A global star may emerge; and Masai gets his shot at a new gig

So the Americans only beat France by 31 on Sunday afternoon and the word I got from a guy who was at the game and watching closely when I asked him about the French was “they played okay.”

Hmm. Kind of a reversal of form from Thursday and Friday here.

Anyway, another friend had asked me Sunday morning what I thought about Kevin Durant and where he’d emerge as a true star this summer and it had to be answered with a resounding yes.

Looking down that American roster, I really don’t see anyone who’s going to capture the imagination of even diehard fans because it really is a group of relative role players in comparison to the team that won the gold medal in Beijing.

Durant, in my opinion, is the biggest “name” on the team and, as such, I’m sure he’ll become the go-to scorer, the guy everyone’s paying attention to and I have no doubt that he’ll be the American player best remembered when the worlds are all said and done.

I’m still trying to figure out just how well the U.S. might do – with the roster they have and the schedule they face, I suspect I won’t be picking them to win the gold medal when I get around to it next week – but in this star-driven world in which we live, I think Durant’s going to be the story.

And well he should be. The way he’s handled himself since coming into the league, under-stated, successful enough on the court, humble and not really interested in seeking a lot of attention, makes him something of a personal favourite.

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This pass as Raptors news? I hear assistant GM Masai Ujuri had an interview on Friday for the vacant Denver general manager job and it went pretty well, from reports I’m getting from here and there.

Talk is that it’s probably down to former Phoenix assistant David Griffin and Masai for the gig and there might be some resolution this week.

Now, my memory isn’t quite as sharp as it used to be (oh, the ravages of age!) but if Masai gets the gig, I think he’ll be the first Raptors front office guy to go directly from the employ of Toronto to a promotion with the other team.

Any others – Glen Grunwald and Rob Babcock come quickly to mind – had at least a little bit of idle time before catching on somewhere else.

People ask me often what it is that guys like Masai, and Marc Eversely and Maurizio do in their jobs with the Raptors and I think the best answer I can generally come up with is: Whatever’s needed.

They offer advice to Bryan and do some scouting, they work their various sources to mine nuggets of information, they can be conduits between agents, front office guys from other teams and contacts they’ve made over the years in various aspects of the game.

I don’t think there’s any real delineation of responsibility except to say they are part of a cabal of advisors who are consulted on all facets of the operation.

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How about that dude in the golf who grounded his club in what was allegedly a bunker and lost a shot at winning the PGA?

I know golf’s all about honour and somewhat obscure rules and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah but, really, that “is it a bunker, is it not a bunker, did he ground is club?” thing with Johnson was kind of tough to watch.

It is, of course, unique to golf (you don’t get retroactive out of bounds calls in basketball, you don’t have long-after-the-fact reversal of call in any other sport) and I guess it’s part of golf’s charms.

And makes for a heckuva story when it happens every 40 years or so.

Now, I vaguely remember Roberto Di Vincenzo at the ’68 Masters signing an incorrect scorecard and losing tournament but one thing Di Vincenzo gave us that Johnson didn’t was a quote for the ages:

“What a stupid I am.”

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Seems the inquisitive nature you display doesn’t take a break in the dull days of summer, for which I’m glad.

I’ll try to get one or two in a day just to (a) fill out this space to something approaching the usual length given the slowness of the news and (b) cut down the monstrous weekend mail.

Here’s one from a familiar name:

Q: Hi Doug.

Was just reading your mailbag and the question from Lorie (as well as the mention of a journalist from Le Monde in another of your blog entries) got me thinking (seriously....): do you have many contacts with foreign (that is, non NBA-related) beat grunts? If yes, what kind of info are you exchanging?

Bonne continuation.

Matthieu B

A: I don’t have an awful lot of contacts that I speak with on a regular basis but, over the years of covering such things as world championships and Olympics, you do get to see a lot of familiar faces and know people and if you need something, you know where to call.

Just last week, for instance, a friend of a friend called from Israel to pick my brain about Will Solomon, who has signed to play over there.

Guys like Arnaud from Le Monde are people I see every two or four years at worlds or Olympics and it’s always nice to reconnect and know if something were to break in France that’s Raptors-related, there’s a guy I could call.

Same thing with a couple of Italian writers and a few folks from Spain, I’ll see them, we’ll chat about this and that and if there’s a need for information, there’s kind of a network already in place.

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One last digression then I’m off to be Argo Boy for a day (I finally get to cover a winner, if only as a one-off fill-in).

Of the sports I don’t do, haven’t done, never will do, I’d say Dragon Boat racing would be chief among them so when Super Wife said her crew – the Mighty Catch 22s – finished second in their division at a regatta here on the weekend and won the very first Dragon Boat Tie-breaking Tug-of-War, I was mightily impressed.

A bit confused about what a tug-of-war between two 22-person boats would be but mightily impressed nonetheless.

So congrats.

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Comments

[CA1]

Tug-of-war?!?!
That's great, they should do that in the NBA, at least in exhibition games! That would be great! The Celtics would suddenly be geniuses for signing Shaq!

[Jacques]

I think Dustin Johnson would of been more pissed off if he had made par and threw up his arms in victory. Only to have the Rules Officials tell him the bad news.

[cram]

Durant has been a "true star" for a while now. Arguably the best player in the league.

Blogger's note: I think the general consensus would be that he's "among" the top five players in the league and true stars will have won at least one playoff series.

[Mike S]

Doug,

I know it was yesterday, but I don't get around to reading the mailbags until Mondays, and I had a comment on the reader's question about games over/under .500.

While he is right that a 60-40 team is 10 'games ahead' of a 50-50 team in the standings, when a writer says that the first team is '20 games above .500' he is also right. That is because the first type of 'game' is assumed to be head to head because we are comparing the two teams (thus 10 wins for the 50-50 combined with 10 losses for the 60-40 leads to a tie) while the second type of 'game' refers only to the team in question. It seems pretty self explanatory, and as you said, I think we all get it anyway.

More importantly, I am seeing Bargs' face all over the place (especially with the new Rogers 1 promotions). I've been expecting about 17 per game from him this year. Are the Raptors hoping for more? I know you said we would have no 'face of the franchise' this year, but it seems the Raptors are pushing Bargs anyway. Or am I way off base?

[Pipit]

People ask me often what it is that guys like Masai, and Marc Eversely and Maurizio do in their jobs with the Raptors and I think the best answer I can generally come up with is: Whatever’s needed.

Thanks Doug for letting me know what they're doing but obviously they're not doing enough looking at the state of this team. I acknowledge that they always had the reason that talented NBA players doesn't want to end up in Toronto if they have other options but getting Anderson and Wright at this stage? Are these the only players available left who agrees to play here? As to Maurizio who always claims that he's the Godfather of European basketball, what did he do to make this team better in terms of recruiting good European players? Bellinelli, Roko Ukic? These are reserved players better suited for warming up are mediocre starting five in scrimmages. Fire these people and look at how the Lakers and the Spurs do their recruitment and model it the way they do it.

[CM]

I agree with Mike, Bargnani has been everywhere. I'm all for promoting him since he is the leading scorer without Bosh, but for promotions sake I think the 'Young Guns' should be included. If the Raps want to keep people excited the most exciting players/plays from last year should be front and centre.

Doug, do you expect Bargnani's passing ability to be more or less a factor in the new roster? I think he has shown skill and creativity in this area for a big but hasn't always had the right people on the receiving end.

Blogger's note: He's a good passer for a big man but it'll really depend on what the recipient does with them. And the team as currently constructed is not as good as the one he was on last year.

[Michel G]

Unfortunately, Dustin Johnson has nobody else to blame but himself. The PGA clearly stated in a rules sheet handed out before the tournament that if it's sand, then it's a bunker, so treat it as such. An interesting quote after round was that Johnson admitted that he didn't read the rules handout. Not a quote for the ages, but a good lesson for all the younger players out there.

[Lorie]

Hi Doug,
I was both surprised and pleased to read on the FIBA website that Jorge Garbajosa will be playing later this month at the Worlds in Turkey; pleased because he was always been a personal fave so it will be fun to watch him play again, but at the same time I was somewhat surprised because I wasn't aware he still has the ability to play at such an elite level. What do you think he will be able to contribute to the Spanish Team? (And will you please say hello from his loyal legion of Raptor fans?)

Blogger's note: I'm not sure he'll contribute an awful lot except a raft of experience. And I'm sure we'll catch up early in the event.

[A.J.]

On the .500 issue, the writers are using the terminology appropriately.

Example:

In the hypothetical 100 game season, assume a team has 40 wins and 40 losses at the 80-game mark. We can agree that this team is currently a .500 team. If they then go on a 20-game win streak to finish at 60-40, it is accurate to say they are 20 games over 500.

Additionally, lets take the above example but assume the team is 30-50 at the 80-game mark. They would need to win the remaining 20 games to bring their record to 50-50 and be a .500 team, so saying they're 20-games below .500 is accurate.

[The J]

Hey Doug,
Not sure if you mentioned it anywhere, but what was the attendance to the Friday game? I know the attendance was bad on Thursday but was Friday any better?
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60-40? Since when does anyone play 100 games. No, they all play 82 games and then go home. Atleast that's what the Raptors always do.

[Sinc]

Doug: Kudos for your great work.
RE: SPORTS GRAMMAR: The plural of RBI is RBI'S NOT RBI.
I hear sports "journalists" frequently say, "He had four RBI last night." WRONG. He had four RBI's last night.

(explanation): RBI is an acronym- a series of numbers and/or letters acting as a word. There are rules for pluralizing acronyms: add 's to the end of the word, regardless of the plurality of any individual word.
So, dot your i's and cross your t's. Hit a lot of RBI's.

[DaveT]

Shouldn't that be RBIs with no apostrophe? Not to nit-pick, but there's no contraction and no ownership anywhere, so the apostrophe doesn't make sense. But it comes up a lot with situations like RBI's and PPG's and whatever elses.

[M]

Doug: Kudos for your great work.
(explanation): RBI is an acronym- a series of numbers and/or letters acting as a word. There are rules for pluralizing acronyms: add 's to the end of the word, regardless of the plurality of any individual word.
So, dot your i's and cross your t's. Hit a lot of RBI's.
Posted by: Sinc | August 16, 2010 at 01:23 PM

Good thing you added that explanation to clear things up, I was going to say that it should be spelt R'sBI ! :-))

[The J]

Sinc - Would the plural or RBI technically be Rs BI (ie, runS batted in)? Atleast I have seen people go that route with other acronymns. Though I would much better prefer your suggest RBI's.

[WH]

Hi Doug,

Watching the video from Summer League, it would seem from the interviews that Demar and Sonny are seeing themselves as the new face of the franchise and expect to be in leadership roles. With the addition of wing players Wright (a lottery pick), and Barbosa and Kleiza who have solid NBA credentials, do see DeRozan and Weems as ahead of or behind those individuals on the depth chart?

[Peter]

I miss basketball. The grammar and math lessons are boring. :) Can we make a trade now?

[Peter Brown]

Doug, do you know which network will be picking up the FIBA games?

Blogger's note: No word yet

[J]

@Sinc:

"RE: SPORTS GRAMMAR: The plural of RBI is RBI'S NOT RBI.
I hear sports "journalists" frequently say, "He had four RBI last night." WRONG. He had four RBI's last night.
(explanation): RBI is an acronym- a series of numbers and/or letters acting as a word. There are rules for pluralizing acronyms: add 's to the end of the word, regardless of the plurality of any individual word.
So, dot your i's and cross your t's. Hit a lot of RBI's."

While you'll probably see differing use of "-'s" vs "-s", the formal method of pluralizing abbreviations (acronyms and initialisms) is to simply add "-s" as a suffix (e.g. RBIs and HRs). This keeps it from being confused with the possessive. Compare: "HWSNBN's tenure with the Raptors will be well remembered" vs "at this rate, the Raptors will have several HWSNBNs throughout club history." The suffix of "-'s" is used when pluralizing single letters (e.g. p's, q's and r's), where the lack of an apostrophe leaves the pluralization ambiguous, and also when pluralizing initialisms using periods (e.g. Ph.D.'s and B.A.'s). So RBIs and R.B.I.'s would be correct, while RBI's would be improper in formal use.

[doug]

I tink the PGA is as much to blame for the incident if not moreso then Dustin Johnson....becuase if it was in fact a bunker and it was demed to be, and was/is treated by the rules the same as any other "bunker" on the course...then it should be treated equally not only by the rules interpretation but in terms of how it is physically treated....are fans allowed to traipse thru any greenside bunkers, fairway bunkers, no there behind the ropes...so that "bunker" should have been roped off and fans not allowed to use it pretty much as they wanted....so the PGA blew it, if it is in the same classification of any of the other bunkers on the course then treat it as such....plain and simple...

[Kate - Toronto]

Thank you J - I knew that RBIs would not take an apostrophe, but I did not know some of the other usage rules where the plural does use the apostrophe. I learned something new today - that's always a good thing. And I loved your example! - way to keep it marginally on topic.

[Peter]

I'm a grammar guy through and through, but I think, as far as internet commenters go, this blog has some fo the most literate and well written commments going for it. I'm sure everyone could point to an exception (that proves the rule), but just go over to you tube or another blog site and read the comments there. You will see truly ridiculous uses of English.

Oh, and, thanks for the great blog Doug, even in the dog days it's required reading.

Peter

[Striker 77]

What a weird conversation today... When does the season begin?

[M]

I'm a grammar guy through and through, but I think, as far as internet commenters go, this blog has some fo the most literate and well written commments going for it. I'm sure everyone could point to an exception (that proves the rule), but just go over to you tube or another blog site and read the comments there. You will see truly ridiculous uses of English.
Oh, and, thanks for the great blog Doug, even in the dog days it's required reading.
Peter
Posted by: Peter | August 16, 2010 at 06:16 PM

I believe you are correct, thank goodness that the grammar police are on their toes. Grammar and math are never boring, boredom is merely a reflection on the person being bored.

[dave]

Hey it's a slow news day. So in your blog why don't you talk about udonis Haslem getting arrested and what the Heat should do. Is this really who the big three had in mind when they wanted to build a great team?

Blogger's note: I think he was in a car with a small amount of dope in it; I don't imagine his teammates really care all that much except to feel bad for the guy

[BB]

Any thoughts on ESPN picking the Raptors to finish last in the East? Do you agree?

Blogger's note: No, no thoughts at all, actually. Haven't really thought about end-of-season standings two months before the season starts. And probably won't until at the very least mid-October.