One a Day | NBA Playoffs Fantasy

Pick 1 player. Daily. Burn them forever. Play with friends.

Sports

Fantasy Games

Side Project

Hey PH 👋 I'm Nick — the solo builder behind One a Day. Quick backstory before I get into it: I'm a product manager, and over the years I've built a lot of products and a handful of games as part of bigger teams. This is the first time I'm publicly launching something I built 100% on my own - nights, weekends, a lot of coffee, no one else to blame if it breaks. Terrifying. Exciting. Mostly exciting. The game, in 3 rules: - Every day of the NBA Playoffs, pick 1 player from any game that day - Your score = their PTS + REB + AST from that game - Once you pick them, they're burned for the rest of the playoffs — no repeats, ever That third rule is the whole game. Burn Jokić in a Game 1 blowout, or save him for a Game 7? If Wemby goes on a deep run, you've got maybe 20 playoff games to squeeze him in before he's off the board. Every pick is a tradeoff. The whole postseason becomes a resource-management puzzle. Under the hood (for the tech-curious): - React 19 + TypeScript + Vite + Tailwind + shadcn/ui - Firebase: Auth, Firestore, Cloud Functions, Hosting - balldontlie API for NBA data — live box scores syncing every minute - PostHog for analytics, error tracking - Resend for email reminders before tip-off What it IS: ✅ 100% free ✅ Family-friendly (finally convinced my girlfriend to play fantasy!) ✅ Social (public + private leagues) What it is NOT: 🚫 No ads 🚫 No gambling 🚫 No in-app purchases 🚫 No paywalls It's a fan project built for fans. I'm not making money off this. I just started building it for me & my mates I to have something fun to argue about during the playoffs, so I built it. Then I figured out it would be cool to share it with the world and let more people join in with their own friends. The timing: First Round Game 1s tip tomorrow night (Apr 18). Six weeks of basketball, six weeks of daily decisions. You can join at any time, but coming in early is best. Miss the first few days and you're permanently behind the leaderboard. How you can actually help: The single best thing would be to start a mini-league and drag your group chat into it. The game is 10x better when you're roasting your friend who never got to use LeBron before he got knocked out. Takes 30 seconds - create a league, copy the invite link, drop it in the chat. And I'd love your feedback, especially on the onboarding and the pick flow. If you break something, even better. 😅 Try it: https://www.one-a-day-fantasy.com 🏀 I'll be camping the thread all day. Fire away. - Nick