Warming up

If you're reading this article, it's pretty clear what October means to you.

For some sports fans, it means the culmination of another baseball season, one that began when pitchers and catchers reported back in February, and ends with a champagne-soaked celebration and the presentation of the ugliest trophy in all of sports.

For others, it means the prime of the football season, before bitter cold and inclement weather force even the most dynamic of offensive squads into focusing all their efforts toward moving the ball nine feet at a time.

For hack FM classic rock deejays, it means a chance to ceaselessly mention "Rocktober" on the air, and pretend that none of your listeners have ever heard that one before.

But for NBA hoops freaks like me (and, I'm guessing, you), it means the start of a new season of roundball, and a month's worth of anticipation. It also means preparation. While the players run the paces through the latest defensive schemes, fans also run the paces to accommodate the return of the league into our lives.

It usually starts when summer ends, and the week the NBA preview magazines hit the newsstands in mid-September. And I'm not referring to the modern-as-tomorrow preview that Sports Illustrated puts out every year just before the season starts; rather, the kind that are written by various beat writers or freelancers in July, cobbled together in August, and shipped as soon as Labor Day hits. Athlon, Lindy's, Street and Smith -- all priced at $7 a pop and are hopelessly out of date by the time you crack them open.

And yet, year after year, I lap these things up. By way of repetition and intractable structure, they do a fine job of driving home the central tenets of the upcoming season. All share the same layout -- a pair of columns to lead off, a whimsical odds and ends piece to follow, breakdowns of all 30 teams and topped off with a story about fantasy sports (besotted with the usual "don't draft a Clipper!" yuks).

Though they share the same informative purpose, some of these 'zines can be hopelessly raw with their data. For instance, the Sporting News' preview mag tells us that Paul Pierce led the Boston Celtics with "1,769" points last year. Now, I'd like to consider myself on the vanguard of the NBA's sabermetric revolution, but I'm no better at long division now than the day Mrs. Trammell kicked me out of her 4th grade class, and it's no fun to have to continually divide each large number I see by 82.

These magazines are a good way to tide you over until John Hollinger publishes his yearly Pro Basketball Forecast, and the NBA releases its Official Register. I usually pick up the Register for the stats, and to keep up with the latest batch of middle names -- because with Allan Wade Houston possibly entering his final season, I'll need a new player to pretentiously call by his full name. Hollinger's book is different; I usually read it cover to cover in one frantic sitting, pausing only to inhale its new book smell like Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet.

Armed with this information, and potentially a nasty case of sleep apnea, the typical NBA junkie usually heads over to the various fan message boards to see what the faithful think of their respective favorite teams. And to a team, year after year, the outlook is always rosy, and the expectations are always high -- like, 1995-96 Chicago Bulls "high." As much as I worship the musings of Larry David and look forward to each new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, to me, October belongs to these message board kings. There is nothing funnier than the ramblings of an unfortunately-named poster like "RaferMadness04" or "HarpringMVP," curious types who suspend disbelief long enough to put the Raptors in the playoffs or the Spurs in next May's draft lottery.