The National Basketball Association is in full swing. By full swing I mean a whopping 6% of the games have been played. Most teams have played 5 games out of their extensive 82 game schedule, and so now, we look at what might be happening when we enter the second full week starting Monday.

It may come as a complete surprise to you, but your humble correspondent occasionally has things on his Vizio that don’t include a ball of any kind. I recently watched a series on Public Television that was entitled the Great American Read, a series which chronicled the best loved books by Americans, had people vote, and tabulated the votes and counted down from 100 to reveal America’s best loved book. Wonder what Americans voted as their favorite novel?

One of my favorite novels included in the list was written by that great shooting guard of the Portsmouth England Literary Academy Lions, Charles Dickens. The Chuckster believed in volume, both in words and jump shots, as he always got his FGA’s in. He carried that philosophy out later in life as one of his early jobs included writing serials for the Pickwick Papers where he was paid by the word.

Dicken’s famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities, has the most famous starting lines in all of literature. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

For all of us fantasy hoopheads, the 6% of the schedule embodied those immortal words of the Chuckster.

If you have Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Threecola Mirotic, Freak, or Chef Curry, it may be The Best of Times (TBOT). If you own Dejounte Murray, Kris Dunn, John Collins or Brandon Ingram, it may be the Worst of Times (TWOT). If you are like me, and have a combination from both, you have a starting line for a good book.