I Have Broken Down....

...and finally purchased Statis Pro Basketball off Ebay.

Your first question is probably, "what the hell is Statis Pro Basketball?" Well, back in the days before there was NBA Live 09 on your XBox, there were still people out there interested in recreating the experience of a professional basketball game. With no computers, however...how did they do that?

The answer was that they did it with specialized cards. Each player has a specialized card that contains ranges of numbers corresponding to his (this game is meant to re-create the NBA) ability to shoot, assist, steal, be charged with a foul, etc. A specialized deck of cards called the Fast Action Deck moves the game along.

The game went out of print when computers (usually, for the worse) took over the course of simulation sports gaming. However, there are a few hardcore aficionados out there who still have their games and still play the game.

Furthermore, there is an amazing man called Phil Graham who is not only keeping Statis Pro Basketball alive, but taking it to new heights. He has specialized cards for WNBA players and specialized Fast Action Decks meant to guide the two half, 20-minute days of the WNBA for seasons up to 2005.

So what happened that made me purchase this game? Frisco Del Rosario wrote about his replaying the 2008 Phoenix Mercury season using Statis Pro Basketball. He wanted to replay Phoenix's season thusly:

Theory: The 2008 Phoenix Mercury would've fared better than 16-18 if:
1) Rookie forward/center Brooke Smith had played 700 minutes instead of 100; and
2) The ball were in point guard Kelly Miller's hands more often.

However, with his women's college basketball reporting, he's had to put this project on hold. Still, in eleven games he's managed to win one more game than that actual Mercury of 2008.

My plans are different - I want to create a fictional college basketball season at a mid-major, and maybe do some fiction writing. We'll see how that progresses. I hope to have my game in a few days....