In this week's P.O. Box:
On my radar right now
Content roundup: Ponying up for the $250 drafts
DFS After Dark: Shawn Siegele
One final P.O. Box before the NFL Draft launches us into non-stop drafting mode for four months.
Here’s a little recap of everything on my radar this week…
📽 What I’m watching: Celtics City. I’m stunned by how much I’ve enjoyed this documentary series on HBO. There is some classic Bill Simmons self-indulgence in here, but nothing that distracts too much from the subject matter. I’ve been marveling at how lawless the NBA was in the 80s. There’s a play from the 1987 Eastern Conference finals where Robert Parrish tomahawk punches Bill Laimbeer…and doesn’t get called for a foul lmao. On a similar note, the Parrish interviews are by far the most entertaining soundbites from the whole series. He needs his own podcast.
I’m looking forward to the final two episodes and then plan to get back on the Last Of Us wagon, as well as Hacks.
🍦 What I’m mixing in my Creami: Bootleg Snickerdoodle. I am definitively a prisoner of recency bias when it comes to my Creami mix-ins, but I’ve stumbled across my favorite concoction yet and it is stunningly simple. A couple pinches of cinnamon and a handful of mashed up animal crackers (h/t April for sharing). It’s so, so good.
🎵 What I’m listening to: Wet’s Two Lives. Simple ambient pop music with reverb-drenched production and silky smooth vocals. Rosy and Float are my favorite tracks, but I love the whole thing.
I might start a shareable playlist of my favorite songs. I keep one on iTunes, but could recreate it on Spotify. If you’d be interested in that, lmk.
💪 What I’m upping: My daily Creatine dose.
I’ve been taking 5g of Creatine daily for a while, but I’ve recently been compelled to up it to 10g after listening to this podcast with a leading Creatine researcher and Dr. Rhonda Patrick. You can check the show notes for timestamps that might be interesting to you. The most interesting research isn’t even how it pertains to exercise and recovery, but the benefits surrounding brain function. FWIW, I use this stuff, but there are a bunch of options.
🏀 What I’m playing on Underdog: NBA Playoff Best Ball & Extender. The NBA Playoffs start on Saturday, which means the playoff best ball contests are locking tomorrow morning. I’ve done a couple shows on strategy with the Badge Bros and Scott Blumstein if you are looking for a quick primer.
Also, Underdog has a fun pick ‘em promo for the playoffs called The Extender. Here are the details:
We’ll be sharing some picks in the Deposit Kingdom Discord if you want to ride along for a communal sweat. Here’s the first one for Game 1.
📚 What I’m reading: The Fish That Ate the Whale. More on that below in the Book Club section.
🤓 FANTASY LIFE: Lessons Learned From High Stakes Drafts. Shared some new takeaways/convictions that crystallized for me after firing a few $250 bullets into The Biggest Board contest on Underdog.
I write the Fantasy Life Newsletter three days/week right now. Get it in your inbox free every am:
☕ BEST BALL BREAKFAST: The QB Avalanche Is Real (& Terrifying). Don’t get buried…
☣ LOLZ: The Best New Fantasy Format?. We somehow talked about Bill Belichick’s girlfriend for awhile on this one.
🚢 SHIP CHASING: Dwain McFarland’s Favorite Rookie Prospects. Deep dive on what Dwain’s Super Model likes and dislikes.
⏰ OFF & ON THE CLOCK: Underdog Sharks Draft A High Stakes Team. I can’t stop thinking about Jon passing on Baker…
💪 THE SWOLECAST: Solving The Trenches w/ Pat Kerrane. Get ready for the NFL Draft by listening to us argue about White Lotus and Severance.
🥃 DFS After Dark: A Wild $250 Draft with Deposit Kingdom friends. My official best ball grader, Steph Miller, joined live and gave me a typically tough (but fair) grade.
📈 ADP CHASING: What The Most Recent Mock Drafts Mean For Fantasy. The fellas sift through the latest mock drafts and tease out fantasy implications.
DFS After Dark returns Saturday night (8:00pm et). I’ll be joined by one of my favorite people in the fantasy space, Shawn Siegele:
You can become a YT member for access or subscribe on Spotify for a private RSS feed (I post the video/audio there directly after the show).
🚂 Book #3 for April (60%): The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
There’s been some really good discussion in the Discord about the book. I’m still playing catch up, but have found it pretty interesting.
I assume next week in this space I’ll be grappling with the more problematic stuff, but I did find Sam Zermurray’s hands-on approach to business fascinating (especially when compared to the approach from the fat cats in suits at United Fruit Company).
His tenacity was reminiscent of Arthur Sackler from last month’s selection:
Whenever he arrived in Honduras, word spread through the plantation: the old man is back! He was respected because he understood the trade. By the time he was forty, he had served in every position, from fruit jobber to boss. He worked on the docks, on the ships and railroads, in the fields and warehouses. He had ridden the mules. He had managed the fruit and money, the mercenaries and government men. He understood the meaning of every change in the weather, the significance of every date on the calendar. There was not a job he could not do, nor a task he could not accomplish. (He considered it a secret of his success.) He was up every morning at dawn, having breakfast, standing on his head, walking in the fields.
💉 Book #2 for March (FINISHED): Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
🐃 Book #1 for February (FINISHED): The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
Got a question for me? Reply to this e-mail and I’ll get back to you…