NBA State Tourney (East - Round 2)

Kobe, Rip & Sheed battle Artest, Odom & Camby.

I decided to create an NBA State Tournament to see which states are producing the best players.

Do certain states excel at producing certain positions? Who’s going to win it all?

Help me decide by voting for each matchup, and we’ll crown an NBA State Champion right around the time of the NCAA Championship game.

#1 Seed

East Region

Pennsylvania (16 players) +

Maryland (11) + DE (0)

Combined Pop. = 18,915,900

Round 1: Beat Virginia

PG: Sam Cassell (MD), Delonte West (MD), K. Lowry (PA)

SG: Richard Hamilton (PA), Kevin Durant (MD)

SF: Kobe Bryant (PA), Keith Bogans (MD)

PF: Rudy Gay (MD), Linas Kleiza (MD), H. Warrick (PA)

C: Rasheed Wallace (PA), Josh Boone (MD)

Everyone else: R. Butler (PA), M. Carroll (PA), M. Collins (PA), J. Dixon (MD), S. Francis (MD), A. Gray (PA), J. Green (MD), Dw. Jones (PA), D. Marshall (PA), R. Mason (MD), C. Mobley (PA), R. Murray (PA), J. Nelson (PA), M. Rose (PA), J. Salmons (PA).

Crunch Time: Kobe / Hamilton / Durant / Gay / Sheed

X-factors: Point guard play, lack of size

#3 Seed

East Region

New York (11 players) +

Connecticut (5 players)

Combined Pop. = 22,800,038

Round 1: Beat New Jersey, Others

PG: Rafer Alston (NY), J. Tinsley (NY), M. James (NY)

SG: Ben Gordon (NY), W. Szczerbiak (NY), Q. Douby (CT)

SF: Ron Artest (NY), Ryan Gomes (CT)

PF: Lamar Odom (CT), Andray Blatche (CT)

C: Marcus Camby (CT), Adonal Foyle (NY)

Everyone else: H. Armstrong (NY), S. Marbury (NY), S. Parker (NY), S. Telfair (NY).

Crunch Time: Alston / Gordon / Artest / Odom / Camby

X-factors: Streetball style vs. fundamentals, team chemistry

NBA State Tournament

Round 2

East Region

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Poll Ends: Monday, March 31st @ 11:59pm PST

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My pick: To Be Announced

I’ve decided to hold back on announcing my picks until at least 5 people have commented on who they chose and why. Here are some possible questions that you may want to address:

How would you divvy up the minutes?
Which matchups are most intriguing to you?
What are the keys for each team?

NBA State Tournament Rules: - To qualify, players must have played in at least one NBA game this season (Sorry Brand & Oden) and be on a current NBA roster. - Players are affiliated with the state they graduated High School in rather than the State born in. (Information courtesy of: Basketball-Reference.com). Key differences will be noted. - There are 16 total “Teams” separated into 4 Regions. - Teams are seeded using this formula: Total population (rounded to the nearest million) x 1/2 + Total # of current players. - Smaller states are merged together until they total 16+ active players. - Rosters of 12 are chosen for each team. - Vote for which team you think would win in a 7 game series on a neutral court. - After voting, please comment on which team you picked, how many games to win, and why.