Here’s hoping your 7/7/07 day was full of luck…because Friday the 13th is just around the corner! Whether you partied it up by attending a wedding, or you sat at home watching the Live Earth concert, here’s hoping you are now for some one-on-one action today! KG is still in Minnesota (for now) but he is raring to go.

On a separate note, our second annual mock draft blog is set to launch later this week. We hope that by starting a month earlier than last year, we will be able to crank out at least a couple more rounds by the time October rolls around.

The premise: (if you know how this tourney operates, feel free to skip down!)

The rules are simple. 32 of today’s biggest stars, plus some fantasy forces and a few players of the “x-factor” ilk have been chosen to participate in this exercise. Assume each player is in perfect health and in peak condition, based on their current age and abilities. Suppose these players play each other in a game of one-on-one: games to 11, two points for a three-pointer, and winners out. You can make your comment after each article, or if you like, send me an e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You can now also make your comments on our Facebook group discussion board. Please vote just once for each match-up. If you are so inclined, feel free to make up an imaginary commentary of how you see the battle going down and I will try to include your input in future articles. You have one week to vote, then the results will be published and a new pair of match-ups will be announced. So check back here every week!

Review of last week’s matches:

Round 2, Game 5: Ray Allen vs. Ron Artest

Sarge and Will, two regular voices in our tourney talk, carried the load this week. They voted in sync. Artest impressively has not had a single vote cast against him in two rounds thus far. This would be a close game; Allen has the ability to hit off-balance shots and step outside his usual range to score a few buckets. However, Artest is going to induce quite a few awkward attempts from Ray and once he has Ray backing away on D, Artest is going to gain the upper hand. Time will tell whether Artest follows Allen to the Eastern Conference, but for now he shows Ray the way to the locker room. Winner: Ron Artest.

Round 2, Game 6: Gilbert Arenas vs. Andre Iguodala

Call it a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps it remains hard to fathom that the great Allen Iverson has been already eliminated. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that Arenas vs. Iverson is such a marquee headliner that Sarge and Will wanted another crack at it. Interestingly their arguments giving the nod to Iverson held water when they transferred them over to “the other” A.I.. If anything, their opinions were strengthened; Iggy (for the record I don’t like this nickname, but am using it here to avoid further confusion) is just “too strong, too explosive, and well, too well-rounded” as Will put it. And against Arenas, Sarge felt that Iggy could slash in all day long. If Agent Zero ever catches wind of this tourney, I’m sure he will be a little pissed at the result.

Iguodala has mad skills, but I vote for Arenas. He has the gunner’s mentality that really suits this format. And he could channel that me-against-the-world disrespected feeling to overcome the physical disadvantage. I think he would start by backing it up to an insane distance so that Iggy leaves him open, and he rains in a couple of treys. Then he shows his guts by driving on the bigger man and somehow making it fall into the hoop. As long as there aren’t any free throws, and LeBron is not talking in his ear, he would be all right. But hey, reader input is what it is all about here, so in a bit of a surprise (to me)...Winner: Andre Iguodala.

And now on to this week’s matches.

Round 2, Game 7: Tracy McGrady vs. Michael Redd.

Unlike his teams, McGrady was able to get out of our first round, easily overwhelming Amare in popular opinion. Redd had to squeak out a win against street legend, Rafer Alston. This pairing has some similarities to the just completed Allen vs. Artest affair. Does Redd find enough openings to let his shot to the talking? Does T-Mac take full advantage of his size and wide array of skills? Does 25 ppg with almost 3 treys and good percentages really land Redd in the third round for next year’s fantasy drafts? I guess that’s a question more for our draft blog, so check back here when that starts!

Round 2, Game 8: Kevin Garnett vs. Yao Ming.

What a great way to close out the second round. KG reinvented versatility to the pro game, but he does not quite have three-point range. In the first round, he was able to defeat Carmelo Anthony pretty easily but now he faces something entirely different. Yao was the immovable object that stopped the force that was Chris Paul in Round One. He needs his hardhat and lunch bucket against KG here, because the battle underneath the boards is bound to be fierce. I’m sure Yao will be in a foul mood, after slapping Yi Jianlian around for being such a punk when he has yet to play a single minute in the league. Show some respect, rook!

See you next week! For those just joining us, you can follow this link to a previous post for access to all of the first round match-ups and the setup to Round 2. Just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Round 2, Games 3 and 4

Round 2: Games 5 and 6