Owner Spotlight: TOR

Sports franchises live and die by their owners. Dr. Jerry Buss led the Lakers to the lofty position of second-winningest NBA franchise of all time. His kids Jimmy and Jeanie? Not so much. Which Buss will you be?!?

Looking to add another layer of camaraderie to RDA, we’re going to start a series to focus on the many savvy owners of the finest dynasty league in the non-Space Jam 2 universe. It can only enhance RDA — and league wide trade chatter — if we all get to know each other a little better.

With that in mind, thank you OKC Zeya for making the wonderful #introductions thread on our Slack and for starting us off — yet again — with a fantastic intro there. So please post there first and then if you like, submit answers to this questionnaire for a spotlight on the blog: RDA Owner Q&A.


A big thank you to the first owner we’re looking at, introducing Ghita, aka the Romanian Rubio! Hailing from a small town called Alba Iulia, Ghita now lives in Sibiu, a bigger city 70km from his hometown. Fun fact: Sibiu is in the heart of Transilvania and a mere 100km from Dracula’s castle. Cultural fact: “Ghita" is the short form of “Gheorghe,” which is the Romanian version of “George.”

Frightening fact: According to commissioner Son’s projections, Ghita’s TOR team is going to romp over everyone as they are ranked first in PTS, REB, AST,  and STL while being top three in 3PT and BLK. Is our inaugural RDA trophy also headed for an international locale? Should Alba Iulia start preparing for a parade?

NBA Fandom
Ghita: I'm a huge fan of NBA since high school, around 2003-2004. I remember back in those days only one game per week was broadcast on national television — mainly Western Conference games at early hours in the morning, like five or six am — so I was watching some hoops before going to school. Also, in each playoff round, one NBA series was broadcasted. I remember I liked Rich Hamilton and Ben Wallace a lot and was thrilled when they beat the Lakers in the 2004 Final.

I personally haven't met any NBA players but for sure would love to come to the US to watch some games. A few years ago though, I did get the chance to attend a European qualification game between Romania and Latvia, and saw Porzingis there but he never left the bench. They were destroying us without him anyway.

My favorite player is Kawhi Leonard, which is why I chose the Raptors this spring when we started the dynasty league. I'm very glad Kawhi won a championship in Toronto and proved to everybody that he is now the man in the league.

Fantasy Background
I heard for the first time about fantasy sports four years ago from a friend living in another town. He told me he is playing with some friends in a Yahoo basketball league and asked me to join. Since then we are a group of twelve people playing in this fantasy league, but is a redraft league. Nothing really to brag about because in those four seasons I finished fourth, fifth, third, and second last year. This is the only basketball league I played in, so RDA will be my second.

RDA Auction Review
Before the draft I prepared an Excel sheet with the money value I considered for the first thirty players but rapidly forgot about this when I saw the money people were willing to pay. As an overall plan, I wanted to get Steph Curry or Damian Lillard to secure a premium guard but when I saw the prices for those two, I thought maybe I would try my luck with Kemba Walker and it worked! $77 dollars for Kemba seemed quite cheap then.

Mainly I tried to build a balanced team but I feel like I'm still short on defensive stats, especially blocks. I think Son's projection on my blocks number might be a bit optimistic. Overall, I think there are some very good teams already prepared to win this year: PHI, NOP, GSW, SAS, UTA. [ TOR Preseason Preview ]

Scouting Report
Wow, this is interesting because I'm 1.74m tall [about 5’7"]. Basically, I'm a Nate Robinson without the athleticism so it would be extremely hard for me to dunk on someone. I think I would be okay if Aaron Gordon dunked on me like he did with the mascot during the All-Star contest. Although I don't have so many basketball skills, I will say I resemble Ricky Rubio a bit. My stat line would be like his when he's having a bad year, LOL.

Hobbies and Extras
As for hobbies, I like soccer a lot also. I used to play for a youth team in my hometown. Also, I was a soccer referee for three years but only on an amateur level. I discovered fantasy NFL two years ago and now play in a public league with two of my coworkers. One is also from Sibiu and the other is from Mexico.