By JIMMY D / Fantasy Sports

Loyalty is for losers.

It’s a nice quality in your real-life relationships, but a lousy one in your fantasy dealings.

Loyalty doesn’t get rewarded. You don’t earn fantasy points for sticking with a player through thick and thin like you earn brownie points from the wife.
You earn points for knowing when to dump him and move on. Your loyalty is to points, not players.

Think about it. How often have you pitched a fading Maple Leaf to the dummy Toronto fan in your pool? How often have you taken advantage of the fact the Patriots fan can’t catch you in the standings because he thinks the Corey Dillon of 2004 (109 YPG, 1,635 yards and 12 touchdowns) is going to show up in 2006?

There will always be someone out there more than happy to take advantage of your loyalty. Some will be sneaky about it, others will come right out and tell you their plans.

And if it’s not someone else doing it to you, you inflict damage on yourself by becoming blind to the true nature of that player.

You always picture Alexei Kovalev through the rose-coloured glasses of his 2000-1 season, when he scored 41 goals, 95 points, potted 12 power-play goals and was +12. You overlook the fact he has averaged only 65 games a season since then, has never been a plus again and only once got past 65 points.

But he does something special once in a while – a highlight-reel goal with that wicked wrist shot, a five-point night – to keep your hopes us. For the most part, he’s letting you down. He’s hurting your team and you don’t even see it.
You will figure it out after it’s too late and you have lost.

Jimmy learned the hard way with players like Jeremy Roenick and Mark Recchi. He drafted JR 10 years ago in the original stocking draft for the Super City Keeper League. Peddled him once over the years when Jimmy needed players to compete for a title, but always had a soft spot for old JR and managed to reacquire him.

This year, with him still toiling on the roster, Jimmy refused to trade him. Not sure why. Then he got bumped to the third line, still had no points and someone offered a third-rounder for him.

Jimmy took it.

So be careful where your loyalties lay. They can reward you or burn you. If you are not careful, you can end up with nothing.

NBA Top 10s

Hoops start today and, as promised, a quick cheat sheet on making your NBA selections if you play basketball fantasy.

NBA fantasy is much different than NFL, both in format and popularity, but there is one notable similarity this season. Like the NFL where the fantasy stud triplets Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson and LaDainian Tomlinson were head and shoulders above the rest of the league in terms of fantasy potential, hoops has such a trio as well.

LeBron James – most poolies believe he is the hands-down pick if you pluck No. 1 out of the hat on draft day. It’s not a bad choice, but might not be the best. If your pool does not penalize him for turnovers or if the pool does not consider free throw percentage, then pick him No. 1.

Otherwise, his slightly declining charity-stripe efficiency and continued turnover issues should keep below the two names below.

Kevin Garnett – Imagine when 22 points per game, 13 rebounds per game, 81 per cent free-throw accuracy and 52.6 field goal percentage equates to a bad season.

How many fantasy hoopsters can’t achieve that in a great season? Which is why KG is Jimmy’s pick at No. 1. Minor knee woes that flared up last year appear to be gone and the TWolves are heartened by the arrival of point guard Mike James and Villanova stud Randy Foye.

KG’s shot attempts per game were down again last year, but his field goal percentage went up. With a bit better talent surrounding him, we see him bouncing back to the nauseating production when his blocks, rebounding and scoring had you on your way to a pool title. He’s a seven-footer who moves like a two-guard.

Shawn Marion – No, not Amare Stoudemire and not Steve Nash. When it comes to fantasy production, excellence and consistency, Marion is the best and deserves to be your No. 2 overall selection.

He will go for 20+ PPG and 11+ RPG, in addition to giving you 100 treys, over 50 per cent from the field, excellent from the free-throw line and chips in nicely with steals and blocks (and almost never turns the ball over.) Oh and did we mention he never gets hurt?

Damn you, Reggie Wayne!

Jimmy’s main fantasy football weapons misfired all day Sunday, but his shrewd waiver maneuvering gave him a shot at winning his head-to-head pool this week. Jimmy grabbed emerging Vince Young off the waiver wire during Tennessee’s bye week and stashed him as bye-week insurance for his regular starting QB.

And we snatched the then-injured Ahman Green off waivers when we traded Ronnie Brown. Both players had fantastic days, but Jimmy’s foe had Reggie Wayne, who busted out in the Colts win at Denver. How about 10 catches and 138 yards and three, cruel TDs?

Seattle’s defense returned a fumble 61 yards for a score to save Jimmy’s bacon.
It made AngryKevin even angrier.

Stay busy and stay lucky.

Jimmy D