·Kobe Bryant found guilty of rape. Lakers are forced to “bend over” for Kobe’s manhood and finish with their worst record in 10 years ·Mark Cuban shocks world as he gives away Dallas Mavericks on his show, The Benefactor! Although show was cancelled before this episode was aired, transfer of ownership is legal and binding. ·Vince Carter traded to Knicks! Unfortunately, trade had to be annulled after Vince fails medical. After years of speculation, doctors confirm that Carter indeed has no heart.

Ok, so those may not actually pan out, but here are some that we think will:

·SHAQ catches latino Heat in Miami as city gets playoff fever ·James may be King, but it’s Carmelo that finds playoff gold for 2nd year in a row ·Vince Carter traded Knicks! Team then goes on to loss 15 straight and fall out of playoff contention as Vince’s heart is called into question.

The focus of this year will not be on top two draft picks, but on (arguably) top 2 players in league. Expect Kobe and Shaq to dominate national headlines as each will set out to prove that they were not cause of Lakers collapse in Final’s against Nets. It is a matter of public record that during stretches of last 2 seasons, that when either Kobe or Shaq would go down with an “injury”, Lakers won more with Kobe OUT of line-up, then when Shaq was out of lineup. Much more, as this chart from www.82games.com will illustrate

For those of you who, like me, have memories of fishing that pre-date memories of school, think back to as many fishing partners and trips as you can. Even those people you only went fishing with once. Then try to recall times where success or failure of a fly fisherman seemed to lie strictly on fly fisherman’s confidence. If you think about it in these terms, I bet you can remember numerous times, when an angler’s, confidence or lack thereof, either doomed them or buoyed then until they started catching fish. At times success of a confident fly fishing angler can be attributed to persistence. An angler, confident in their abilities is just going to fish longer when things don’t start hopping right away. But other days when all things are equal, fisherman with most confidence often catches most fish.

Three quick stories come to mind illustrate this. First off let me say there have been plenty of times when I have been on both sides of confidence equation. A few years ago, I was steelheading with a couple of fly fishing buddies. Unlike me, though there guys weren’t purists. And we were using terminal gear. Although were just dead-drifting jigs, very similar to fly fishing, I felt about as coordinated as a monkey performing brain surgery. As day wore on more and more steelies were caught. Huge steelies, biggest I had ever seen! None by me. I could feel my confidence shrinking. And I mean my confidence in all kinds of things, like being able to read river, being able to detect a strike. Things that had no connection to me using unfamiliar gear. The pressure inside my head built, until I HAD to catch a fish. I didn’t catch one fish that day, although I finally had a strike, and set hook so hard I jerked it right out of fish’s mouth. And I fished longer and harder than anyone else on trip.