A ticked boss and the coolest dude ever

Oh, oh.

David’s miffed.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the proliferation of fines being levied on players and coaches for publicly criticizing officials this early in the long playoff season and it’s apparent that’s ticked Mr. Stern off now end.

He’s hit Stan Van Gundy and Matt Barnes and Phil Jackson and Rasheed Wallace and we’re less than a week into the post-season as the commish tries to fill the charitable coffers in the league office.

(And we live in inflationary times, don’t we? What used to be a $25,000 is now $35,000 and while it’s still a snippet of what a guy makes, it’s a pretty substantial total).

Anyway, as you can read in this post from Scott Howard-Cooper, Stern lays out the logic behind the rash of fines and does come across as someone very unimpressed with the whole matter.

Now, you know me and officials: I think they do as good as job as they possibly can, I think NBA basketball is the hardest professional sport to officiate out there because you could conceivably blow a whistle on every possession and some common sense has to prevail, and I don’t for a second think there are any hidden agendas being preached from the head office on down.

This whole “working the officials” thing, where coaches try to plant a seed with fans who’ll get rambunctious hoping it has some impact on the crew that works the next game really bores me.

It comes across as petulant whining and I don’t think it ever really works so on this issue, I’m squarely on the side of Mr. Stern.

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We are finding out that all the little tweaks that teams make during a playoff series can work and it’s been rather fascinating to watch.

Having to face the same team night after night after night after night puts a premium on coaches who can make adjustments that work and we’ve seen a bundle that have made series more competitive than originally thought.

And most of it has to do with defensive assignments and the next time to hear one say, “we made some adjustments during the game (Hello, Jay!)” you’ll know what they’re talking about.

In the Laker-Oklahoma City game – which was an excellent, excellent game all around – the Thunder went primarily with Kevin Durant on Kobe Bryant in the fourth quarter and it worked wonders.

In Chicago, the Bulls tried all kinds of different looks on LeBron James during the game – Joakim Noah had a shot, some did James Johnson and Luol Deng – and while James got his, the other Cavs never really got going and Chicago did turn LeBron into a jump shooter for most of the night, which is what you want to do with him.

The Suns, in Game 2, switched up coverages on Andre Miller after he’d exploded in Game 1 and it might have been the difference.

Just kind of interesting to watch the changes teams make game-to-game in a playoff series and it’s now going to be interesting to see what the effected teams do to counter what’s been done with them.

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Right. The mail.

Last call to click here and send some queries in; looks like a deck/patio day/weekend and I don’t mind having something to putter around on as I pass the time.

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Digression time.

Is there anything more over-blown and over-hyped and over-analyzed as the NFL draft?

Three freaking days? Prime time TV for one round?

Really, that’s ridiculous, isn’t it?

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No, I have no idea what happened to the in-game blog and maybe someone can give me some answers this afternoon.

Sorry to the irregulars who were there but the comments stopped coming about 10:20 p.m. – unless you all went to bed, by all means I’m sorry – and it seemed rather silly to sit there and type to myself.

But we’ll be back Monday and maybe things will work.

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You know that TV commercial for the Mexican beer, the excellent one that’s got Maximilan Schell (I stand corrected, it's an actor by the name of Jonathan Goldman as The Most Interesting Man In The World?

Well, when they come to do one for The Coolest Man In The World, we saw him briefly on TV last night.

Yannick Noah would get my vote without a doubt.

Dude was a brilliant tennis player and an even more popular crooner; his first ex-wife is a former Miss Sweden, his second ex-wife is a former fashion model and his current wife is a TV producer.

And apparently everyone gets along, it’s one big happy, very extended family when it’s time to celebrate things and the guy just exudes cool.

I first ran into him in Indianapolis covering one of Florida’s Final Four appearances and seeing him last night in all his coolness just made me think.

Anyway, that’s got nothing to do with anything, I guess; but it does give you something to read.

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Getting back to basketball, how impressed have you been with Phoenix the last couple of nights.

They lose a tough one at home to open the Portland series but rebound to win two in a row easily and I’m thinking that series may not have any legs past Game 5 on Monday.

And that could be huge for the Suns, who get a pretty good draw throughout the post-season.

With their fantastic finish, I think they were something like 24-3 down the stretch of the season, they managed to get the No. 3 seed and, sure, they may not home court in the next round (they will if San Antonio takes out Dallas) but at least they won’t have to face the Lakers in the second round.

And for a team that’s on the older side – see Nash, Steve; and Hill, Grant – getting rid of a first-round opponent and getting some rest while the Mavs and Spurs beat each other up in a series that looks like it’s going to last a little while is going to be huge.

So, let’s get ready for a Los Angeles-Phoenix Western Conference final, shall we?

Maybe not, but it’d be cool.

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Okay, there seems to be long-neglected yard work in my immediate future and then maybe an afternoon of nice relaxation. Have fun, folks.

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The Goods On The Game, Lakers at Thunder, Part II

Let's try this one

The Goods On The Game, Lakers at Thunder

Good evening, people.

Hope you're okay with the late start but we should see some west games.

And the stuff just keeps on coming

Another day, more blather.

Lucky, lucky you.

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You know how they say timing is everything, right? Well, I’m wondering just how the timing is going to unfold here for Mssrs. Colangelo and Bosh.

And as we know, that’s the only real big topic we have to worry about between now and July (I’m kind of putting the draft out of my mind at the moment) and it’s going to be fascinating to see how it plays out.

But if I’m Bryan (and the closet and bank account remind me every single day that I’m not) I don’t think I should wait around to see what Bosh is going to do as I explore trade opportunities.

With absolutely no basis in fact for this, I would be operating under the premise that Bosh won’t be back so I’m trying to improve my team with that in mind.

That doesn’t necessarily mean trading for a starting power forward or a big – I think they wouldn’t have an issue starting Bargnani next to Amir Johnson next year and I believe they are confident they can get Amir back – but the last thing the GM should do is wait around on Bosh before doing anything.

Bosh, for his part, has always maintained the summer decision process was not going to be quick, he’s never indicated that he’d make any decision the first week of free agency, and, if he’s going, there’s no way Bryan and he aren’t going to take their time exploring sign-and-trade deals

And don’t think for a second the GM hasn’t had that at least in the back of his mind, as he said the other day:

“The other thing that you should know is that there is a whole other universe of teams out there … teams that are over the cap, and would be interested in Chris Bosh and may have assets that we may have interest in.

“Assuming that Chris would rather play somewhere else and he gives us a list of teams with which he would be agreeable to go play then we can delve further into the topic of, okay, what would we want to get back from that team.

“I just have to tell you that that’s being evaluated, it has been evaluated, it will continue to be evaluated and we will try to maximize our opportunity in the event that that’s the course of action.”

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Did you catch the moment in the Bobcats-Magic game last night where they eavesdropped on Larry Brown talking to Raymond Felton?

Larry brings out the old “I love you” line as he’s sending the kid out to get scorched by Jameer Nelson.

It’s an old LB trick, actually.

First time I heard about it was late in Game 7 of the Spurs-Pistons final of a few years back.

The game’s tight, the NBA championship is on the line. Someone calls a timeout, the coaches huddle, come to the bench to give instruction and just before they head back out to play, Larry looks up and says:

“I love you guys.”

No wonder they lost, they probably spent the next 45 seconds snickering.

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If there is one thing I of which I am sure, it’s that they will be crazed in Oklahoma City tonight.

First playoff games have a way of doing that to even the most sedate fans with the collegiate atmosphere that pervades the Ford Center, I thinking off-the-charts enthusiasm.

And then I’m thinking back to the zaniness of the first playoff game here.

You remember, right?

Down 2-0 to the Knicks in a best-of-five series the Heroes Of The Hardcourt come back in such disarray you’d never seen.

Butch had sued Marcus Camby, the players were in almost open revolt against the coach (he’d jerked around the starting lineup and a few of them – Doug Christie chief among them – didn’t like him very much to begin with) and I remember sitting in the vestibule on the way into the practice court the day before the game listening to them kill him.

And then there’s Fire Guy.

Remember that one?

Dude as the halftime entertainment is blowing huge plumes of fire all over the midcourt area, thrilling (and by “thrilling” I probably mean boring) the assembled masses.

Dave D and I are out on the loading dock when it was the fresh air location and we both liked fresh air when who comes wandering out but Fire Guy himself, looking to join us.

“Anyone got a light?” “For you? No way.”

Anyway, we head back in to work only to find the game delayed eight or nine minutes because he’d spilled some lighter fluid on the court. Jeff Van Gundy steamed, the refs are miffed and the folks doing the TV timing were incensed at the delay.

Ended up costing the Raptors some money in a fine, if I recall correctly, and we never saw Fire Guy again.

If he shows up in Oklahoma City tonight, watch out.

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Speaking of, the Laker-Thunder game is the one we’ll go over tonight for the in-game thing if anyone wants to hang around. It’s a 9:30 p.m. start here in the East so you (or I) may want to have a nap sometime this afternoon.

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Oh, and some mail.

Send it here if you want. Figure it’ll give me something to do when Super Dog and I are lounging on the deck sometime in the next couple of days.

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Hey, you heard about this big cloud of volcanic ash that was drifting over Europe for a week or so, right?

How come no one’s asked me what kind of impact it had on the various Raptors who had to travel back to Europe to begin their off-seasons?

Well, in case you were wondering, I’m told the only guy it really affected was Jose, who got as far as Rome to start his journey back to Spain and was locked in Italy for a bit.

The rest of them were sticking around town for a day or two and just got to spend a few extra days here.

No, there is no end to the “who cares” facts we can bring up around here.

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The Goods On The Game, Bobcats at Magic

Hi again.

Am sure you all hope we get a better game.

I know I do.

Big bucks deals and stories from the past

Another day, another few snippets of stuff.

Man, do we churn it out here or what?

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There’s been a lot of talk over the last couple of days – actually, it’s been a point of contention for most of the year for some of you – about who, or what, constitutes a “max-contract guy.”

Now, I’m here to tell you there a very, very, very, very few players who actually deserve those maximum contracts, I’d put Kobe, LeBron and Wade in that small group and probably Durant, too, but that’s really neither here nor there.

It’s perception that matters and if you’re going to have a “star” player, you’re going to have to pay him “star” money, regardless of what you really think. You hold your nose, right write the cheque and get on with life.

Is Chris Bosh worth 30 per cent of the annual salary cap, which is max value for him? Of course not. But it doesn’t matter. He’s going to get it and if you want to keep him, that’s the going rate.

Even Bryan alluded to this the other day:

“Contracts are not always justifiable in sports, they’re just not. But it’s a situation where Chris Bosh is considered a maximum contract player for multiple reasons and I would assume he’d be that if he stayed here.”

The whole thing of “worth” in any pro sports is rather nonsensical to me, as a matter of fact. Players in all sports get tagged, as the sage Jalen Rose once said, as dollar signs rather than the people and that’s not right.

So if Chris Bosh or Joe Johnson or Amar’e Stoudemire or anyone else goes out to market this summer and comes back with a contract worth untold millions and at the maximum allowable amount, I say good for them.

I just wish there were maximum-value contracts in my gig.

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As I’m sitting there watching the Miami Heat score all of, what, 10 points in the second half quarter and look like one of the most confused offensive teams in the history of NBA basketball, one thought came to mind:

“What kind of knucklehead would pick ‘em to win a series?”

Oh, wait. That’d be me. And, apparently, Charles Barkley and I’m wondering when some big shot network’s going to come calling.

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So, we took attendance and it seems you folks – a hearty few at least – do care.

Only because a few people asked, I’ll tell you we had about 690 folks around for the hour-long question and answer session yesterday afternoon and you sent in about 350 queries, about 70 of which were answered in the 60 minutes or so.

For the game? Well, it could have been better but it was the first night, a dog of a game and we had about 510 take part.

The Q and A numbers are about average for a regular season game, the in-game numbers are down, but it wasn’t unexpected.

But it’s enough to keep going, right?

We’ll be here for Charlotte-Orlando tonight at 7 and then let’s have ourselves a late night on Thursday with Lakers-Oklahoma City at 9:30 p.m. (I know I’m blowing off the Suns at 10 but they’ll have a Game 5 Monday and I can’t be sure there’ll be on in the Lakers-Thunder series).

Sound okay?

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I know this is old but I don’t think it got much ink up here and it probably should have.

Good on Sam Dalembert, I say, for winning a pretty prestigious award.

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Story time, in the absence of, you know, news and stuff:

With the season over here and all the post-season hoopla and wrapup seemingly done, I’m trying to think back to other great, end-of-the-year stories from days gone by. Not necessarily the nuts and bolts of what went wrong but the moments that stick with you.

Two come to mind:

Last day of the first season.

I’m standing on the loading dock of the dome enjoying some fresh air and chatting with Oliver Miller’s mom.

He’s got a player option that summer on the last year of a deal that’s going to pay him about $3 million I believe (and that was pretty good chunk of change 15 years ago) and for sure he’s going to come back, right? Well, no. Mom says, and I’m recalling quotes here: “Oliver’s going to go out and get a new big deal” and I’m thinking, “um, ah, er, well, good luck to him.”

So that season ends, O’s a free agent, he can’t get a sniff of a new deal and comes back later that next year on a minimum salary deal and bounces around for the rest of his career.

Heckuva end to that season, no?

Day after the last day of the KO Year.

Season ends in Milwaukee and we’ve all got mid-morning flights to get back for the locker clean out and never-ending stream of interviews. But there’s this feeling (brought on by the fact KO’d been trying for two weeks to get either a buyout or an extension) that something might happen so the flight’s get changed to stupidly early and we drag our tired carcasses down to the arena.

And that’s when KO gives us the (and I’m paraphrasing again, here): “There are people in this organization who don’t want to win, all they care about is sniffing jocks and it’s management and they need to leave the basketball people alone.” Whoo! And boy!! Sure enough, he gets whacked the next day and another glorious season comes to an end.

I tell ya, this franchise has been far better story than a team in the decade and a half I’ve been around.

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Mail? Sure, we’ll keep doing mail.

Drop a line here and we’ll start putting together the weekend compilation.

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The Goods On The Game, Heat at Celtics

Hey folks.

Let's see how these non-Raptors things go over, shall we?

I seem to recall them being okay a year ago, hope it's the same.

Live basketball Q&A

Doug Smith held a live basketball Q&A, answering readers' questions about the Raptors and the NBA playoffs.

And another voice is heard from

Join Doug Smith at 1 p.m. Tuesday for a live basketball Q&A.

All right. We’ve heard from the coaches and selected players. We’ve heard from the president and general manager. What’s next?

This kind of fun stuff is next as I try to figure out what I might do with my days and evenings.

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I’m trying to come up with a word to capture Bryan’s mood yesterday and as I look at the little one-handed notes I typed to myself as the hour droned on, here’s what I had:

Defiant.

Maybe a bit strong but there was no question he was getting his message out and damn the consequences. Right from the get-go, he made it clear he’s okay with a lot about the team he had assembled, while acknowledging the need for at least some change.

But look, the simple fact of the matter is that he wasn’t going to come out guns a’blazing killing his guys, or himself, or his organization.

First, there’s no way he was going to undermine the “assets” he may have to take to market this summer so aside from the obvious statements that Hedo was bad, the point guard issue’s an issue and that Bargnani has to rebound better, there wasn’t going to be much there.

And there’s no way he’s lost confidence in his abilities so that wasn’t going to happen.

And, thirdly, if you thought he’d sit there and rip his bosses well, that’s just not going to happen.

So defiant and a bit defensive is what the prevailing mood was to me. Not at all unexpected, either.

I, fully acknowledging that I’m in the minority, tend to agree that things aren’t as bad as some think. No, they were not good in the final few weeks, nor were they good in the first few weeks but I do think pieces are there that will allow this team to move up next season and the season after that and we’ll see where that takes them.

They are horrid defensively and I’d be quite all right with sacrificing some of the best offence in the East for a defensive presence and I thought this statement was rather interesting:

“It’s safe to say we need to improve our personnel in that area and we have to get better at formulating and executing a strategy.”

That would put some pressure on the coaching staff and that’s quite all right. They need to tweak some things and they need to teach better to get more out of the limited defensive abilities of some of the regulars.

But overall? They would, in my opinion, be far ahead today from where a year ago and while that’s not good enough for many, it’s part of the process. How it turns out, nobody can say with any degree of certainty, which is the fun part of all of this.

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Questions?

Answers? We’re likely to have both if any of you irregulars want to be around these parts at 1 p.m. today.

I presume some of you would like to dissect Bryan’s little chat from yesterday and I’d even bet there are some queries about the basketball that’s going on.

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Still with the inability to give hard answers to legitimate questions, this whole uncertainty over Chris Bosh’s future made it impossible to get hard numbers about salary and tax and the like, according to the GM.

“I’ve got scenarios where I can paint a picture that we’ll be a $3 million tax team, I’ve got scenarios where we’ll be a $7 million tax team, I’ve got scenarios where we’ll be higher than that. But they’re all scenarios because of the unknowns about free agency and the off-season. Today, those answers aren’t available.”

So we wait. Patiently, I guess, until July when the Big Domino falls.

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Speaking of the basketball that’s going on now, how many sat through Cleveland-Chicago last night?

And how many rubbed their eyes in disbelief when Jamario Moon was going all Dell Curry on the Bulls with four three-pointers in five attempts? Yes, our old friend Jamario sure caught some lightning in a bottle last night. Made more three-pointers in that 20-minute stretch (4) than he did in any game in the regular season.

Just goes to show you that anyone can get hot at any given time and maybe all those ill-advised, early-clock threes we saw here were just practice for last night.

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In case you were wondering, the NBA Draft Lottery is May 18.

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The Reggie Evans question to Bryan evoked a rather interesting answer, didn’t it?

The gist of it is that there might still be an issue with the foot, the doctors who treated him before are going to look at it again and who knows what they might find after he went about 30 games on it.

My question would be: Does a sore foot impact passing ability?

Because when push comes to shove, that was the issue the team had with Evans, his unwillingness or inability to give the ball up once he got it.

Yes, the energy was good most of the time but I know the coaches couldn’t get past the “no-passing” rule and the inability to make free throws was an issue to.

So foot or no foot, I wouldn’t all be surprised if they didn’t try – and succeed – to deal him and his expiring contract this summer.

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Well, let’s get this in-game blog thingy started again, I miss some of you. Some. Only some.

We’ll start tonight at 8 p.m. with Boston-Miami and see how attendance before we decide just how many nights a week we’ll do this.

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You know who’s going to feel good this summer? Unemployed head coaches and up-and-coming assistants.

Bryan made mention of at least six opening and as many as nine when he was saying how Jay would be back and it sent me scurrying to the standings to figure out just where those jobs will be.

For sure you’ll have new people in New Jersey, Philly, New Orleans and the Clippers, right?

Where else? Well, I can’t imagine, short of two playoff upsets, that Vinny Del Negro’s back in Chicago, Joe Dumars goes through coaches like poop through a goose so maybe there’s a change there and if new ownership takes over in Golden State, that’s going to be the end of Nelly.

The other two?

There are all kinds of rumblings around that Larry Brown covets either a return to Philly or a return to the Clips and the last one, the longest shot, might be Mike Woodson in Atlanta. Woody’s contract is up, ownership is muddled and tried a couple of times to move him and there are whispers around he might be gone.

That’s a heckuva list, no?

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And so begins another off-season

At some point over the weekend, Super Wife turns and asks, ‘hey, what are you going to put in the blog now?’

And I’m thinking, ‘I have no idea whatsoever.’

So … here’s what you get:

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Today’s the big Bryan Recaps The Season day down at the ACC and it should be a really good show.

Not a lot of substance, I don’t imagine, so if you’re going to be sitting around waiting for hard news, I fear disappointment will be in order.

I would guess – knowing the situation, knowing how Bryan likes to keep some things close to the vest – that we’ll get the usual

“Yes, we’d like to keep Chris.”

“Yes, we’d like to work with him on a sign and trade so both sides benefit should he decide to leave.’ “Yes, we need to improve a roster that finished 40-42 but I like the group.”

“Yes, Jay will be back, this wasn’t a coaching issue.”

“No, I’m not happy. Any time a team of mine doesn’t make the playoffs, I’m unhappy.”

“Yes, I take responsibility for what transpired, I put the team together; yes, I will work to fix it.”

I’d hope for something of substance but I don’t imagine there’ll be much.

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I notice Kevin Garnett’s been suspended for a game for the elbow he threw at Miami’s Quentin Richardson the other day.

It was the right call by Stu Jackson, it was a rather egregious shot, and it may set the tone for the rest of the playoffs.

As we recall from a year ago, once feelings start to really get hot in the post-season, we’re often caught in debates over what’s a Flagrant 1 foul, what’s a Flagrant 2 and the somewhat subjective nature of the calls can be confusing.

One thing I like is the use now of more video replay to help officials determine what, if any, difference there is between hard fouls and dirty ones.

Yes, it will slow games down more – and that’s my beef with the over-use of replay in some situations – but I guess in the playoffs we have to put up with it.

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Hmm, guess I better start taking Super Son to a Jays game or two, eh?

Sounds like they could use the attendance.

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Okay, here’s what I think about doing in-game blogs and stuff like that in the next little while.

I think following one series right off the bat probably doesn’t work because we’d likely run out of things to talk about unless it became really compelling, like last year’s Boston-Chicago first round one did.

So, let’s flit between various series to start and see where that takes us.

Now, this certainly isn’t going to be a five- or seven-night-a-week endeavour; I do need some time to decompress after a long season and would like a night or two to simply sit and watch games with friends and family.

Let’s do this: I’ll take today to do the Colangelo thing and talk to my bosses about anything they’ve got in store for me and we’ll start anew tomorrow.

How about a Question and Answer thing at 1 p.m. to go over what happens today and then the Boston-Miami game tomorrow night at 8?

Sound fair?

Does to me.

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Speaking of slowing games down, was it just me or did anyone else feel those weekend contests unfolded at a snail’s pace thanks for fouls, timeouts and, yes, what seemed to be longer television commercials.

A check of the boxscores kind of proves my point.

The Celtics-Heat thing went 2:47 and Phoenix-Portland went 2:44 and that’s about 20-25 minutes longer than what you’d like in a regular season game at least.

The quickest was Cleveland-Chicago, which went in a relatively brisk 2:23 while the rest of them went right around the 2 1-2 hour pace.

Gonna make for some late nights, no?

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I had a question in the mail yesterday about the Raptors and their various national team commitments in the summer and who might have a long few months.

Well, no one’s going to be out there for too, too long and there’s every chance that the only guy who will play for his country will be Hedo, who is going to play for Turkey at the world championships in his homeland and it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks.

Bosh is non-committal about rejoining the American team, Jose hasn’t said anything about going back to Spain after he took last year off and the sense I get right now is that neither Andrea nor Marco is all that enthused about playing for Italy.

Of course, the commitment for Italy won’t be nearly as great as it would be for the others. All Italy has is a tournament with the lesser lights of Europe just to qualify to get back into the European championships next summer.

I will once again reiterate, though, that if players want to go and play for their countries, they should be allowed to and encouraged to. It’s an honour few get and if they want to take advantage of it, well, who are we to deny them.

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You noticed, of course, that the Raptors lost the coin flip with Memphis late last week and now go into the lottery ranked No. 13 instead of No. 12.

That means they’ve got a 6-in-1,000 chance to move up to one of the top three spots in the draft. That means we better start thinking about who the No. 13-ranked kid is in the draft.

Fun? Wow!

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