Keepin' it (un)real

It's Remembrance Day, in this Year of the Veteran. A gentle reminder there.

From the annals this morning, Jim Byers looks at Raptor Eric Williams' clothing line of "Black League Basketball" apparel from the 1920s to '40s, complete with team logos and descriptive tags of players like Lenny (Three Fingers) Willis, "inventor of the no-look pass" -- except that basketball historians like Susan Rayl say the league, and perhaps even those players, never existed:

"Somebody might have put together a team like one of those for a night to play the Rens or a team in the NBL (National Basketball League). They'd get guys together and play for money and divide the profits. But an organized league? No."

Remember Terry Evanshen? He blew his mind out in a car, survived the accident, and now they've made a movie based on the former CFL star's story. Chris Zelkovich reports, including a capsule review.

And this one seems hard to believe, but in the spirit of Eric's clothing line we'll play along. The Knicks are rumoured to be interested in Jalen Rose. Doug Smith reports.

A little more than three months ago, he was in Toronto with Rangers FC for training camp. Now Alex McLeish is rumoured to be on his way out the door.

Comments

[Carla]

Wow, does Eric Williams ever come off as dimwitted in his defence of his clothing line that "honours" something that never actually existed... Why not just admit that it's "all just for show" instead of grasping at straws ('Maybe it was a summer league or something' or 'Whether there was a league or not those logos ... that's still nice to represent the 'hood or whatever it was')? Oy vey.

Dude, if you're gonna put your name on something, you might want to check into it a bit... How can you "commemorate" a league that never actually existed outside a marketing team's imagination?

The only thing being celebrated here is the potential growth of Eric Williams' bank account.