A Friendly Wager

The office pool got up to $5000 this year.  3-grand for the winner, 1500 for 2nd and five-hundred for 3rd place.  The way we do it is we pick the winner, the score, the game's MVP and the score at half-time as another possible tie-breaker.  We had a hundred people in our pool this year so that's 50 bucks a head.  Pretty sweet deal.  We're all athletes and former sports so this is the kind of action we appreciate.  The guy who holds the cash and numbers is a 53 year old lifer with a no-nonsense attitude.  Every office pool needs a figure at the top who everyone knows and trusts.  He's a family man and a 49er fan so I'm sure his phone blew up when Crabtree got held in the end zone & no yellow flags were thrown.

College Basketball is heating up.  March Madness is one month away and the Top Ten are fluctuating weekly.  Another pool, another prize.  The Tournament doesn't get as much action as the Super Bowl in our pack so we make adjustments.  Anyway, our winner picked the Ravens, 35-30, Joe Flacco MVP and the half-time score was 21-14 Niners ahead, but turned out that tie-breaker wasn't necessary.  2nd place picked Ravens, 31-28, Joe Flacco MVP with a half-time score of 21-17 Ravens.  3rd place picked Ravens, 30-28, Flacco MVP and 17-14 @ the half Ravens on top.  Well done peeps.  You folks were the correct minority as 68 picked the Forty-Niners, while 32 got it right with the Ravens.  ONLY BECAUSE THE REFS GAVE IT TO 'EM, yeah i picked San Fran:(

Carmelo Anthony and his teammate Tyson Chandler had a Super Bowl bet.  Melo picked the Ravens, Tyson the 49ers.  The Knicks are looking pretty good and a little team chemistry has clearly been created.  They got Shumpert, Felton and Stoudemire back, so depth is no longer an issue.  A friendly bet between friends & co-workers is always good for stirring the pot, making things more interesting in the workplace.  The Knicks need to bond tight if they stand a chance of challenging the Heat, Bulls and Pacers in the East.  Carmelo is playing the best ball of his career, learning to share and play nice with JR Smith and Amare Stoudemire.  Novak and Smith are deadly from 3 so the Knicks can really spread the floor.  Chandler and Stoudemire make a nice big man combo.  Melo is a top 3 MVP candidate shooting 40% from 3, Wow.

Another 2003-04 Topps Finest Gem, back when Melo was rockin the braids.  One of the finest looking rookie cards with an Autograph to boot.  Topps hit me up already!