Better late than never, or something like that

All right, finally. I know it’s a bit later than usual but after a glorious Yankees victory Saturday morning that propelled us to a spot in the final, there were some celebratory hijinks that dominated the day.

So here you go

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Q: I wonder about some post-game issues you have as a reporter.

When you go to talk to players, can you cover both locker rooms or they're too far away so you need a backup? Also, do you enter the locker rooms or you wait outside?

And let's say you're covering the Cavs after the game. At the same time you have LeBron available, who you obviously want to tape, and AP and Moon, who could make a good story in catching-up. What do you do? Go to LeBron and ask the ex-Raptors to wait a bit? Trade the material with the colleagues? Or you have enough time to talk to all of them?

I'm just trying to figure the differences between European and NBA customs in the business.

Cheers Doug, and keep up the great work!

Toni H, Zagreb, Croatia

A: Most of the time, it is hard to get to both locker rooms after a game so what sometimes happens is you trade quotes with a colleague, or with a visiting writer. However, some players have a reputation for being a bit slow getting ready to do post-game media and some are quicker than others so you can judge each on a nightly basis.

The European system, where they have what’s called a “mixed zone” where the players have to physically walk by the gathered reporters, rather than have the reporters invade a locker room, guarantees quicker access but sometimes players just walk by and ignore requests for them to stop and comment.

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Q: Hi Doug - I see that there is a pre season game in London. Any word on where the intrasquad game will be? And when?

Diane V, Toronto

A: If they play one of those scrimmages again, it’d be on the last day of training camp in Ottawa, which looks like Oct. 3.

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Q: Hi Doug. Is there anyway you could find out and post the break down of how many Raptor games each sports station is going to carry. I.e. TSN, TSN2, The Score etc.

Ron E, Brampton

A: They are still putting those schedules together and we won’t get a look at them until September, I’m told. But when we get it, you folks will be the first to know.

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Q: Are there any young up and coming Canadians with NBA potential?

Sean G, Niagara

A: Well, there are some highly-regarded high school kids from Canada playing in the States who have yet to do as much as take part in a single college practice, let alone a game. Maybe they make it – I hope they do – but the odds suggest no.

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Q: Did you know that "Parrots" is the only anagram for "Raptors".

I guess I have an opinion and wonder if you agree: Other sports - like say Hockey - allow fans to relate better to the GM perspective and strategy (judging by fantasy leagues and message board discussion). In the NBA, the rules the GM operates under are too complex and not understood. This leaves fans only to relate to players or coaches, or hope for a miracle like the accountant finds a loophole to turn straw to gold. I think this explains the quantity of out-of-context personnel questions - such as wouldn't player X look good here.

This underestimates the fans, limits the enjoyment and therefore revenues.

Ralf W, Peterborough

A: Yes, the salary cap and all its machinations are difficult for most to fully comprehend. But, as long as GMs do and it allows the league to thrive then everyone’s okay with it.

Seriously, there's a little bit of news in here today

Man, a guy gets invited to a little Canada Basketball reception at a cool downtown saloon and all kinds of nuggets drop his way.

Maybe nothing earth-shattering but given the dearth of news around these parts for the last couple of days, this is a treasure trove of information you’re not going to get anywhere else.

To wit:

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It’s going to be a rather boring season on RaptorsTV this year; or so I’m hearing from a variety of insiders.

If you’re a fan of Double Dribble (kind of PTI Lite), or Full Court Press (formerly known as the Norma Wick Goodtime Hour until they tinkered with the format and whacked guys like, well, guys like me) or the TV simulcast of the H oops radio show (kind of like McCown with a single focus), you’re in deep doo-doo.

All three are getting the axe, the spies report, in what has to be a cost-cutting measure. No idea what they’ll be replaced with but whatever it is will come from the vault or NBA-TV, not from some self-produced Raptors-specific programming.

Kinda sucks, doesn’t it? Not that I watched those shows religiously, or even agnostically, but someone had to and that’s two hours a week of Raptors programming gone out the window.

Oh, one more, now that I think of it.

Word circulating around the bar equivalent of the water cooler last night was that the pre- and post-game Raptor game-night shows are being cut back from 60 minutes to half an hour.

Anyway, you wanted some dribs and drabs of news, you got ‘em.

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Another accomplishment for the young Canadian programs at the international level.

The under-16 girls, Cadettes in the parlance of FIBA, knocked off Argentina last night down in Mexico and have qualified for the world championships next year.

They get a shot at the Americans tonight for gold at the tournament but have already joined the Cadet men (like how FIBA does the politically-correct spelling thingy?) in getting to the inaugural worlds next summer.

So, two teams have qualified, the under-19 women were fourth in the world and the under-19 men were seventh.

Over to you, senior teams. Let’s see if you can match the success of the youngsters.

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Oh yeah, when I was at this men’s team bun-toss last night (and I can highly recommend St. Louis Bar and Grill on King Street by the King Eddy as a nice place to hang your hat and meet nice people), of course some of the chatter got around to the games in Italy and that minor fracas in the last game.

No one was at all worked up about it; they felt as I did that, as international incidents go, it was tres minor and, trust me, there are guys on the team who figure they gave as good as they got before, during and after the melee.

And in a crowd that included a few oldsters like myself, most of the talk about Italy was in comparison to a little dustup way back in 2000 in Montreal. On their way to the Sydney Olympics, or maybe it was before the qualifier (the mind’s sharp but it has its dull spots), Canada hosted Brazil in a “friendly” at the arena by the Big Owe that included a helluva argument replete with tossed chairs and much, much menacing behaviour.

That was relatively serious; the one in Italy, all concur, was really nothing.

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Oh, no.

The dream dies for the Lions.

Maybe 2014 in Spain.

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Speaking of old friends, I hear Garbo’s blowing off Khimki this coming season and signing back in his homeland with Real Madrid.

No word on the money or the years but it’s a good move; I always thought Garbo was far more Spain than he was Russia.

And, no, there is no chance – zero, nada, zip, ain’t gonna happen – that he could come back here.

Please. That ship has sailed.

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In the time it took me to type those last three items, Quentin Richardson had not been traded.

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So, the Raptors play four pre-season games here, trips to London, Minneapolis, Sioux Falls and Hartford and I’m thinking, how boring is this?

One thing, though, and it seems to be a tradition over at the Air Canada Centre.

Somehow, they’ve once again scheduled a home exhibition game on Thanksgiving Sunday, this time an afternoon affair Oct. 11 against Washington. I know they have to jam four home games into a relatively short period but don’t you think they could take the Canadian sensitivities into consideration and have the one holiday off?

Noooooo.

So, with that rather humdrum pre-season sked this year, I’m hoping next year they really take care of us.

I’m voting for a game in London (the big one, over the ocean) and then a quick side trip to Turkey to play in front of Hedo’s peeps. Whaddya say, Bryan, can you make that work? And if you wanted to get us back to Spain, I’m all for that, too.

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Oh yeah, back to that Canada trip to Italy and the fallout.

How’s this:

I’m told both Jesse Young, who apparently played his head off over there; and Aaron Doornekamp both came away from the exhibition tour with contracts in the top Italian league for this coming season.

And that’s one of the huge benefits for getting the national team out there on the road, where scouts and other coaches and other teams can see these guys. Finding a good-paying gig in a good league in Europe isn’t easy, but it’s huge for the development of the Canadian players and there’s no doubt in my mind that these two guys wouldn’t be getting the deals they got had Basketball Canada not found some way to get the money to send the team on that trip.

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All right, we’ll stop back sometime on the weekend with a mailbag. Not sure when since there’s a Mighty Yankees playoff game at the gawdawful hour of 10 a.m. Saturday and then a Stumpy Turns Half A Century fete Saturday night at this joint I know downtown, but we’ll get to it sometime.

Have a nice weekend.

It's slow and late but what the heck, there's something here

Told you I’d be tardy every now and then over the next little while. I have to say, it’s a heckuva lot nicer to get up at 8 to finish this stuff off than 6 a.m., that’s for sure.

It’s not like we missed anything big, either. Another boring day.

Well, not boring, but not news-filled.

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I’ve had all kinds of questions about when things will in fact get rolling back in the world of Raptors and the best I can give you is sometime near the middle of September.

There is no firm reporting date for players and coaches, they start drifting back into town sometime at the beginning of the month and those “informal” workouts begin. I know they’d like the coaches back in town as soon after Labour Day as they can but with so many players – Ukic, Turkoglu, Bargnani, Belinelli – perhaps involved in the long and drawn out European championships in September, they aren’t going to get close to full roster back until close to the end of the month.

Camp, if my best guess is correct (and it usually is in these scheduling things) should officially start the last Tuesday in Ottawa after a Monday media day here and they should be in the nation’s capital until that following Saturday.

What happens until then? Well, the players and coaches go about their business of the summer, getting a little work in to stay in shape, but taking care of family and outside obligations so that when it’s time to hit the court, they’re ready to hit the court.

I presume Jay will be here a lot earlier than the others to come up with some kind of training camp plan and schedule and he and his coaches will get hunkered down to decide systems and styles and drills they want to immediately make a part of camp.

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Film buffs, take note:

Since we gave people a list of required reading yesterday (well, not actually required as much as suggested), how about some flicks for those quiet nights at the cottage with the DVD player.

This is also entirely subjective but that’s the point of this whole exercise, isn’t it?

Hoosiers

Undisputed and undefeated champion of basketball movies.

Hoop Dreams

I know it’s a documentary and probably shouldn’t count but this is my list so it counts.

Coach Carter

I saw it once, and probably wasn’t paying as close attention as I should but it seemed pretty compelling.

He Got Game

Who knew Ray Allen could really act?

Forget Paris

I know, I know. But you know those movies that you find some time on Channel 4,520 when you’re flipping and you just have to watch it, like Ferris Bueller and Apollo 13? Well, this Billy Crystal as ref one is like that for me.

Oh, yeah, there are all kinds of others, like Rebound, The Story of Earl (The Goat) Manigault, Glory Road, Love And Basketball and the epic Space Jam that could be on a list but that’s a good start, no?

Oh, and a story about one to avoid:

It’s the summer of, I believe, ’94 and it’s hot, stinking, humid, stupid hot, like in the olden days. Super Wife and I, sans Super Son who’s still a glint in Dad’s eye, live in a wee hovel in East York that’s got no air conditioning for some ridiculous reason. Well, we need to escape for an afternoon and since she still really loved me at the time, I drag her to the cool comfort of a movie house to see a sports flick.

Well, it’s a shock she didn’t walk right and head immediately to the lawyers because we had to sit through one of the silliest, worst-acted movies in the history of talkies.

And if any of you ever, ever, decide to watch Blue Chips, you will regret it.

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Cadettes anyone?

They roll over the hosts down in Mexico and now are off to the semifinals in their quest for a berth next year in the inaugural under-17 world championships.

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We’re down to the short strokes in Tripoli and if Pape and the lads want to make the world championships next year,they’ve got some work to do.

(Yes, we’ve spent a lot of time tracking Pape and Boniface but, really, why not?).

Anyhoo, they get Cote D’Ivoire in the quarter-finals and have to win and then have to win one more time to grab up one of the three automatic berths in next year’s worlds in Turkey.

Here’s how those world spots fill out, by the way:

Turkey and the Americans are automatic entrants.

Europe gets six spots, the Americas get four, three go to Africa, three to Asia and two to Oceania.

And then it gets interesting: To fill out the 24-team tournament (and that’s an awful lot of teams, in my opinion), FIBA will award four “wild card” berths in mid-December. There is no strict formula for how they are awarded, geography doesn’t matter; it’s supposed to be competitiveness, history and growing the game, which are all rather subjective criteria.

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All right, looks like a nice day out there and I’m sure there’s junk to be done around this house. I best go do it before the patio calls.

Spanning the globe; and the bookshelves

Well, we’ve got a little bit of stuff here today, nothing earth-shattering and nothing to do with the local NBA side but what the heck.

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Hey, there’s basketball being played at the Air Canada Centre.

Canada basketball, senior men’s team, a few days of camp before they first head to Puerto Rico for an exhibition tournament and then stay there to take part in the world qualification tournament later this month and into the first week of September.

Leo Rautins has his team – it’s here in this release we got from the folks at Canada Basketball yesterday – and to say it’s a hugely significant tournament for the team would be an understatement.

As we’ve seen all summer, the programs for the younger kids have had some success – the Cadets qualified for the worlds, the juniors finished seventh at the world championships – but the senior men, really, haven’t done squat in several years and it’s about time they got back on the global stage.

The team is good – not great, but good – and filled with guys with international experience, which cannot be discounted at this level. It’s all well and good to say we’ve got some promising teenagers in the pipeline but this is a man’s tournament and it’s time for the men to step up.

It won’t be easy.

There are four world championship berths at stake and even though the Americans don’t have to get one – they get in the worlds as Olympic champions – there are a handful of very good teams Canada will have to play.

The Dominican Republic, for instance, is getting Charlie Villanueva, Al Horford and, we believe, Trevor Ariza. Argentina’s Argentina, Brazil’s chock full of talent and if Puerto Rico doesn’t qualify at home, the joke is they’ll keep everyone there until the run the tournament again and they do. Even Mexico, hardly a major player in the past, can now boast Eddie Najera and Earl Watson, which gives them one more NBAer than Canada has.

Talking with Leo – whose contract runs this year with an option for next that’s surely in question if they don’t make the worlds – he knows Canada’s in tough. This is how he put it when we chatted before they went to Europe:

“The reality is, we’re still younger and less experienced than our competition but that’s our world, we just have to find a way to not beat ourselves. The talent aspect? There’s nothing we can do about that, we just can’t beat ourselves in situations and that’s what we have to work on.

“Look at the NBA component on those other teams and then look at the EuroLeague component. We have one EuroLeague guy (Carl English). You can’t substitute for that so the next thing you have to do is you have to nearly play perfect basketball.”

We’ll get to more on this in the next little while because this team’s going to become the basketball story around these parts as this month turns into next.

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A little light reading?

Let’s say you’ve got a vacation planned, like maybe to Vancouver, Whistler and Seattle and you’ve got some down time planned.

What would you take?

Well, if I had the library open and some time to sit and read, here’s some of the basketball books I’d recommend.

The Breaks Of The Game, David Halberstam

The true literary giant spends a year with the Portland Trial Blazers, and it doesn’t get much better than this.

Foul, The Connie Hawkins Story, David Wolf

It was mentioned in the comments yesterday quite often and is a truly amazing tale of a guy you don’t know enough about.

The Inside Game, Wayne Embry with Mary Schmidt-Boyer

One of the all-time greats, on and off the court, his book’s an intriguing look at life on both sides of the ledger.

The Last Shot, Darcy Frey

Maybe the seminal book about high-pressure, high-stakes high school hopes in the New York City area, it’s a good look at a young Stephon Marbury.

Loose Balls, Terry Pluto

This is truly light reading, as in hilarious light reading about the life and times of the ABA.

Now, this is by no means the definitive list but it’ll get you started until you find They Call Me Coach by John Wooden, Rick Telander’s Heaven is a Playground, Life On The Run by Bill Bradley and Big Game, Small World, an underappreciated book about the globalization of the game by Alex Wolff.

Now, trot off to your library or your book store, grab a coffee and enjoy yourself.

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Do they have it turned around?

I don’t know but, for a day at least, Pape and Boniface and the lads finally put the skids to the losing streak.

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This came from Mr. Cook (why do I think some old high school teacher is stalking me) over in the comments section yesterday and we may as well get to it today.

(Oh yeah, mail’s a bit light, folks; get cracking, will ya?)

Doug,

I'm curious about the CBA ideas you presented in a blog the other day--the one piquing my curiosity is the length of contract. What's in it for owners and the NBA to limit the maximum number of years that a contract can be guaranteed? Is it for the prima facie reason that if a player's ability declines or they become injured they aren't owed the money? Or is there a larger business method at play?

The other question I have came from a response you gave in the comment section, I don't have it in front of me but someone asked why would we go to Sioux Falls and you said that in later years you can call up the Wolves and say "Hey, come to ________ (insert desolate Canadian land)." The question following this is, are there a couple teams that the Raptors as a grand corporation have better contact with than others? And what creates this collegial relationship, the nature of the business, some execs that have worked for both, coincidences that lead to friendships over time? Or none of the above, it's pure business phone calls?

Mr. Cook, Parts Unknown

A: On the CBA issue, it’s pretty simple according to the people I talk to in various ownership and high front office roles: The shorter the contract, the less money committed long-term and the single greatest problem with the NBA today – financially, at least – are those albatross contracts for big or even little money that run out to five or six years. Mandating that they run one, or even two, years less would be a huge win for the owners.

Look at the history in Toronto: Back in the Summer of Vince, the contracts awarded Antonio Davis, Jerome Williams, Alvin Williams and Hakeem Olajuwon weren’t for obscene amounts of money (it was the going rate and Toronto probably had to overpay a wee bit to keep free agents back then) but in every single case, they were at least one year too long.

On the exhibition games, yeah, there are relationships that make it easier to ask a team to travel to some neutral site to play a game in return for maybe doing a favour for them some year down the line. There have also been instances where teams have made trades and one will suggest a “future consideration” may be a visit for a pre-season date. Sometimes, it is just business, but most of the time you make those “business” calls to a friend where you think you’ll get the answer you want.

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So, Andrea and Marco had pretty good games yesterday when Italy beat Finland – check out the story here – but the interesting thing to me is that the entire summer probably comes down to this week’s return match with France and how many points Italy has to win by.

I’m sure there are those among you who will quietly be cheering for Tony Parker and the his buddies because if France wins, Italy can’t make it to Eurobasket and the two Raptors will have the entire month of September off.

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Glorious Cadette triumph, as Tanya reports here, but given the margin of victory and the fact the Americans edged Dominican Republic 128-17 in the opening game – yes, a mere 111-point victory – I’m wondering about the depth of under-16 talent in FIBAAmericas.

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All right, I’m off later this morning to bring a golf course to its knees so if the comments take some time to get up, tough noogies.

See ya.

A bunch of little stuff and the Dream Team revisited

Glen Davis back to Boston, no surprise.

Leon Powe maybe going to Cleveland even though he won’t play until at least the all-star break, no surprise.

Linas Kleiza headed to Greece for some stupid amount of money, no surprise.

Von Wafer not getting a gig in the NBA and allegedly going to be a teammate of Kleiza’s in Greece, no big surprise.

What we’re seeing these days, and what we’ll see over the next fortnight, I imagine, is a bunch of little things that will do nothing to alter the balance of power anywhere in the world and are of little or no direct consequence here in Toronto.

Those are the times we live in at the moment.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff, because there’s always stuff, it seems.

Like…

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I wonder how nuts they’ll go in Los Angeles today when they get a whiff of this news about Pau Gasol.

Think they’ll call him “selfish” for putting his country ahead of his team? Rip him for turning his back on the franchise that got him off the scrap heap in Memphis and gave him a shot an NBA title?

Or will they shrug their collective shoulders, say it’s an injury that could have happened any time and with more than 2 1-2 months until the season starts it’s not really that big a deal?

I’m betting more of the last than any of the first two.

And I’m also crossing my fingers that no similar fate befalls Roko Ukic or Hedo Turkoglu or Andrea Bargnani as the summer goes on because if the same thing happens to any of them, I fear the comments section here might physically blow up from the stain it’ll have to handle.

That’s what I love – and hate – about our little passionate corner of the world.

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Right. The Yankees.

Not tragedy but not good, either.

We resumed Sunday’s rain-suspended game, played to a 3-3 tie in a couple of innings and ended up losing by one.

Still have post-season life – it’s a double-knockout tourney – so there’s an even bigger game scheduled for Thursday if you’ve got nothing to do. We’re trying to get network coverage but it’s hard.

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Yikes!

Bad day for the Lions.

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Someone wrote me to say a Philly report had Joey on some list – along with, I believe, his brother, Rodney Carney and another one or two guys – as possibilities to fill out the Sixers roster.

Aside from meaning nothing – it’s a list of possibilities and could very well have included you and me – I’m not entirely sure a team with The Gangster, Jason and Joey could really be considered a lock to retain a playoff spot.

We all know those Philly fans can be quite, ah, cynical in their estimation of Sixer additions, turning the franchise into Toronto South probably doesn’t sit too well.

Personally, I hope Joey gets a deal somewhere, he’s a good guy, relatively hard worker and who am I to say he should be denied employment. Just don’t think it’s going to be here.

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Speaking of international basketball, we’ve got a whole other group of young Canucks to follow for a little while.

The girls under-16 Cadette team.

It’s a first time FIBA Americas tournament going on right now in Mexico City and they opened with a bang, as you can read here.

I know next to nothing about this group of girls – missed their three-day training camp right around the corner from me, unfortunately – but if they get to the inaugural worlds next year in France, it’s another feather in that developmental cap.

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Oh yeah, all kinds of questions yesterday about the omission of the ’92 Dream Team from the list of teams I would have love to watch practice.

Well, the fact is, I did see them practice, I was a Canadian Press basketball scribbler at the Tournament of the Americas when they made their debut and watched them all through the Barcelona Olympics so they were not eligible, or something like that.

And, frankly, their practices were okay but nothing to write home about.

Two good stories about that first tournament out in Portland, if you don’t mind. (And if I’ve told them before, I apologize, the mind’s not quite what it used to be).

Standing in the hallway of the old Portland Coliseum talking to Jay, who was an assistant to Ken Shields on that staff, when who should come wandering down the hall but that Michael Jordan fellow.

Me? I’m pretty impressed just seeing him but it got stupidly jaw-dropping when he spied Jay, stopped, gave him a big hug and said something along the lines of:

“Man, you shouldn’t be coaching, you should be out there playing. You’re not done yet.”

They chat for a couple of more minutes while I stand there slack-jawed.

Second, not quite as good, story:

First game the Americans play is against Cuba and the game’s delayed a few minutes because the Cubans are in such awe they’re taking pictures on the court right before the tip.

The Dream Team wins by about a billion and I’m trying to come up with a lead to the story. Witty dude that I am, I figure the historical nature of the event played off should be the angle. I write what I think is one of the good first grafs, file it to the desk in Toronto, go about my business and am a bit surprised and disappointed that the editors cut the opening paragraph because they thought it was too political.

You tell me, would you continue reading a story that opened:

“PORTLAND, Ore. – If only the Bay of Pigs had gone as smoothly.”

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Oh yeah, another thing about this quasi-vacation I’m on? I don’t feel compelled to get up just after 6 a.m. to finish this thing off each morning so I’ll be relatively tardy for the next couple of weeks.

So there!

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What to believe and when. A dilemma indeed

What to do, what to do?

There’s not a lot going on – especially with the local heroes of the hardcourt – so it’s going to be tough times filling this out this week. Luckily, I’ve got the next three weeks off from newspaper duties, which will mean more than a few mornings sleeping in, which will mean more than a few mornings with nothing but white space here.

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Oh, right, Hedo and some tweet or something.

Got a question in the comments section yesterday about some bogus twitter thing allegedly from Hedo about an injury and it was debunked within seconds.

But it brings up an interesting point in these new, often strange, communications times.

What’s legit?

This wasn’t, no question about it, and while some are, the fact there could be doubt about every posted has to be troubling, no?

For instance, what if messages allegedly sent by athletes is in fact sent by friends, or cohorts, or business managers, or family members? I remember the day of the Jarrett Jack news conference getting a tweet from Chris Bosh about how glad he was Jack was here or something. Funny thing was, the buzz on the cellphone that I looked at immediately, came while I was standing not 15 feet away from Chris as he was being interviewed live on RaptorsTV.

Maybe there was a lag of four or five minutes; maybe someone with his texting device was speaking for him.

Does that matter?

There’s often nothing nefarious about these little messages – mostly they are entirely stupor-inducing – but if there’s a question about the legitimacy of one like the Turkoglu thing yesterday, shouldn’t there be questions about the legitimacy of all?

Just wondering.

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Speaking of the Yankees, it was quite the eventful weekend (and I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seat wondering what’s going in).

The lads win Friday, we win again Saturday and then got to the bottom of the fourth down one before the first of Sunday’s two apocalyptic storms hit. No plague of locusts but enough rain and lightning and thunder to really put a damper on the day.

So we’re back at it tonight to pick up the suspended game and I’m thinking I’m not sure I signed up for four straight days of house league baseball where, sometimes, our best offensive weapon is strikeout, passed ball, steal, steal, wild pitch.

I should call Cito and get that in the playbook for the Jays, no?

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You know who I’m glad I’m not?

Anyone trying to cover the Knicks.

Here it is closing in on the middle of August when we should all be worried about our peewee baseball teams and how to spend idle time (hello, golf courses and decks!) and those dudes still have to deal with David Lee, Nate Robinson and whether the New Yorks are going to enter a team in the AARP house league anchored by Jason Williams and Jerry Stackhouse.

I’m sure LeBron James is watching with glee as that unfolds.

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Oh, and I see me writing about the Argos offence and two-pronged running attack really set the stage, didn’t it?

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Let’s go back to an old issue through the mail:

Q:: Doug, Love the blog. Love your Raptors coverage. Take issue with your 'will never quite understand the footballers among us' comment. Ronaldo is the world's best soccer player.

If the Bulls had held an open practice at the peak of Jordan's popularity, do you not think 20,000 fans would have filled the SkyDome to watch him (& Pippen, & Rodman, & Kukoc)?

Andrew S, Toronto

A: I’ve spoken to a few friends who were at either the Real Madrid practice or the game last week and not one of them regretted the time or money spent – although one guy did take issue with the effort put out during the training session.

But in a brief stopover in the office on Friday to exchange laptops (having the comma, period and enter keys on the old gerbil-powered machine stop working was a tad problematic), Perk and I were discussing the very kind of issue.

And I’m sure that if the Bulls back then, or the Yankees of MLB fame (not mine gaggle of urchins) or some famous pucks team (maybe like the Phoenix one?) had arrived on our shores for the first time ever toting the greatest players in the game, yes, folks would have gone berserk for a chance to pay money to see them work.

Personally? I wouldn’t pay money to watch any professional sports team no matter how stacked, simply practice but I don’t think I’m the target audience. Franchises don’t usually hope cynical old codgers familiar with the boredom of pro sports workouts pony up for the privilege.

I understand entirely the allure of a globally significant team like Real Madrid coming here for a brief period and the inherent hysteria.

But, as we learned last year with that football team from Western New York (that many thought would play to packed houses at ridiculous prices), it takes a team with the worldwide prominence of Real Madrid to draw the folks.

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Speaking of international basketball, our Senegal Papes (or whatever they’re called) got whacked by Rwanda in what has to be a shocking upset at the AfroBasket tournament.

Not a super-costly loss – it still looks like Pape and the lads should make the quarter-finals and still perhaps as the top seed – but I can’t imagine it’s sitting well with our old friend.

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Okay, since I just did that question from the mail, it strikes me as a list time.

Five teams that, given the chance, I would have paid to watch practice and then play:

The early-60s Celtics.

Russell and Red and his cigar. What else can you want?

The ’27 Yankees.

To see the Babe? And Lou? Hell, yeah.

The Russian Red Army team

The one that tied the Habs on that New Year’s Eve game, just because it would have been interesting to see how they worked.

The ’72 Russian men’s basketball team

Sure, they stole the gold medal from the US but they had some skill and it would have been nice to see ‘em.

The Edmonton Grads.

Kids, go look ‘em up, find out how great they truly were.

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Okay, off to the chiropractor, deposit Super Son at golf camp and planning two weeks of inactivity (all suggestions welcome) await, see ya.

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More mail than you can wade through

My, oh my.

You folks certainly got the itch to write this week; this might be the biggest mailbag we’ve had in months. And there’s more to sprinkle in during the week.

But, while I’m out with The Mighty Yankees (two straight playoff victories, huge semifinal of the double-knockout tourney this morning) and then getting Super Son officially into his teens, here’s a whole whack of stuff to get you through the day.

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Q: Since things seem to be quite slow these days, I'd thought I'll ask you a random question. In order to be a beat grunt for a newspaper, do you need to know detailed knowledge about every sport or would one sport suffice? For example, you are asked to talk about Golf and Football. Does the Star expect you to know all the players, the storylines, the plays, basically the intricacies of these sports? Or does a broad, generalized understanding of the sport get you by?

Dave R, Markham

A: When I’m asked to go cover something with which I’m not acutely familiar, like golf or football or – egad! the pucks – it’s implicit in the assignment that I have some idea of what’s going on with the team or the sport I’m covering.

My bosses may not expect me to break hard news from sources but they do expect me to come up with a solid, informative story. And I expect that of myself.

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Q: I know you don't want to talk about one particular Canadian NBAer (aka Magliore) but do you not feel that the Raps should make, even a modicum of effort, to snag a native born / raised son to run the hardwood in TO?

Seems to me that there is a strong desire on the part of fans to see it happen. Nash might be out of the picture now with his new long term deal, but surely there is some way, or some how, that we can land a native son.

The way things shape up now we have a Euro Team and even a solitary Canuck at the bench, e.g. Carl English, Denham Brown, Sammy Dalembert, Jammal Magliore (oops, that name again) would fit the bill rather nicely.

Just a thought Doug, just a thought!

Frank K, Orillia

A: Ah, tokenism. Always a fine idea.

Let me put it this way, as it was put to me by a coach here and I honestly don’t remember which one it was:

Let’s say they sign a Canadian just because he’s a Canadian. Let’s say that guy can’t play. Let’s say every single day, someone asks the Canadian coach and the Canadian player why there is no playing time for the token Canadian.

You think the coach is ever going to say: “Well, he sits because he’s not good enough and we only signed him because a couple of fans were clamouring for a Canadian.”

And do you think the player is ever going to say: “Well, I’m only here because I’m a local but I’d love to play.”

Talk about unnecessary distractions.

And, outside of Nash, who with a Canadian passport can they legitimately consider as a possibility? Jamaal, who’d never get on the court and have to explain to all his buddies from his city why he isn’t playing? Or Dalembert, whose contract might be one of the worst in the league?

Not going to happen, shouldn’t happen and, if by happenstance there is some next wave of Canadian who is a legitimate NBAer and has a chance to sign here when he can contribute, I’m sure they’ll look at him.

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Q: Granting that in basketball terms alone the Bellini acquisition seems like a good move, do you think the fact he's an Italian, and therefore might make Bargnani more comfortable, had any impact on the decision to trade for him?

Are we seeing a pattern here of the Raptors bringing in people to keep their stars happy a la Jarrett Jack for Chris Bosh? Will the Raps be picking up sidekicks for Calderon and Turkoglu next?

Geoff R, London

A: Bargnani got a five-year $50 million contract extension before the Belinelli trade, that’s what will make him comfortable, not having another Italian in the locker room.

And having seen how horrid the backup PG play was last year, Jack was purely a smart basketball move; the fact he was a roommate of Bosh’s six years ago is purely gravy and had nothing at all to do with the move

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Q: Hi Doug.

Simon Fraser University will be competing in NCAA Division II next year with a view to full membership by the 2012-2013 academic year. What is your take on the issue?

According to this article,  Steve Konchalski doesn't think too highly of the move, basically saying that if you're not moving to Division I, what’s the point?

I tend to agree. The top CIS teams seem hold their own against their U.S. counterparts who come up our way on their preseason tours (although from what I understand, many of the those teams play their bench players a lot more than in a regular season game) Sounds like the competition in Canada will be better than what SFU will get in Division II.

To be fair, the article mentions that SFU will benefit from the arrangement by playing schools that are closer and also by being able to dole out more scholarship money.

Warren Z, Toronto

A: I’m pretty much with Coach K on this one, too.

I guess the geographical issues are important but I don’t think CIS travel is too arduous. Plus, I’ve long been a proponent of all but the very, very best players sticking around to deepen the talent pool in Canada because countless Canadians who go south end up buried on benches, don’t improve and never really get the opportunities they expect.

As for scholarship money, it’s my understanding the ability to get grants-in-aid are much improved for Canadian kids who want – and should – stay home.

Of dopes and Our Man Pape

Seriously, if not for a dopey doper in Orlando, I have no idea what would be big today. It may have turned out to be an impending visit to the big-time radio show for me tonight or the Mighty Yankees opening the post-season later on this evening.

That’s how slow things are getting around here, although I do commend you for the flooding of the in-box I got with mail submissions yesterday.

With the aforementioned radio gig and ball game tonight, another ball game and a team barbecue and potential hangover-inducing celebration of Yankee greatness tomorrow and the fact Super Son becomes a teenager Sunday, I’m not sure when the mailbag gets up, but it will.

Until then …

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How about that Rashard Lewis, eh?

The details of his positive drug test are here in the Orlando Sentinel tome but the short story is he took some over-the-counter supplement before the playoffs began last season and it contained a banned substance. His testosterone level went up, he tested positive and – bam! – mandatory 10-game suspension without pay to start this season.

Lewis’s explanation – that he didn’t know what was in it – rings true to me, actually, and I think the only thing he’s guilty of is being extraordinarily dumb.

In this day and age, taking some powder you bought at a store where the muscle-heads and bodybuilders also shop is fraught with peril and Lewis’s decision not to show anyone on the Magic staff what he’d bought smacks not of duplicity but of dumbness.

Every NBA team tells every NBA player about the dangers of over-the-counter supplements – along with the dangers of any performance-enhancing drug they think they might like to try – and all Lewis had to do most likely was show the label to the team’s strength coach and he would have been pointed in the right direction.

The one thing is going to do is allow the NBA to crow about how it’s testing program works but I think only the truly naïve would take that at face value. Yes, the testing program is okay – four random ones a year for veterans – but it’s not perfect because it doesn’t including random, out-of-season testing.

If you ask me if there’s a steroid problem in the NBA, I’d say no; if you ask me if some players don’t get into the bottle in the summer, I’d say there have to be a few.

But as an overall issue? I don’t think it’s a significant problem in the game at all.

Lewis made a silly mistake and will pay a rather substantial price – he’ll lose about 12 per cent of his pay for the coming season – and if this case does anything, it’ll make other players sure to show the stuff they take to people who understand what it is before they go ahead and ingest it.

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Now, being a big fan of Tammy Sutton-Brown, and realizing there is a dearth of role models for young female basketball players, this should come as no surprise to any of you but here’s a plug for her camps coming up out this way, in Oakville and Mississauga in the coming weeks.

I honestly think Canadian women’s basketball is back on track to a place high in the world rankings and the more young players who can take advantage of chances like this, the better.

There was a time back in the day – kids, ask your moms and dads if they remember – when Canada was routinely ranked among the top four or five basketball countries in the world in the women’s game and I’ve said for quite some time that the group of young women playing the game at the international level had a chance to do some great things even before the men’s team got back to any place among the top squads in the world.

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I have a feeling a few of you have adopted Senegal as the team to cheer for at the AfroBasket going on in Libya these days, given Our Old Friend Pop is on the team and Boniface N’Dong has developed somewhat of a cult following off his one big game.

Well, the kicked some Central African Republic butt in Game 2, as you can see from this boxscore, and they’ve got a huge first-round game against Cameroon coming up later today.

Me? I’m still trying to find a favourite team, there doesn’t seem to be a hoops version of the Black Stars so I guess it’ll be Pape Pop and Senegal for now.

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On the digression side of things, how about them Real Madrids?

They show up and it’s like the Beatles and somehow 18,000 people or some crazy number like that pay $15 to watch them practice on Thursday night?

We’re talking about practice, right?

I will never quite understand the footballers among us.

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Oh yeah, more on the exhibition schedule, official news of which was delayed yesterday.

Well, a couple more things got out while I was supervising Super Son and some of his urchin colleagues at a pre-birthday birthday golf thingy:

After the Sixers game in London on Oct. 6, we’re all traipsing back to Toronto for a return match on Oct. 7 – those are the lidlifters of the exhibition season – and there’s a date in Hartford, Conn., against Boston is what’s also going to be a two-game series with the Celtics.

Excited yet?

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News? You want news? Well, we've got some (sort of)

I have no idea how we keep coming up with enough crap – oops, I mean enough vital information you all crave – every day in a slow summer but we do.

For now, that is. 

UPDATE: Oops.

So much for news.

Just heard the NBA pre-season schedule that was supposed to be released today has been delayed a week so what you are about to read is a tad premature.

Still, it's hugely interesting (and I use the term "hugely" in the loosest possible manner).

Anyway, the Raptor news we have is right, the rest ... well, we'll see.

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Ooooh!

And

Boy!

Big news today next week, kids.

Pre-season schedule!

Yes, we find out where and against who they’ll spend eight games running different combinations of players in and out of the lineup and the other sorts of wonderful things that go with games that don’t count.

Two games we know already:

As visitors on Oct. 6 against Philly in London – that’d be the Ontario one, not the big one over the pond – and as visitors on Oct. 23 against Minnesota in Sioux Falls, Whateverstateitis.

(Visitors in London because the company that owns the Sixers owns the rinks there; visitors in Sioux Falls because the Timberwolves have some deal with some regional bank or something and always travel to such far-off locales, by the way).

So, my best guess is that those are the first and last of the eight, which would mean four at home in between and a couple of more on the road.

What I’ve also been told is that there is no visit here planned for any of the EuroLeague teams that are visiting North America. I know Maccabi’s coming again, and so is Partizan Belgrade but neither are stopping here.

Anyway, that’s what passes for news at the moment, I’m sure you’ll all be breathlessly awaiting the official announcement some time this afternoon.

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This is why I love Super Son, among the other zillions of reasons.

We turn on the Blue Jays last night:

Him: “Dad, look at the guys behind the plate, looking and acting like umpires.”

Me: “Yawn.”

Him: “Do they think they’re funny or something?”

Me: “I don’t know, I guess so.”

Him: “Well, they’re not.”

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Okay, so what are basketball fans to do these days? (Besides continually hammering home the silly suggestion that Toronto make some kind of move to get Allen Iverson, that is).

Well, it’s August so it must be international basketball time and if you’ve still got any interest in what the Italian team is doing – besides getting into tiny dustups with Canucks – check this story out.

Italy, France and Finland are in one of two groups fighting for one last spot at EuroBasket 2009 next month in Poland and it would appear to be an uphill fight for Andrea and Marco and the boys now.

We’ll try to stay on top of this – I would imagine the Raptors wouldn’t be totally crushed if Bargnani and Belinelli had September off – as the days go on.

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Speaking of the Raptors and the pre-season and training camp, one thing I haven’t heard is just how many extra bodies they plan to transport to Ottawa for the fun of a week in the nation’s capital.

(Oh yeah, we’ll be looking for dining and dancing suggestions – well, maybe not the dancing part of it -- as we move closer so all you Ottawans start making those lists).

There are two schools of thought:

1. Just stick with the 15 guys you’ve got so the coaches can work with them without having to worry about guys with no legitimate shot at making the team.

The downside is the wear and tear, of course, but with the way the NBA restricts camp workouts – no more than three two-a-days, only one of them can involve contact drills – I’m not sure how big a worry that is.

2. Bring in three or four others who can lessen the load and give you a chance to scrimmage with a fair number of subs.

Not sure this works because (a) you’re devoting time and effort on guys you’ll never see again and (b) if one of them gets injured (hi, Jamal Sampson!) you have to keep them around and on the payroll for a while.

If I had to guess – and right now it is a guess – there’ll be 15 guys at Carleton whenever we get to Carleton.

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Hey, check out this boxscore and see if you see a familiar name.

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So, I see from the various comments the past 24 hours that we have some people interested in political history – especially that of the United States – here.

Cool.

Seriously, where else can you get info on Sioux Falls pre-season games and a mini-debate on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution?

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Oh, on an entirely related note, can you gals and guys send some questions so I can get a mailbag together for one of the next few days. Thanks.

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I’m ArgoBoy yesterday (check out this piece of CFL scribbling if you don’t believe me) and I have to say, it’s quite a cool gig.

You get to sit outside on what was a glorious day watching a full practice (if I had any idea what I was seeing, it probably would have been really good) and there’s just a nice, relaxed atmosphere around there. A very nice way to spend a summer work day.

And it beats sitting on the concourse of the Air Canada Centre for a couple of hours every morning waiting for Raptors practice to end.

I always get the question: Why do NBA teams close practices to the media (except for the final half hour, when we usually get into to see shooting drills and free-throw shooting contests) when all the other sports open theirs? You can watch a whole Leaves practice, see everything the Argos do and sit in the dugout and watch batting practice ‘til your eyes glaze over.

The main one is teams want some semblance of privacy to allow coaches to bark at their players using whatever colourful language they like and to allow players to, um, get after each other if they want without having every move chronicled. It’s the way it’s been for about forever and it’s not going to change.

Brendan Malone, at the urging of bosses who weren’t entirely sure if the people talking and writing about the Year 1 Raptors knew whether a ball was blown up or stuffed, did let us in to watch every minute of practice if we wanted. And I can honestly say, by March if we saw one more three-man weave, it was time to gouge out our eyes with a spoon.

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Of schedule quirks and the far distant future

Okay, I’m ArgoBoy later on this morning, which is always a treat because it’s a home game and it’s going to be a nice day. And sitting around watching football plays I really don’t understand affords me all kinds of time to think about nuggets to put in this space the following morning

Lucky you!

Sort of like the spare time I had yesterday glancing at the schedule to get this:

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The irregulars here will know that the summer of 2010 still quite bores me, there’s a lot of water still to flow under the bridge, lots of games to be played and I honestly think it’ll be like basketball’s version of Y2K.

So, you can imagine the level of disinterest I have at the moment for the summer of 2011.

But, because we need things to bring up here and because the level of angst among basketball fans knows no bounds, how about this story from my good friend and social convener C. Sheridan about the opening of contract negotiations.

Yes, we’re already thinking about a possible work stoppage 24 months from now.

I guess it’s a good thing that they’re already talking and there’s no doubt there are serious economic issues that are impacting every level of the game. I do, however, have great faith in David Stern’s ability to make the players give up something – like they have every single contract negotiation for all of time it seems – so I’m wondering if all this hand-wringing will ultimately be misguided.

Look at what the players have caved on already: The top wage earners have their salaries capped, the bottom wage earners have their salaries capped, the rookies have been sold down the river at every opportunity, the maximum length of contracts have been shortened every time they talk.

Think that trend’s going to continue? Yeah, so do I.

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Schedule tidbits, Part I:

You’ll notice a home game on March 17, right? Well, you just know they’re trotting out the green jerseys for that one, that’s for sure. It’s the first time they’ve actually been at home and playing on St. Patrick’s Day, finally it’ll make sense to wear green. I imagine they don’t trot out the Celtic logo again.

As about the lone Toronto Star sports staffer who won’t be in Vancouver – the kajillion we’ve got going can probably cover off the Olympics quite well – I notice four home games and two one-game road trips during the Games. Oh, and one of the home games is a Saturday night date; figured there was a reason there were no pucks.

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The Gangster is back.

Check out Phil’s news story here to get all the gory details about Primoz Brezec’s triumphant return to the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers.

But then go check out Phil’s little blog post that went up before the news story and read the comments. And then you’ll know why Philly fans are known for their, um, edge.

Seriously, I know the Sixers are going to get Elton Brand back – and I guess that’s a good thing although history would suggest otherwise – and they have Jason Kapono but to think that’s a playoff team in the East today is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?

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Schedule tidbits, redux

A year ago, we spent Martin Luther King Day in Atlanta, the home of the civil rights museum, a day before the Obama inauguration and it was a compelling time around the NBA. This year? They’ve got Jan. 20 off.

They also have American Thanksgiving off, on a off-day that’s part of a Charlotte-Boston road trip. Wonder where a guy can get a good turkey dinner in Boston?

Read into this what you will: On Grey Cup Sunday, when I presume the game starts just after 6 p.m. East, the Raptors will play Phoenix at 3:30 p.m. On Super Bowl Sunday, when I presume the game starts just after 6 p.m. East, the Raptors play Sacramento in a noon start.

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Digression time.

You know how there’s not really anything good on TV over the summer (and wouldn’t a nice Dancing With The Stars go good right about now)?

Well, after watching the Evil Empire beat Your Jays, the click-around (sort of a couch-potato’s shootaround) landed on some upper channel and a very interesting 90 minutes.

The original Richard Nixon-David Frost interview from May, 1977.

Fascinating viewing for a guy who can remember it happening in real time. If you’re ever clicking by some PBS station from the States and you find it, watch. It struck me as less confrontational in retrospect but what I can’t fathom – and really couldn’t from start – is how a nation could elect someone to its highest office who seemed to hate public speaking with a passion and who was obviously uncomfortable in front of a camera.

Digression over.

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Schedule tidbits, double redux

Know how they had all those different start times for Sunday games last year? Well, some things never change. They’ve got 15 home games on Sundays this year, five start at 1 p.m., five start at 6 p.m., two go at noon, two go at 12:30 p.m. and one goes at 3:30 p.m. Plan accordingly.

I know they’re planning to trot out some Huskies jerseys sometime this year in a throwback game and, no, I have no idea when it’ll be. I know when it should be, though. It should be March 31 against the Clippers and the Clips should wear throwback Buffalo Braves jerseys, a plan long proposed by E Smith, Radio Raconteur. However, I bet that’s too late in the season.

One road day game and it’s in April in Philly? That bites.

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Just read somewhere that Carlos Delfino isn’t going to play for Argentina in the world championships qualifier later this month in Puerto Rico because his future is unsettled.

Not sure what that means except that it might indicate a return to Russia is not a done deal.

And there are those around the Raptors who would know who tell me that Carlos, after having some financial issues with Khimki and some issues with the coach, got almost every dime he was owed and was quite okay with a mid-season coaching change so it looked like a return was possible.

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Oh yeah, Yankee update. My Yankees.

We did finish third, 10-5-1 in the regular season, got ourselves a well-deserved first-round bye in the double-knockout playoffs and we’re supposed to start the post-season on Thursday, weather-willing.

We got accomplished what we needed to in the season – the urchins had fun and are better ball players today than they were when we got them in May, I believe – and that’s what it’s all about, right?

Now it’s time for a big finish and if you want to come out and cheer, let me know (I keed, I keed).