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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Comments

[Kol Nika]

Hey Doug,

Quick question, kinda in reference to what I've asked befor about american writers being to critical of all things Canadian, ie Raptors. Was reading some article on Espn, while being productive at work, and some guy(I don't remember who, because I didn't care much for his points) was ranking the teams in the East (prematurely). And he stated that Vince Careter was a huge, let repeat that "huge upgrade on Hedo". Am I the only one that thinks, that if Orlando had just replaced Hedo with Vince, they would of been worst off? Not out of playoffs, but out of the NBA finals in my opinion. What saved them is the other two signings especial Matt Barnes. Hedo brings too many offensive options along with him, much larger variety of skills.
Also, don't you think the Shack signing could backfire on the cavs, like it kinda did in Phoenix. I could see him cloggin the lane, and reducing James' explosives and ability to get the the rim. I know they got him for nothin, but it could be 1 step forward and 2 steps back type of thing. I think Anthony and Jamario might prove to be the better pick up there aswell, in a more subtle way.
Wonder what you think about the above, more about vince vs hedo thing.

Thanks.

Blogger's note: Really haven't thought much about it yet since, you know, they haven't had a practice and the rosters aren't finished yet

[plusgroove]

@ AMR.

Who cares. Go to an Orlando blog/forum and rant over there. The general Toronto public don't care. The Orlando media doesn't care. ESPN doesn't care. The raptors mascot doesn't care. Doug doesn't care.

re: 15th man.

Who cares again. People just relax and enjoy your summer. The league will start up again soon.

[Kevin A.]

Don't know if you caught this, but it's Raps-pertinent:

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/story/12031620

" The widening chasm between the league's money-making teams and those fighting over the crumbs was never more evident than in this summer's free-agent market. Teams like the Celtics, Lakers, Cavaliers, Spurs, Mavericks, Pistons and Raptors -- a murderer's row of revenue -- went on spending sprees. The teams that can't sell enough tickets or charge enough for them sat on the sideline. Worse, some shed payroll in salary-dump deals designed to keep the franchises viable on an increasingly lopsided playing field.

In the 2008-09 season, nine teams accounted for roughly half the ticket revenue in the 30-team NBA, according to the league data: the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, Suns, Bulls, Cavaliers, Warriors, Mavericks and Raptors. The reasons vary from location and pricing power to, in some cases, the luck of the draft lottery. Cleveland, for example, is a small-market team that is well above the league average in all ticket-revenue categories because of the presence of You-Know-Who. "

[chris]

Doug - regardless of the nike sponsorship, that team comprised of most of canada's top high school talent (cory joseph and a couple of others excluded). The fact these guy are competing so well is something we should be excited about. The future looks bright. Its also sad that these guys are getting more press south of the border than here.

Blogger's note: Well, actually, at least a few of those kids go to high school in the United States, not Canada; and when they do something significant in something like, oh, I dunno, the NCAA, I'm pretty sure they'll get some more publicity. After all, we wrote about one of them with the senior national team and the under-19 team at the worlds. Which is far better competition that some summer club tournament.

[aditya]

you know what's wrong with jp ricciardi's comments as rios is claimed by white sox....

"I think what's happened since we did the contract is the game has changed in so many ways economically in the last year."

this means jp ricciardi is dumb and did not forecast the economy to turn bad....someone needs to fire jp....

[Amr]

Plusgroove it's about the integrity of the game and the league. That's why I care.

[Drew]

92 Dream Team.

[Tim W.]

Gary: ""Who cares if misinformation gets out there?""

Are you kidding me??? Try anybody who who has an ounce if integrity. The majority of readers actually believe something as the truth, and most people don't even pay attention to retractions. How many Fox News watchers actually believed Iraq had WMDs? How many believe that Saddam was connected with 9/11? Are you going to say THAT doesn't matter? Bush was re-elected because of the amount of misinformation that the American public actually believed.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say some `fact' that I know to be false. COnversely, I've been told things that I have told other people and later discovered to be false. Before things like Twitter, it was just annoying, but with Twitter a lie can go around the world in a matter of seconds. That's incredibly dangerous.

[Niagarahoops]

Doug,
Why don't you like to speculate about how a team will be once in fact, you know, they actually start practicing?

Isn't that what the off season is for after all (or most) of the signings and before they start, you know, practcing?

Blogger's note: For some, maybe; for me, not so much

[Mike]

Hey Doug..
I have a theory that you might or might not be able to comfirm....

I believe the Raptors are holding the last open spot on the team for Ekene Ibekwe. I think they really appreciated his work out in Las Vegas and as a result they'll probably offer him a non guaranteed spot at training camp.
Not a bad theory, and if it doesn't pan out, at least they'll have some form of competition for the spot in October.

Blogger's note: Interesting theory. Not something that's been remotely hinted at by anyone connected with the team I've talked to since June but interesting nonetheless

[Andrew]

One more for your list:

The 1938-1939 Trial Smoke Eaters.

As Allan Cup champions they represented Canada in the 1939 World Hockey Championships in Switzerland, where they won all eight games, outscoring their opposition 42 to 1.

They then toured Europe for 71 games, going 62-7-2, outscoring the opposition 374 to 107.