A sad day, and some good old TV lists

I’m pretty sure I’m going to need Super Son to play me some sax today.

RIP Big Man.

You’re joining a helluva band.

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Q: Hey Doug. I was wondering which scenario you find most challenging: Having to write a late game story with a tight deadline looming or having to scrounge for a quite off-day story? Why is it challenging?

I was also wondering in which circumstance do you find yourself writing your best?

 

 

 

Thanks,

Mich G, North Bay

A: Of those two options, I’d say I prefer the adrenaline rush and buzz you get from a tight deadline. It’s never easy to “craft” a nice story in those circumstances but it seems to come together rather quickly and as long as you have time to go back and massage what you wrote for another edition or the web, that works best.

The off-day stuff is sometimes hard because the tendency – one that’s tremendously hard to get away from – is to write about last night’s game instead of tomorrow’s and it’s a constant struggle. I think I probably need to plan stories a bit further out, figure out what off-day stories are entertaining and informative and far more proactive rather than reactive.

And I’m not sure if there’s one circumstance where anyone writes best, actually. Sometimes you hit it at a game, sometimes you hit it with a couple of days to develop some off-day theme.

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Q: Hi Doug. Saw some of the Raptors' Pre-Draft Workout coverage on NBA-TV and wondered about the Raptor personnel who were in attendance. With contracts still not finalized for some (all?) of them is this an awkward situation in any way? Was Jay in attendance? If not, who was in charge of running this whole thing? And do you get to see the workouts or is it similar to Raptors' practices where you have access to the players for just a few moments of media time at the end? Thanks!

Lorie P, London

A: It was quite surreal, actually. The entire staff from last year was there except for PJ, the only one who has a contract past this month. Read into that what you will, no one was talking but I don’t imagine it bodes well for his return.

Jay didn’t take part in any of the workout except to stand on the sideline in a sports coat and watch and it was a standard set of drills that would have been laid out by Bryan with input from the assistants, who did most of the work.

And, no, we didn’t see the whole thing, just the last 20 minutes or so (standard operating procedure) that was a handful of drills and very little one-on-one action.

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Q: I understand that you don't root for any 'team' during a game but rather you root for the 'story'. However, was the last NBA Finals an exception? The 'story' of this NBA finals (well at least the one that everyone wanted) was the failure of the Miami Heat/LeBron and to a lesser extent, the story of the never-quit Mavs. That's the story that was going to be most interesting and the one that most people were salivating for. Did you find yourself at all pulling for the Mavs ... or perhaps hoping that the Heat would collapse?

Aaron J, Markham

A: If that was the story then I was cheering for it; but you could also make the case that Miami winning would have been equally compelling.

So, no, it made no difference to me whatsoever.

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Q: Follow up question on the Summer of Doug, the Summer TV Version.

Combining your love of Lists and love of couch, do you have a top 5 list of Summer TV shows to pass away a rainy day? With the latest craze of TV Series on DVD and/or Netflix (I'm sure Super Son can explain how this works) going back and having marathon television show sessions is easier than ever. My nomination for you, if you haven't had a chance to catch it yet, is the show 'Burn Notice' on the USAToday network. It's a picture perfect Summer TV Show. It's the story of a burned CIA super agent that gets dropped in Miami beach and has to take up odd jobs helping people to earn a living. Combines great humor, great story, great action, great lovely ladies and enough cool Mojitos and brewskis to want to book a flight later this afternoon!

What would be your suggestions for some light TV Veg material, past or present?

 

 

 

Cheers!

Derek A, Fredericton

A: If by TV Vet material you mean night white noise where you don’t have to pay rapt attention I’ll give you the three old standbys:

Criminal Minds

Much better with Joe Mantegna than Mandy Patinkin. Not even close in my mind.

Law And Order

If you ever can catch an episode with Lenny Briscoe, it makes the day.

Rookie Blue

Totally under-rated and new. Have seen it on airplanes and understand it was a hit of last summer but I can watch a lot of it.

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Q: Hi Doug: Those of us "of a certain age" were blessed in that we were able to watch some excellent television growing up (the news was the only 'reality' TV). How about a list of your top five sit-coms from back in the day? That way, the young 'uns can buy the DVDs, and enjoy.

 

Thanks for all you do for all of us, irregular or not!

Tim H, Windsor

A: How far back you want to go?

If I could sit with a collected works of the following, I’d probably laugh all day; and in some cases be able to recite dialogue as well as the actors. A totally personal Top 5 list:

I Love Lucy

If I could find some vitameatavegamin to sell I might make enough to retire.

M*A*S*H*

Who doesn’t know a Frank Burns in their lives? Or want a Hotlips?

Green Acres

I always thought Arnold was an under-rated thespian and would love to climb a telephone poll to make a call.

Murphy Brown

Eldon might have been one of the cooler sidekicks and maybe got short shrift on that previous list.

WKPR In Cincinnati

Turkeys. Fly. And the age-old Jennifer-Bailey debate.

Now, if you want five more ‘cause you have extra time, I’d go with All In The Family, The Phil Silvers Show, News Radio, Night Court and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Enjoy.

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Q: Doug. Caught the tail end of your appearance on the FAN the other day and you were mentioning the need to change the culture around the team. Wondered if you could elaborate on that a bit please? Do you mean a more defense first mentality or is it an issue of work ethic, commitment to winning or something else.

Have a great summer and looking forward to staying in touch.

Dave M, Puslinch

A: Not sure it’s easy to define but I do think they could probably pay more attention to detail, maybe work a bit more in practice on defence and be a bit more consistent.

Look, I like the young group they’ve put together, I’m not entirely sure that a new coach can do more than the old one if the players don’t buy in or have the ability to improve. I do think as this group matures – it’s all young-20-somethigns who have no real clue what it takes to win consistently – it will get better. Maybe “change the culture” just means growing up. But it has to happen and I feel a bit confident it will with this young collection of talent.

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Q; Hey Doug. If one traces the history of the NBA, they'd find that it first began as a big man's league. Then in the 80s and 90s, it became all guard play and power forwards. Now it seems that versatile wings are key. What would you attribute that to? The evolution of coaching? Talent? And what do you think the next 'era' of the NBA will be. Thanks.

Mauro F, Hamilton

A: I think it’s as much the evolution of the human body as anything. We are seeing so many more guys who are 6-7, 6-8 6-9 with speed, leaping ability, shooting ability, ball-handling ability than ever before, and they play on the wings. Conversely, we see so few big, immobile, 7-footers so that aspect of the game is disappearing.

The next era? More of the same, I imagine. Only with bigger guys with more versatile skills, the 6-10 guys who are de facto point guards.

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Q: I don't know Dwane Casey, and I know you’re not that familiar with him either, but whom might we see as assistant coaches with him? Would you expect any of the previous crew to return, maybe Alex English?

 

As always, thanks

Steph R, Glencoe

A: I’ve become quite more familiar with him over the last two weeks, that’s for sure.

Anyway, there’s been no suggestion who might be on the staff with him; new head coaches tend to bring people they know with them to fill out the assistants’ jobs and I’m not sure there’s a relationship between Casey and any of the current assistants so it would be mildly surprising if many – or any – of them stuck.

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Q: Why do you think basketball has evolved with no minor league system while baseball and hockey do have minor league systems? Yes there is an expense, but you get to develop young players in the style and manner that suit your team. You do not have rely on a different organization that does not have 'your' player's development as a goal.

William S, Milton

A: it’s really apples and oranges for a couple of reasons: The length of time it takes player to develop is so much longer in hockey and baseball than basketball, I don’t think it’s necessary at all to have a “farm system.” And there is such a relatively low turnover year to year that to stock even one team with 12 or 13 prospects isn’t worth the effort.

I think the D League is a good idea in this regard: It provides high schoolers a chance to go play pro ball if they don’t want to go to college but as a developmental system for the NBA, it’s average at best.

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Q: Hey Doug. I know among the many things on your 'dislike' list (Air Canada, bad drivers, the plus/minus stats, etc.) 'speculation' and 'What-Ifs?' rank pretty highly. So if you could humour me for a bit, that would be great.

Say the Heroes grab a PG in the draft (Knight and Walker seem like pretty legitimate options), what does this mean for Calderon? The guy has been a great leader on bad teams for the prime of his career and as much as I believe the guy could help tremendously in ushering in the new starting PG, I think he could be a starter on a perennial playoff team if surrounded by the right cast.

Now for the speculation: we tried to do it last summer (and succeeded, sort of?), so would the Raptors be looking to move Calderon again? Off the top of my head, a team like the Lakers would love to insert him into their starting 5 if given the chance, and they certainly wouldn't be against shaking there roster up after their recent playoff collapse.

What do you think the chances are that a year from now we see Jose vying for a conference championship opposed to looking over his shoulder at the next kid trying to take his job?

 

 

 

Cheers!

Andrew P, Toronto

A: I see no reason at all to trade Calderon, never have. I think this team needs a veteran presence and he’s the oldest guy under contract if Barbosa opts out and the longest-serving player. I would be hugely wary of turning over a young team to a rookie point guard and Jerryd Bayless because that’s set up to fail.

Now, I do think he’d be a valuable player on a lot of other teams – you don’t think Miami would kill for him, along with a half-dozen teams – but I think they need him here as a mentor and a veteran.

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Q: Good day Doug! Assuming the following: 1) one star or superstar merely lifts a team from "mediocre" to "just out of playoffs", 2) the draft exists to help make teams better, 3) teams that miss on early draft picks feel that miss for several seasons after that, and 4) fans enjoy seeing good teams play. Anything wrong with these assumptions so far?

If these are valid, then wouldn't it be great if teams were allowed to draft two picks at a time, instead of making one pick and then waiting 29 (or whatever) spots for their next pick?

Picks are at some level hit and miss. If you give them two bullets, maybe they'll miss on both, but there's a pretty good chance that maybe they'll get one pick right. But if they get two stars out of those picks, then that team can build a great nucleus and add a solid supporting cast via free agency (given rookie salary scales. The team becomes relevant again, the fans win, the game wins.

Do the top teams really need pics 25-30? They're already top teams; let them have picks 50-60. Its not likely any rookies on those teams will get much of a chance anyways.

 

 

 

Looking forward to your thoughts (is this too whacky, why wouldn't it work, has this ever been discussed before, etc.)

Manuel L, Winnipeg

A: Actually, as I understand it, one very small aspect of one of the union’s proposals in the collective bargaining talks includes adding draft picks to non-playoff teams before playoff teams pick but since the draft is such a crapshoot after a handful of players each year, I’m not sure giving teams a chance to screw up twice would do anyone any good.

As for those 25-30 picks as opposed to 50-60? It’s guesswork for the most part anyway so I don’t know that it’d make a difference.

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Q: Hi Doug. I'm writing this evening to inquire about the Professional Basketball Writers Associaton. Are you still the residing president of the PBWA?

Is there anywhere I can learn more? The Wikipedia page was brief and its list of presidents only went as far as 2008.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Johnny S, Toronto

A: I am indeed, re-upped for two more years and am quite honoured by that, actually. It’s a fun job.

And outside of the Wiki page, not sure there’s much more to know. It’s a professional organization of about 150 or so members who cover the game for newspapers and websites and we act as a collective in pursuing issues with the league. We deal with things like access, seating at games, technical issues like wireless access, etc, arise. It’s pretty much a group that helps put out fires when they pop up.

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Q: Hi Doug, back around the time of the Kentucky Derby, you mentioned how much horse racing has become a non-event. Any chance there is a list of leagues / championships that have become irrelevant? I have two:

Boxing. I was never a fan, but it seems to be a victim of the narrow self interest of power-brokers in that sport.

 

 

 

Indy-Cart. Back in the 80's and into the 90's , these guys were monsters - Competition, Charisma, International Fans, ratings, merchandising, then BOOM.

Joe U, Markham

A: I’m pretty sure I had that list in a couple of weeks ago or so; yes, here it is.

And I need to add boxing to that. There are no good fights left, it seems.

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Q: Doug. A few days ago I went to the Drazen Petrovic museum in Zagreb and it was quite emotional I must admit. I am too young to remember him play, but I was wondering if you got a chance to interview him? In your opinion who are the top 5 Yugoslavian (or former) players of all time?

Graeme K, Dubrovnik, Croatia

A: Sadly, I didn’t see much of Petrovic, either, but people who did tell me he was special and played with a flair that few had. So, no, I never spoke to him.

Top 5? That’s tough because I’m not sure if you’re asking about guys who played for Yugoslavia or not.

So I’ll give you five who played for the Yugoslavian national team that were personal favourites. I will also preface this by saying I didn’t see that team play an awful lot and only caught up with some of the players after the split.

But I’ll go with Vlade Divac, Toni Kukoc, Peja Danilovic, and there a was a guy, Arijan Komazec that I liked an awful lot, not sure why but if memory serves, he could play. Oh and toss in Zarko Paspalj as another.

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Q: Hi Doug; just wanted to second your comment on Garbo. I had the opportunity to sit near the Raptor's bench for a few years and Garbo was a class act always willing to chat a little and he seemed like a great person. The other truly great guy was Rasho. I asked him once during a time out what was up with the "Gangsta" who was a little hyper as usual. His response "too much Red Bull!"

David M, Lakefield

A: I know there’s no question here but I felt the need for some vindication for my assertion that Rasho should find the Slovenian equivalent of the Catskills, change his name to Shecky Nesterovic and keep ‘em laughing for years.

Oh, and that the Gangster was too much.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[MJ Walk]

Would have to disagree on yout comments regarding horse racing and in particular "The Derby" being a non-event on the sports calendar in North America. The Derby would still rank in the top 5 of most important North American sports events. I believe this years crowd at Churchill Downs was an all-time record.
In Canada this might not be true as the media in general has somewhat ignored the sport. Very little if any coverage leading up to the event which is the recipe for declining numbers in any sport. The sport has also suffered from the lack of a triple crown threat for several years. Add a super horse like Seattle Slew to the mix and the numbers would be through the roof.
Like any sport the casual fan is swayed by what the media is talking or writing about.

[Cluck Kent]

Happy Father's Day Doug to you and all the irregular fathers out there. I hope you all have a nice relaxing day. Rasho was the man.

[doug]

Clarence left us a legacy of his music which will be with us forever..the E street Band without the Big Man will never be the same, I wonder if Bruce will tour again without Clarence?...and I agree with the above poster, the Kentucky Derby is still a huge deal what isn't is the Indy 500, greed killing a event, boxing, greed killing a sport...

[Jeff R]

Nice touch leading with a tip of the cap to Clarence.
Thank you.

[Blake Kennedy]

I'm at a loss as to how you can say starting Bayless or another PG is "set up to fail", when our last three years with Calderon as our starting PG has been nothing but a failure. How much worse could it be?

Blogger's note: Reading comprehension time: "Rookie" point guard and a young guy who's never done the job full-time. Guess some people just read what they want.

[pooks]

Thank you, someone else with some sense thinks that Criminal Minds, post-Gideon is waaaaaay better! The first 2 seasons the show just came across as trying too hard. I'd say more on this but there's only 5 hours until the next marathon on A&E.

Enjoy Father's Day Doug!

[Smalahove]

First Danny, now Clarence. A terrible loss. Thanks, Doug, for recognizing the significance of this unfortunate event.

Blogger's note: I remember Danny passed away just before Raps-Orlando playoff series and concerts in Fla. were cancelled

[LeeZ]

Murphy Brown??? Green Acres???? And you have them both ahead of All in the Family??? And what about the Dick Van Dyke Show, arguably the greatest sitcom of all time!!! And what about the Bob Newhart Show (the original)? Doug, I think the fumes from that new bbq are selectively interfering with that part of the brain that judges greatest sitcoms of all time! Speaking of which, what are Superwife and Superson cooking up for you today on the grill? Surely you can't be expected to make your own Father's Day dinner!

Blogger's note: Oh, no fear, I will not be cooking :)

[Turk in TO]

Peja Danilovic? Do you mean Peja Stojakovic?

[Bill]

Happy Father's Day Doug!

I have to agree that Burn Notice is a fantastic show! (others worth watching are Breaking Bad, Community, Friday Night Lights...FNL is the best show you've probably never seen)

[Lorie]

Clarence. Such sad news, but, oh the music he gave us: so many great memories with the E Street Band., But he worked with so many other musicians, too. Here he's performing with Joe Cocker. http://youtu.be/K1tFito9GXk And, here, with Jackson Browne http://youtu.be/knVbfhmME1g And finally, with Bruce and the band. http://youtu.be/KFAr2AbvvF8 Cheers, all. And, Big Man, thank you.

[saatuk]

Barney Miller. Best all-time sit-com IMHO.

[doug]

kudos to you for picking Green Acres...you know the Seinfeld episodes about Jerry and George pitching their show "about nothing"...well imagine what the meeting was like for pitching Green Acres, let's see we are going to take a high society lady from new york have her live in the country in a ramshackle house with her husband who wants to get back to a more simpler life and one of the main cast members will be a pig, yea right..but not only did it get the go-ahead it was a success, and one of the catchiest theme songs of all times....interesting enough Clarence's last video/live performance was in a just released Lady Gaga video and this live performance on Idol, good musicians don't limit their genre...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya8Oh9UIQV4

[Art H]

Barney Miller!!!

[Jacques]

Doug, So Yao becomes a free agent in a month. Do you think he returns?

Blogger's note: Yes

[RD]

Happy Fathers Day Doug!

Two shows that you may like are "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men". Absolutely amazing shows. Hopefully, you'll get a chance to watch them when you get some down time!

[Dave]

Doug:
Happy Father's day.

In reference to the history question and the versatility of players, do you think the influx of European players influenced this. I am under the impression that many US players were developed to play a position whereas the European came in with more all around skills. This has lead to the US high school and College coaches developing more all around players.

In reference to Drazen Petrovic, ESPN did a show in their "30 for 30" series called "They were once Brothers" that is about the Yugoslavia team with Vlad and Drazen and the impact of the war. I haven't quite finished it yet, but it is very good. I was able to access in on the interweb thingy.

[dave]

What about all time favourite tv sons?

bart simpson
richie cunningham
alex p. keaton
carlton banks

The last couple seasons the raptors have had no culture and no identity other than a losing records and losing an allstar in CB. One of the many reasons why Mark Cuban never wanted to trade Dirk away because of his (on/off court basketball) culture.

Assuming Raptors get their defensive guru man in Dwane Casey, I wonder if they would benefit from drafting a defensive terror in Bismack "B-Smack" Biyombo - because Casey would already improve the defensive mindset/schemes in the roster as it is anyway.

In that sense then, because Raptors could use the Guard help, Kemba Walker? Bottom line is: I'm so curious as to who they will draft.

Question: Do the Raptors also have the trade exemption $ from the Bosh to miami trade?

Thanks doug.

Blogger's note: Yes, just over $9 million

[David Phelan]

Hi Doug,

It is a sad day, indeed, with the passing og the Big Man. When I heard from my wife that he died, it felt like one of my best friends from childhood and my teenage years had died. That sinking feeling in my gut hit me big time. One of my biggest regrets is not having seen Springsteen and the E Street Band live and now I'll never get the chance to see CC play the sweetest sax ever. I can only imagine how the Boss is feeling with one of his best friends gone. It just won't be the same. RIP Big Man...