 - Well, that was certainly a statistical aberration! Frankly, I missed most of the second half, preferring the Mets-Red Sox game, which wasn't a whole lot closer. Then I looked at the final scoring. The Jazz boxscore looks like a halftime scoresheet. And who would have ever though Jud Buechler would outpoint Rodman!

So far, my decision to take Pippen over Rodman is working out. I'm sure it's not enough to vault me into first, but maybe the top 20 isn't out of reach.

6/6 - One more top 50 team - the SandGnats, ranked 43rd.

6/4 - Another top 50 team: "FunPolice", ranked 17th going into the finals.

As I looked over the top teams listed here, I realized that it will be difficult to make much headway from here on. It reminds me a little of the March Madness Contest - as the tournament wound down, the rankings were pretty well established. Most of the top teams have 11 or 12 roster spots still active, and the list of players is pretty consistent from team to team. I decided to put Pippen on my team, in spite of the fact that I could have gotten a higher SWP/G average by going with Rodman and a few others. However, it appeared that more teams had Rodman, and few had Pippen, so I figured that was how I would try to differentiate my team.

6/2 - More top 50 teams:

• "L" with 3362 points, is ranked 1st
• The Calculators are ranked 10th with 3241 SWP
• L2 is ranked 18th with 3188

6/1 - Here are a few more top teams:

• Riverside Lakers, ranked 10th
• L5, ranked 22nd

5/30 - Since most of you probably don't even check the feedback page anymore (with justification), I thought I'd post the following letter here:

response from Guru:
I wrote to Erik several weeks ago about this, but that was in the midst of the baseball pricing uproar and their preparation for the World Cup game, so I assume it didn't register on the priority ladder. I sent him another letter today. I agree that it is strange to offer a game without a leaderboard.

In general, I feel pretty comfortable with my strategy, although it would have been better to be more aggressive with the Chicago-Indiana series. At least I did pick up Harper for the final four games of this series. Most of my remaining picks are slated for Jazz players. Besides, I already have most of the cheaper Bulls, other than Longley and Kerr.

I haven't gotten any recent word on other ranked teams, but if anyone sends me a list of teams that are anywhere in the top 50, I post them here. - Guru

4/14 - In case you hadn't noticed (and I hadn't until several of you pointed it out to me this morning), Smallworld is offering a Hoops Playoff game. It looks like the same format as the regular season game, but with a shorter list of players (obviously), different starting prices, a 12 trade limit for the playoffs, and no prizes. Although I was actually looking forward to the end of the Hoops season, so I could devote full focus to baseball, I guess I might as well play. And yes, I'll maintain player stats. However, no team stats (a la 2nd Chance League) this time.

So I entered the Talaxians again. I'll try to get some preliminary SWP/Price comparisons up in the next several days. In this league, however, you also need to factor in the expected number of games played. That's obviously why Michael Jordan heads the price list.

4/13 - This strained back seems to be doing wonders for Grant Hill's game, as he posted almost a carbon copy of last Sunday's triple-double again yesterday. He now has the season lead in triple-doubles with four.

So we're down to the last week. My Talaxians are looking pretty solid. Payton outpointed Olajuwon by 15 in a head-to-head game yesterday. Antoine Walker only had 12, but his was essentially my "game in hand". So here's scoop: Payton and Olajuwon each have three games left, while Walker and Stockton have four. My lead is 73 SWP. And I have one trade left. Clearly, if I blow this now, it will rank up there with some of the great stretch run collapses in history. I'll see if I can avoid that ignominy.

4/10 - Did I miss something, or did a bunch of managers potentially misfire by selling the wrong Strickland yesterday? Both Rod and Mark went down the max. Mark also went down over a $million the day before, but I figured that was in response to an upward spike in his price just before that.

I'm taking a brief trip with my family for the weekend, so I won't be updating any hoops stats until Sunday evening. I'll have my laptop with me, but I'm going to take a brief pause for a couple of days. I may do some minor baseball updating, but that's it.

4/9 - Yesterday may turn out to be a watershed event for a lot of teams in the Worldwide top 50. Two key players went down for the remainder of the season. Rod Strickland was on 26 of the 50 teams, and Donyell Marshall was on 10 of them. Further, 18 of the 26 Strickland teams have no trades remaining (including both the 3rd and 4th place teams), and 8 of the 10 Marshall teams have the same predicament. Five unfortunate teams have both players, and all five of those are tradeless. Based on their recent production, Strickland's loss will cost about 240 SWP, while Marshall's will cost roughly 190.

Then, last night, David Robinson was KO'd by Karl Malone, his second victim in 24 hours (having cracked Marshall's ribs the night before). They may have to change Malone's nickname from "mailman" to "hitman"! Although the Admiral played only a couple of minutes last night, his next game isn't until tomorrow (vs. the Sonics), and I'll bet he's ready to go again by then.

Oh yeah, after waiting to see who would blink first, I finally took Mookie Blaylock to replace Strickland, and then so did TheOtherOne. So the 2-on-2 continues. Last night, 'Twan had 54 (though once again, he clanged two free throws late in the game), while Stockton had 37.5.

The reason I picked up Blaylock (and probably his as well) is that Mookie has seven games remaining, while the other leading candidates - Hardaway, Iverson, and Brandon - each have only five. So, if Mookie maintains his 37.5 SWP/G average over the last seven, those other guards would need to average 52+ just to break even. Still, it's ironic that Blaylock is the guy we picked up. Mookie was the guy I often cited earlier in the year as an example of someone who was initially priced too high, and therefore not on anyone's roster, and therefore unable to decline in price, - which made him pretty much irrelevant for the season. Even as late as the end of January, he was averaging under 30 SWP/G, which made him too expensive at $8.4 million. But he suddenly got hot, and by mid-February, his 10-game average was over 40. Still, his price had remained pretty steady, and it wasn't until his triple-double in mid-March that his price crept as high as $9 million, where it still stands today. So he played his way into his price level, so to speak, and now turns out to be quite relevant after all!

4/8 - All sorts of news today!

The big story is Shawn Bradley, who had the first triple-digit SWP game of the season, a 108.5 triple-double, which included 22 points, 22 rebounds, and 13 blocks. That overshadowed Karl Malone's 73.5 SWP effort, which included 56 points scored, the season high.

On the flip side, Donyell Marshall broke a rib and will be out for the rest of the season. Now, before you all sell Marshall to buy Bradley (those with any trades left, that is), be aware that Dallas has only five games remaining this season, the fewest of any team in the league. In other injury news, Rod Strickland left last night's game early with a strained quadricep. He is apparently listed as day-to-day. And Shawn Kemp was carried off the court on a stretcher after taking an elbow to the head, although he apparently returned to action later in the game.

Finally, Olajuwon and Stockton scored a combined 88 SWP uncontested last night. The gap between the Talaxians and TheOtherOne is now 49. Both sides of the 2-on-2 showdown now have 13 games remaining.

4/7 - If you are in a race to the wire and you have a few trades left, it's worth checking the schedule to see how many games are left for each player. A difference of two games can be a huge percentage difference. You can even still find occasional opportunities to trade a player and pick up two additional games. To help you visualize your strategy, I've prepared a table which lines up every team's remaining schedule side-by-side.

Another factor to consider in the final week is whether teams have anything to play for. Teams whose playoff position is locked up, and who don't have home court advantage at stake, may elect to give their marquee players more rest than usual heading into the playoff grind.

4/6 - While everyone was busy watching baseball yesterday, there were TWO triple doubles in the NBA. Most surprising was Grant Hill's, since he was still supposedly suffering from back strain, and it wasn't even clear he would play until gametime. (I hope no one sold him because of that.) The other was for Rod Strickland, whose performance had been slacking off a bit lately - in fact, he had five sub-30 SWP games in his previous ten. We've now had 14 triple-doubles by 8 different players this season, with Hill, Strickland, and Jason Kidd each contributing 3 of them.

The Talaxians gave up a little ground yesterday, as Olajuwon and Stockton each outpointed their Talaxian counterparts by a combined 10 SWP. Walker had 38 SWP with time running out when he was fouled in a last ditch attempt by the Knicks to prolong their agony. He clanged both free-throws, and so instead of finishing with 40 SWP, he ended up with only 36 - an aggravating 4 point swing. If you're keeping score (Smallworld style) while watching a game, free throws are somewhat counterintuitve, because the difference between a missed and made shot is 2 SWP (i.e., +1 vs. -1). So Walker suffered a 4 point swing at the end. Argh!

Only two weeks left in the season. I'll be glad when it's over, because maintaining stats for two sports at once is very time consuming. And sometime in the next 10 days, I've still got to do my income taxes. Double argh!.

4/5 - The three "LA" teams look to be running away from the field in the 2nd Chance League. The fourth place Nanny Goats are matching their pace, but with a 250 SWP gap separating 3rd from 4th place, I think the LA's have this one all but locked. And look at their extra trades that are still available. I'm impressed. And jealous.

David Robinson had a good 68.5 SWP effort yesterday, but that's not good enough to crack the top 20 leaderboard.

No one played in the Talaxians vs. TheOtherOne 2-on-2 race to the wire yesterday. But all four players will see action today.

4/4 - I see that Grant Hill left the game early last night with a lower back strain. Chances are he'll be OK (he's officially listed as "day-to-day", according to both Detroit newspapers), but if not, it could have material ramifications on the standings.

Great night for the Talaxians, as Walker and Payton outpointed Olajuwon and Stockton by 42 SWP. The Talaxians now have a 110 point lead over second, with 8 games remaining (9 for Stockton), and a "trade in hand."

4/3 - Shaq scores 50 points yesterday, but can only muster 57.5 Smallworld points! He even shot 70% from the FT line. The problems? Only 9 rebounds, only 2 assists, only 1 block, and 5 turnovers. And, even though he shot 70% at the charity stripe, that still equated to 6 missed FTs.

And the obligatory recap of the leaderboard's 2-on-2 race to the finish line - Olajuwon: 42.5, Payton: 30.5. The good guys give up some precious ground, but retain a narrow lead.

4/2 - An old friend showed up with the best SWP total yesterday. Brevin Knight played such a pivotal role during the first several months of the Smallworld season, but has barely been heard from lately.

And in the only race that matters to me, Antoine: 38, Stockton: 37.5

4/1 - In spite of the focus on baseball yesterday, there was a pretty full slate of NBA games. I guess the biggest news was Alonzo Mourning's broken cheek, suffered in a collision with Andrew DeClerq. The prognosis is uncertain at last report. Donyell Marshall also showed no ill effects from his recent shoulder sprain, posting a 40 SWP game.

And in the Smallworld leaders' 2-on-2 clash of the titans, Hakeem outpointed Antoine, 44-19, but Payton neutralized things by overtaking Stockton 40.5-14.5.