FANTASY WHIPPING: Readers of this blog (and more notably, The Sports Guy) are likely familiar with the laughingstock known as Doug Christie, a guard for the Sacramento Kings who went public in the New York Times last year as 100% submissive to his wife, Jackie. The comedy was augmented in this year's pre-season when Christie got into an on-court fistfight with L.A. Laker and former "Oz" inmate Rick Fox, and Mrs. Christie interjected herself into the ensuing brawl. Bill Simmons has harped on this constantly for the past year, even suggesting that his readers should purchase Doug Christie jerseys for their whipped buddies.
My friend Susanna, an avid fantasy-basketball junkie, informed me recently that she's considering re-naming her team The Doug Christie All-Stars, because she has Christie on the team, he's having a good year (7 steals the other night) and almost every member of her otherwise all-male league has been trying to trade for Christie all season.
How odd. The members of Susanna's league are all guys, all sports fanatics, mostly live in or near Boston, and at least one of them even works for Sports Guy's employer, ESPN. It seems to me that they all must be avid readers of Simmons' column, so apparently they know all about Doug's proclivities, it doesn't bother them, and they'd be proud to have a "man" of Christie's caliber on their team. Good thing Jackie's not in the league, or else they'd probably try to trade for her, too.