NBA really gets going and Leafs-Bruins, for a change

So, the gloves are off.

NBA general managers can start talking to agents this morning, players can start using team facilities on Thursday – with supervision by strength coaches and trainers, no assistants or head coaches or front-office personnel, wink-wink-nod-nod – because the league finally came to its senses.

Imagine what it would have been like here had they told everyone they had to wait until Dec. 9 to do everything?

Dwane Casey shows up for his real first day on the job to find he didn’t have enough guys to scrimmage since the HOTH only have nine guys under contract? George Karl gets to Denver where there are seven bodies? Yeah, right.

At least now, GMs can have an idea of what they want to do and guys they want to sign could decide to get to town next Wednesday or Thursday so they’re at least physically in their new cities for Day 1 of camp.

Makes total sense.

Now, what should Bryan be doing? Well, since I’m pretty sure I won’t get a call through at 9 a.m. today, here’s a suggestion.

(You’re welcome, Bryan; glad to help)

I think I’m going to go away from the application of the “things are linear” argument I advanced about the TOD and what Alex Anthopoulos has to do with his larger, more hole-filled roster.

I think Bryan needs to look for a small forward – a starter – because it’s so far and away the most glaring hole, it’s got to be filled.

I can live with four guards being Calderon, Bayless, DeRozan and Barbosa; and a frontcourt rotation of Bargnani, Davis and Amir Johnson isn’t too bad.

But the three?

James Johnson’s a backup, in my books; Kleiza’s not ready (cleared to run, likely not on the court for a month); I can’t see a scenario by which Julian Wright comes back and Sonny Weems is in Lithuania so …

Hole? Yes. Gaping? Indeed.

So, who?

Well, it’s a rather underwhelming group, actually, but it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t make some calls.

My four, in order:

Shane Battier

Maybe he wants to mentor some kids, maybe he likes the idea of a lot of playing time, maybe he wants to live close to home.

Andrei Kirilenko

Yes, he’s in Russia but as the one and only Chris Bernucca said on Sheridan’s site, his deal’s got more outs than the Red Sox in September. Maybe he wants a new challenge, maybe he likes the international feel of the roster and the city.

Mike Dunleavy

Could probably get him on the cheap coming off all those injuiries and I know he’s got some fans in the Toronto front office.

Tayshawn Prince

A better place to try and re-establish yourself as a key NBA player? Lots of chances to play, and score, and get your name out there on a short-term deal.

Who knows, maybe none of the calls are returned but why not make them?

Now, remember the context of all of this: They are in a building mode; Bryan has said repeatedly that he’d like to maybe wait, see how this truncated season plays out and make a big move next year; and there is a very good chance they do next to nothing significant and just add three or four guys as roster-fillers.

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Hmm.

I see by the screaming headlines in our paper, the Leaves and Bruins are playing down at the old icehouse tonight.

That hardly happens, eh?

Maybe it’s me but it feels like the Leafs play a 60-game round robin with Boston and Ottawa and a few other games just to make it interesting

I understand the need to build rivalries and all that jazz, and I understand some leagues wanting to make travel costs less burdensome but, really …

Doesn’t playing so many games against so few teams actually dilute things? Wouldn’t fewer mean better and even more anticipation?

I think fans deserve to see every team in the league at least once a season (yes, even in this bastardized NBA season, but that’s another story) but I guess that’s another thing I think that league poobahs don’t.

When will they ever learn?

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Looks like we’re talking.

Here at 1 p.m. for an hour or so; you should stop by, it’s wildly entertaining.

Oh, and since it’s Wednesday, we better start the weakly, er, weekly, plea for mail. Do it here. Thanks.

Oh, and if you go to the Facebook joint, you’ll see we’re doing a question a day over there sometime during the day; yesterday’s actually drew comments. Thanks.

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Total digression.

Okay, I don’t believe I’ve seen “everything” because every time I do think that something more utterly ridiculous than I ever thought imaginable comes up.

But if I see something that bothers me more than this story, I will be stunned.

It’s a tale of a Scottsdale, Ariz., gun club where – because it’s the holidays and all – kids and their parents can have their pictures taken with Santa – WHILE HOLDING EVERYTHING FROM PISTOLS TO ASSAULT RIFLES!!!!!!

My goodness.

Now, you want to hunt, hunt. You want to take target practice, take target practice, although I find that a little ridiculous.

But assault rifles? And kids? And Christmas? In Arizona of all places, given the carnage wrought there by a gun-wielding madman not too long ago.

That’s wrong on so many levels I don’t know where to start.

Anyway …

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So, I see the Vancouver Canadians won a rather prestigious award from highly-respected Baseball America (the story is here) and part of the reason is their nifty little park.

With all due respect to London’s Labatt Park, which is a great little stadium in its own right (except that that whole London Rippers thing), Nat Bailey’s like a piece of heaven with the view and the quaint feeling and the fun.

Of course, the game I saw at the Nat a few years back was about a 15-13, four-hour marathon and Super Son had to stick around until after the game to get a broken bat that I think we left in Vancouver so …

But it was also a few days after the trip to Forks, Wash., so it felt like it went by in a flash.

Anyway, since I don’t imagine Oakes Park got any awards (another anti-Niagara bias, I presume) I’m glad the Nat and the Canadians got some pub.

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Oh, yeah.

Traded tweet messages with Jose this week.

He’s – gasp!!! – been working out and is excited to head back here soon. Should be in town this weekend.

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Best QB year ever? Maybe. And it looks like Boston here we come

So I’m lying there watching Drew Brees drill the New York Football Giants last night (24-for-38 passing, 363 yards, four touchdowns) and you wonder.

(Here's the link to the video highlights)

Is this the best season for NFL quarterbacks – as a collective group – ever?

You’ve got Aaron Rodgers doing jaw-slackening things for the unbeaten Green Bay Packers. You’ve got Tom Brady being all Tom Brady up in New England and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Pats aren’t playing in the big game in Indy in February on his talents alone.

I still say Eli Manning doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves for his abilities – especially in the late stages of close games.

There are times Tony Romo looks all-world, Matt Schaub before he got hurt, Jay Cutler the same thing, Ben Roethlisberger’s had big games, so has Alex Smith.

And that’s not even mentioning Teee-boooowwwww!

Why?

Wish I knew for sure but we should relish in it.

For too long, the NFL was horribly boring in one man’s opinion, too much running, too much defence, too much staid old offence that took a lot of energy out of the games, and fun.

Now?

Now you sit down on a Sunday and someone’s going berserk with the ball in their hands. Scoring seems to be up – someone else can do the math, we know me and numbers – the number of fourth quarter comebacks is astounding to me and the pass-happy nature of some offences may not be CFL-esque, but it’s was better than it was.

Maybe it’s the changing of some rules that have given the quarterbacks less to think about; maybe wide receivers are just better than they were; maybe offensive coaches are designing better stuff in the merry-go-round world of coaching.

But it’s fun, isn’t it? We want our quarterbacks to be something of gunslingers, to air the ball out a lot, to go for the big play instead of settling for the easy one.

This year?

It’s happening. And it’s made it a fun season so far, especially for a guy who used to spend every NFL Sunday afternoon in some arena “watching” games on a computer.

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Hmm.

If, as I’ve been led to believe, geography will determine the home-and-home exhibition season we’re in for, looks like another trip to Boston is our future.

I know, Cleveland’s closer and so is Detroit but they have to play each other, New York gets New Jersey, Philly gets Washington and about all that’s left that makes sense is Toronto-Boston.

It was that way in 1999 – plus I recall they opened the regular season in Boston as well – and I guess it’s more by default than true geography but I’m okay with going to a great city (I can go see my man Red) that Porter flies to.

Oh, and if they dare charge a nickel for these games, I’ll lead the boycott.

They have to be free and I don’t care what kind of logistical nightmare that ends up being, if they make people pay for pretend games after a 149-day lockout, they deserve more wrath than you can imagine.

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Random thought of the day:

Dear You Know Who You Are

Mime’s are stupid. And not at all funny.

Signed, The Rest of Humankind.

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Hey, you guys ever see this crazy show The Sing Off?

Gaggles of a cappella singing groups in some sort of contest to see who can butcher songs the best?

(A friend told me about it, I watched some zillion-person choir do Paradise By The Dashboard Light and almost, well, let’s say we moved quickly to Saints-Giants).

I tell ya, there are far, far, far, far too many reality TV shows out there and I need to invent a channel that has nothing but Jeopardy, Seinfeld, and a variety of cop/law dramas).

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So the crazy Joe Kapp-Angelo Mosca thing isn’t going away.

You know the incident by now, the two 73-year-old former CFL greats get into a slugfest at some alumni thing at the Grey Cup? Classic comedy, to me.

You can see it here as part of Damien's stuff from Vancouver.

Anyway, not only did I see it on the opening segment of Monday Night Football – and if they are the arbiters of good sports stories, I don’t know who is – an e-mail arrives overnight from a buddy in the Jersey area that includes a link and a simple statement:

“It’s just a wacky league you’ve got up there.”

Indeed.

But think of the possibilities?

Maybe seniors slugging can replace poker or darts as some TV show?

Maybe they could juice up those boring old NHL oldtimers games by staging a couple of fights; not only would that add a new dimension, it might better approximate the real game.

Tours. Tickets. Merchandising. The possibilities are endless.

Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Angelo.

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Okay, so it’s pouring rain, Super Dog’s deathly a’scared, walk will have to wait although she keeps prancing by the desk until the door open and she cowers and I’m wondering when the first drip’s going to appear from the corner of the kitchen skylight.

Yeah, big morning ahead.

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My man Cathal’s got an interesting piece here today, all about the impact the Leaves being good might have on the Raptors, who have been ungood for quite some time.

First reaction? What? The Leafs are good?

Hmm. Didn’t see any pigs in the sky lately but haven’t been looking that closely.

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The schedule may be the biggest thing for Raptors

See that the barebones details of the NBA schedule are out – 48 games in the conference (six teams four times, eight teams three time) and 18 games against the west (three teams twice, 12 teams once) and if you’re the Raptors, what to do want?

You know you’re going to get the Atlantic Division opponents four times each and you’re anxious to see what Jersey and Philly do to improve themselves and I guess you hope the likes of Miami and Orlando fall in the category of teams you only play three times instead of four.

You’d like the group of fours to include, say, Cleveland, Detroit and maybe Charlotte but a lot’s going to depend on what those teams do in the free-agent frenzy that’s going to unfold starting Dec. 9.

Now, the West.

It’s a tough row to hoe regardless but if you’re going to have to miss six teams, you’d hope it would be, you know, the good ones, like the Lakers, Thunder, Mavs and, I guess, Spurs.

Now, if you’re me and you’ve got a very compressed schedule coming (with teams playing between one and three sets of back-to-back-to-back games you can bet the Raptors will have at least two), the big question is which of the six cities you don’t want to go to.

Sadly, that can’t include Cleveland but the six on my hit list for the west are: Sacramento, Houston, one of the trips to LA, Oakland, Salt Lake and, yikes, I can’t think of a sixth.

Anyway, no firm word on when the schedule will be out but by its unbalanced nature, it’s going to have a lot to do with how this season unfolds.

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Promised this to a lot of folks over the last couple of days.

Last week some day, we kind of chatted about best rock vocalist and had Freddy Mercury as a jumping off point.

Well, that list was exclusively male – I guess simply because that’s what I was thinking of, no snub intended – but on the distaff side …

If you were to give me a CD of five female “rock” singers I’d listen to ad nauseum, it’d be:

(And these are purely personal, I don’t have the technical knowledge of the talent to discuss range, vocal acuity, depth of talent, whatever; I know what I like, not sure why I like it; some may not be “rock” but those lines are too blurred)

Gotta have Aretha at the top of the list, no?

Then if you loaded me up, in no particular order, with Annie Lennox, Sarah McLaughlin and, well, how about Maria Carey, for the younger set.

Oh, and Pearl. Don’t ever forget Janis

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Told you to take the Lions, didn’t I?

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So, the NBL.

Know what, it’s not bad at all.

Not sure if I knew what to expect before the trek to Oshawa but the game is played at a good speed, lots of talent, not a whole lot of big guys so it’s a bit different than the NBA and I’d say it’d fit in the middle tier of European leagues; certainly not Spain, or Greece, or Turkey or one of the top ones but certainly as good as the lower tier.

The visit was to gather information for an omnibus story later on this week so I’ve got to keep some of it to myself at the moment but suffice it to say it was a good experience.

Game ops were a bit, well, a bit NBAish and maybe that’s one place things can change but for the quality of the game, the price of the tickets and the overall experience?

I’d go if I lived in one of the league cities, and you should, too.

Of course, I haven’t been to another game – yes, London is absolutely on the list – so there isn’t a weath of experience to draw on but, overall, a solid night.

Oh, and I see my man Mike Evans is back! He got the gig coaching the Moncton Miracles on the weekend – the former coach had to bail for family reasons – and if there’s a better, more genuine guy I’ve come across in the league than Mike when he worked for Sam, I can’t imagine who it is.

Someone in Moncton say hi for me, please.

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Know what I don’t get?

Dudes sitting on stools in public houses screaming at the TV when a call or a play goes against their team.

I can see it, maybe, if you’re with a group of buddies and some pivotal moment in a game arrives.

I do not see it sitting by yourself in a half-empty saloon.

Sorry.

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Okay, kind of went off on this a bit last night at the start of the Grey Cup but some of you might not have seen or read it.

How in the world does a minister of the Crown, the minister of defence, arrive at a national event like that, flanked by two honoured members of our armed forces while others present the flag IN BLUE JEANS!!!!

Yep, Peter McKay, in jeans, standing there looking all goofy.

It’s not cool. It’s not hip. It’s not a message that, ‘yeah, I’m a big shot politician but I can look like a regular Joe.”

It’s disrespectful. To the men and women who serve our country. To the country. I don’t care if you’re Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green, Libertarian, Communist or whatever, that’s just wrong and his advisers should have known it.

Now, I don’t expect white tie and tails.

What I do expect, if McKay was going to go casual, was slacks, a jacket and, while no tie is necessary, it would have been good.

Yeah, there’s not too much that gets me going. Disrespecting the national anthem and the armed forces would be two of them.

Dope.

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Best part of yesterday?

Texting with a guy I know who knows a lot about the Raptors and is pretty close to the organization and talking about – ta-da! – basketball.

Whether or not they’ll use this amnesty clause on anyone.

No.

What we think of Leandro Barbosa on this team.

Jason Terry?

(Speaking of Barbosa, I read a handful of tweets from him today letting us know it’s his birthday. Happy birthday!)

Who might start at small forward.

I’m guessing James Johnson by default unless Bryan makes some move.

What they might like to do defensively.

Think KO without the craziness.

Yeah, it was fun. And got me a tad pumped for Dec. 9.

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So the phone starts buzzing and the bbms and texts start rolling in around 4:30 a.m. Saturday with news that the NBA’s back and, rubbing the sleep from the eyes, one of the first questions:

Hmm, what’s it mean for me. And you.

As you know, we’ve kind of branched out here a little bit since the game went away and the summer arrived. We’ve got the Facebook thingy (go here and like it, would you, I could use the love), far more pop culture than we used to have and a whole bunch of other sports.

And you seem to like it so I think we’ll keep doing the other stuff with a relatively heavy bent on the Raptors after Dec. 9, okay? Yes, there’ll still be IGBT all the time, question-and-answer things and I have to come up with some video component but I kind of like doing the other stuff a bit so it’s not going away.

Sound ok?

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The end of the (busy) weekend mail

All right folks, after a rather busy Saturday, here’s the Sunday stuff.

A few left over; promise I’ll get to most of ‘em during the week but you’ve done well here.

Enjoy.

Oh, and take the Lions tonight. Trus me.

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Q: Hello Doug, The other day you offered a top five list of rock singers. The 'category' seemed to indicate male, so, to balance the theme properly, how about your top five females? And an aside: Do you see any chance that Linas Kleiza plays this season? Thank you!

David M, Ottawa

A: I’ve got the women on the list for tomorrow – was not an intended slight at all last week – so all I can ask is that you wait a day.

I had been told about a week ago that Linas was thinking about joining a team in Lithuania for the duration of the lockout, his rehab was supposed to be wrapped up about now for a return to on-court work so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he wasn’t in camp the day it opened. What he’ll look like when he gets there is anyone’s guess at the moment.

But, yes, I expect him to play.

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Q: Hey Doug: As a sports reporter, you've had the opportunity to travel the world. In light of that, two questions:

What place in the world have you not seen, that you really would like to see?

Of all the places you've been, what's the best 'thing' you've had the opportunity to see/visit/etc.? (Watering holes can be included!)

Thanks again for all you do for us - you will probably be on the Forbes list nest year for all the overtime pay you get ;)

Tim H, Windsor

A: I have had so many opportunities that I’m so thankful for that it’s crazy. Life, in that regard, has been exceptional.

I don’t know how this would ever happen but I think I’d like to cover something in Israel, or Russia, two places that intrigue me that I’ve never had the chance to see. Not sure why, but that’s what’s in my mind as I type; it could change tomorrow because that’s how I am.

The three things I’ve had a chance to see that are indelibly etched in the mind?

The Great Wall of China, thanks to the Beijing Olympics.

Sagrada Familia, the great unfinished Gaudi cathedral in Barcelona, thanks to the 1992 Games.

And, you had to know this was coming, but even with all the majesty of the things we saw in Rome and Venice, I can’t wait for the 2012 Olympics so I can get back to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, the 1860s pub in London where Dickens hung out that I saw last March. Yeah, I know …

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Q: Hey Doug: How about a basketball-related question? If you were the Commissioner of the NBL (instead of a Windsorite - yaah!!), and had to expand the league into two new cities next season, where would you go?

BTW, the new name for the Blog is OK (although, as I type this, the top of the pager says "Send Doug Smith your Raptors questions" - I feel like I'm not following the rules!), but I think it should be "Doug Smith's AEHEMI Blog" (All-Encompassing, Highly Entertaining, Most Informative)!

Tim H, Windsor

A: Was having a chat with some folks about that very NBL issue the other night when I was out in Oshawa (a full report’s coming as part of a big takeout on the league) and my point was I think they need some more Ontario penetration at the moment.

Now, I don’t profess to know the arena situations in either city but I don’t imagine that’d be a huge problem so my two choices – and these honestly were on the table before I saw this question – would be Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor.

More rivals for Oshawa and London, two very good, under-served basketball markets with strong local sports histories.

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Q: Hi Doug. After reading the story about the 51 year old fellow that was signed as an emergency back up for the Minnesota Wild the other day, I got to thinking:

If you could be a professional athlete and participate, for one day/evening, in one sporting event, what would you chose to do and why?

Going back in time, if you could be any athlete from the present or past for one sporting event, whom would you chose and, from that person's sporting career, what would you choose to experience and why?

For question 1, I'd choose to be the starting pitcher in game 7 of the World Series or the staring goaltender in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs simply because you can, to a certain degree, affect the outcome of the game.

For question 2, I'd have chosen to be Jesse Owens competing in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin just to see how people's views/tolerance of others may have changed following Owens brilliant performance during those games.

Thanks Doug.

Joe D, Mississauga

A: This may sound a bit odd coming from a rather slovenly 50-something grunt but I’d love to be a favourite in an Olympic 100 metre final. The adrenaline, the crowd, the anticipation, it’d be very, very, very cool.

Any athlete? Yikes. That’s virtually impossible, isn’t it? So much to choose from.

How about Ali in his first fight back after his banishment. World-changing, to some degree, about to strike a blow – literally – for an emerging group of people.

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Q: Hi Doug. T.O. (heart) Reggie. Do you think Colangelo will re-sign him?

K J, Toronto

A: Oh, I can feel the love, and yours is a representative question for a lot of people who send in basically the same one.

I would think – on a team that could use a big – that if they could get Reggie at an agreeable price (he was over $5 million last season, I think there has to be at least a little cut involved) on a two-year deal, they’d probably do it. He would seem to have the attributes Dwane Casey would like and I had to think of him as a space-saver but if you know Valanciunas is coming next year and like what you see in him, I’m not entirely sure anything longer than two years to sign someone like Reggie makes much sense.

So, I think they’ll try to re-sign him, I know Reggie likes it here for a variety of reasons. It will depend a lot on what, if any, other offers are out there.

NBA deal reached, season starts Christmas Day

After months of sometimes rancorous debate and argument, the NBA and its players have settled their lockout and an abbreviated season will begin Christmas Day.

The final resolution to a lockout the league imposed July 1 came in the wee hours of Saturday after a final 15-hour bargaining marathon in New York and ends the first work stoppage in the league in more than a decade.

A 66-game regular season – down from the usual 82 – is expected to begin Christmas Day with training camps to open Dec. 9. The deal is “was subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we're optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25,” commissioner David Stern told reporters in New York after the handshake agreement was reached.

According to several published reports, the final agreement has a little bit for each side to sell to its constituents when ratification votes are held in the next week or so.

The deal is for 10 years, according to reports, with either side able to opt out of it after six.

The league and players will split the Basketball Related Income - the pot of money from such things as ticket sales, TV deals, concessions, sponsorships and licensing agreements that determines how much cash is available for salaries – 50-50 after the players received 57 per cent of it in the prior agreement.

Free agency remains, with a few changes but guaranteed contracts for the players remain and there are few limits on the total value of contracts and the ability of players to move from one team to another.

"We thought it was in both of our interest to try to reach a resolution and save the game and to be able to provide the kind of superb entertainment the NBA historically has provided,” said Billy Hunter, the head of the former NBA Players Association, which had disbanded about a week ago in a last-gasp attempt to force the lockout into the legal system and spur a quicker resolution.

The union will re-form in the next few days to vote on ratification of the deal.

For the Raptors, a shortened training camp and pre-season (it’s expected each team will play about two exhibition games rather than the usual eight) may make it difficult to get off to a quick start.

With new coach in Dwane Casey trying to resurrect the fortunes of a team that’s coming off a 21-61 season, and a host of new players – the team has only 10 players under contract on a roster that can go to 15 – finding a quick level of cohesion may be difficult.

A bit more to know before I take a break

Okay, one last shot at some compelling questions and plausible answers before I take my leave for a bit.

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So what do the Raptors think of all this?

Sounds of silence.

League is frowning on – and probably threatening fines against – anyone connected with a team’s front office from uttering anything on the record until the deal is officially signed.

That means we’re not going to get to hear Bryan on the roster or Dwane on the system for a few days at least, although you can be pretty sure the GM is scouring the free agent roles and chatting to his colleagues and that the coach and his staff are bleary-eyed from watching video.

The players? Well, they seem pumped, at least one of the more prolific “tweeters” among the bunch, DeMar DeRozan.

“I’m starting to have anxiety attacks. Lol”

The younger crowd tells me “lol” means “laugh out loud.” Oh, you nutty younger crowd, you and your use of the language!

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What’s still to be done?

Well, there are a host of “B List” items that have to be worked out, things like minimum age, drug testing, rookie salary scale, player discipline, demotions to the D League but they shouldn’t hold up any ratification.

But they will take time, which is why Dec. 9 looms as the day to hit the ground running.

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Winners, losers?

Fans, for sure. Arena workers, people with businesses near arenas, all the folks the league and union forgot about it.

But of the two main sides, owners probably got more than the players in the drop in BRI from 57-43 in favour of players to 50-50 and a harsher luxury tax that probably means teams won’t as willingly spend themselves to contention.

But the players kept their guaranteed deals, got free agency to remain pretty much the same, took a slight haircut on the mid-level extension but it still exists and didn’t miss too many paycheques.

Forced to pick a winner? Go with the owners.

But, it’s funny, no matter how horrible deals ever look for players’ associations, salaries don’t ever really go down.

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But what about these “charity” games?

All of us, right now, should be on bended knee, eyes closed, hands clasped, thanking whatever deity it is we worship (Saint Stella? Father Ribeye? Pastor Pasta?) that we won’t have to put up with them until the next time anyone mentions the Drew League again. Hopefully never.

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And finally

What happens to the 2012 draft?

Draft, schmaft. Who cares?

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Okay, time to hit the road for a couple of hours, got some Niagara Falls visiting to do; we’ll be back with a big old main story for the paper and some fun stuff here much later this afternoon.

 

 

A few NBA questions to be answered; to start at least

What is this “NBA” of which you speak?

Oh, right. Squeak, squeak, swish, swish, miss playoff, miss playoffs.

Anyway …

You have all kinds of questions, I’m sure. I can bluff my way through a bunch of answers right now and I’m sure there’ll be more here throughout the day.

(An aside: Yes, it’s nice to have the HOTH – Heroes of the Hardcourt – to chat about again. Welcome back.)

 

So, when’s it all start?

All indications are a Dec. 9 start to training camp and the free agency period but there’s a small chance at least the opportunity to get guys signed could move up a few days.

Imagine a coach showing up to run training camp when there’s still free agents coming and going. I know coaches, they would be miffed.

The Christmas Day season start is a lock; I imagine it’ll be the three big marquee games – Miami at Dallas (so LeBron can watch Dirk get his ring), Boston-New York (gotta have New York, right) and Chicago-Lakers (gotta have Lakers, right?)

The Raptors? Bet on a Boxing Day start but I have no clue where.

 

Who are these guys?

The Raptors? Let me see if I can remember.

There are 10 of them under contract: Jose Calderon, DeMar DeRozan, James Johnson, Andrea Bargnani, Amir Johnson, Ed Davis, Leandro Barbosa, Jerryd Bayless, Linas Kleiza and Solomon Alabi.

Reggie Evans, Julian Wright, Joey Dorsey and Alexis Ajinca are free agents – all unrestricted – while Sonny Weems is going to Lithuania for the season and won’t be back.

Oh, and the first-round draft pick, Jonas Valanciunas, won’t be here; and now there’s NBA games, I might not get to go see him and that’s kind of a disappointment.

 

Will they all be back?

Can’t imagine why not.

There is apparently an amnesty clause in the new deal which would allow teams to get out from under one odorous contract. Raps are going to be fairly far under the cap as it is, it’s a young group the GM likes so don’t see him using it. If he did, I’d take a long look at Barbosa or Kleiza; but that’s just me.

 

Will they add anyone?

Oh for sure. Who is the big question.

They need a starting small forward, a backup swingman and at another big, at least. No clue from Bryan who’d be on the top of his wish list (he’s a tad secretive that way) but if he can pick up an amnesty’d guy on the cheap, bet he does it.

He did warn one day we were talking to him this fall that he might not go big right away, preferring to let this group grow a wee bit and being judicious with his spending.

Which, of course, likely means 20-guy, four-team, double-sign-and-trade thing is in the works.

 

What else is new?

Well, Super Dog’s bugging me for a walk. And I’m a bit peckish.

So I’ll get out of here for a moment, try to catch my breath a bit, grab a bite of brunch and be back with some more fun stuff later on.

 

 

 

Weekend mail starts, NBA is back and The Band? Doesn't get better

Good morning. Anything new?

Yes, this Saturday offering a little bit shorter than usual but I figure the hour I was going to spend at 6 a.m. was best spent digesting the new NBA CBA because I smell a work-filled day ahead.

Anyway, have at this, there’ll be lots of other Raptors/NBA stuff coming down during the day – thankfully all that’s planned is a quick trip to Niagara, the leaves can wait – and if there’s something pressing on your mind, here’s how you can get in on tomorrow’s fun.

Click. Write. Send.

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Q: Hey Doug! A hypothetical question for you: Assuming there is an NBA season this year, will the players the players receive their full annual salary, or will it be prorated? Is that something that would be covered under the new CBA? If so, might it be one of the sticking points?

Thanks Doug!

Tim H, Windsor

A: It’ll be pro-rated now that 16 regular season games have been lost. And that’s part of what the owners’ strategy seems to have been, wait out players and cost them real money.

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Q: Hey Doug. As a professional journalist - and I hope this question won't tick off any TFs - is there a publication that you have always dreamed of writing for? Let's qualify this as a "guest appearance" rather than a full-time gig. As a wordy/worldly Grunt of a Certain Vintage, I could see you covering some pretty far-out sports/culture subjects for an outfit like Time or National Geographic. Do writers hold these international heavyweight publications in high esteem or is it just another gig?

Maybe there's something there for you to work with.

Cheers!

Andrew P, Toronto

A: I think most newspaper writers look longingly at some big publications and which they had the space, and time, to do relatively long-form journalism.

Personally, I grew up wanting to write one of those long-form items that used to anchor the back of Sports Illustrated but now, in my dotage, I would love to have the talent, and opportunity, to do something for The New Yorker. Don’t have either but ‘tis to dream.

That’d be about the only one on my list but I do cast a furtive eye toward Grantland every now and then.

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Pardon the musical interlude.

Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of The Last Waltz and I’m not sure (a) there’s been a better music documentary or (b) how in the world people can’t love this music.

Anyway …

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Q: Doug. I am missing my Raptors basketball fix and am now in Raptors withdrawal. Found myself watching a bad show last night about people bidding on stuff from storage lockers! Are there any TV shows you are watching that fill your "Raptors withdrawal" you might recommend?

John M, Halifax

A: Storage Wars! My goodness, my good man, you need to make that piece of reality crap go away. But, sadly, the more time I spend on the couch with clicker in hand, the more I hear Newton Minnow in my ear (google him and TV, would you?) because there is very little on.

Right now, as I look up, there’s a cooking show, French Food At Home, that’s got a nifty veal-in-a-white-cream-sauce recipe. Other than that, there is no “destination viewing” in my life, to tell you the truth.

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Q: Hey Doug, Is the proposed 66 game season long enough to remove the looming asterisk from beside the names of this year's eventual champions (that is of course if the heavenly and earthly stars align and grant us a season)? BTW, I just bought London Lightning courtside tickets for 60 bucks. Courtside! to watch a non-rebounding, defensively challenged, high octane offense. It kind of reminded me of a huberus free version of another team that I could never afford to see courtside.

Rob N, London

A: I think 66 games will be a representative season; in fact, I think 60 might do the trick. Sure, there will be those who discount it – as many did in the Spurs title in the 50-game season of 1999 – but I would presume those would be people who don’t win.

I understand Lightning games are quite fun; and sure sounds like affordable entertainment.

The Grey Cup is ours and we don't have much; embrace it

There are very few things in the sporting world at the truly and uniquely Canadian.

Sure, we get jazzed about the Olympics every couple of years in the “us against the world” kind of way and we remain the only country on the planet that pays rapt attention to teenaged holiday pucks and every now and then a team of some sort catches our imagination for a while, again as much for its competition against the rest of the world.

But for solely Canadian?

I’ve got the Grey Cup and nothing else.

The big game goes Sunday – B.C. at home against Winnipeg and we’ve long given up the West-East nature of the thing, I guess – and I’m wondering if many – or any – of you care.

You should. Really.

Yes, there are American players who’ll dominate the game and it’s not the quaint celebration of a unique brand of gridiron we call our own but it is Canadian at its heart.

Our game. Our rules. Our cities. Our celebration of the only league (sorry NBL) that doesn’t bow to the whims of American Lords and master and television networks.

In various incarnations, I’ve been able to attend Grey Cups in Ottawa, Hamilton, Winnipeg and Calgary along with Toronto over the years.

Each has been fun in its own way, most have been truly compelling games, each had an energy to it that was, again, uniquely Canadian.

Just because, right now, the Argos and CFL are so far off the radar here really shouldn’t matter all that much, there are huge pockets of fans coast-to-coast who will plan parties, debate players, watch intently and I can practically guarantee you they’ll have fun.

Way back in the day, on a street in a city by a border that had among its residents a couple of families where Dads worked in the States (hello, Barky and Bags), there used to be a lot of give-and-take about the relative merits of Le Coupe Grey Cup each November. There’d always be some good-natured mocking but there’d always be a party and everyone would appreciate, for a day at least, what the CFL was to the fabric of the country.

Those days are gone, lost amid the glut of sports on TV, the Americanization of the athletic events we pay attention to. But the Grey Cup is still “ours” and that’s not a bad thing.

Give it a shot, even here in the centre of the universe.

Oh yeah, I’m sorry, Coach Steve. This’ll break your Double Blue heart but it does harken back to a time when the team here mattered, doesn’t it?

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So the NBL’s in the news (story’s here, if you haven’t already seen it) with a first commissioner.

Now, I don’t know John Kennedy from Adam (no, I didn’t ask him if his middle name was Fitzgerald) but it strikes me that the league fathers again got it right in hiring the sports/business exec as the first overseer of the league.

It doesn’t seem he’ll be the one to impost any huge amount of basketball dictum on the seven teams in the league’s first year, which is fine. If Kennedy can make some business deals that bring in some sponsorship dollars and raise the profile of the league – the first thing he said about some kind of TV deal had to be music to the fans’ ears – he will have more than done his job.

I’m not sure how each of the teams is doing in its own market with its own media but anything more would be a huge boost.

And in keeping with the idea that the NBL needs to start in precisely the right markets, the idea of striking a series of regional business deals with a national company – think car, credit card, soft drink company with branches in Eastern Canada, Quebec and Ontario that are autonomous yet under one huge umbrella – makes entire sense to me.

As you know, I think the NBL guys and gals are doing a good job for the most part and hope they thrive. Seems this is a step in the right direction.

Speakng of …

Help, people to the east of me.

There’s a very good chance I’ll be wandering aimlessly around the GM Centre in Oshawa tonight before the big Power game (yes, we listened) and I could use a good restaurant recommendation near the arena if the 401’s not the mess I expect it to be and I’m there way early.

Appreciate it.

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How in the world I missed this yesterday is beyond me.

So, RIP Freddy Mercury, who died 20 years and one day ago and generally tops the list – or is in the top two or three – as the most talented pure singers in rock history.

Is he?

I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest of Queen fans growing up, music was good but it wasn’t one of those bands you “had” to listen to all the time.

But there is no doubting Mercury’s singing chops, is there?

Would he be No. 1 in your mind?

I’d probably have him up there with Robert Plant, Burton Cummings, John Lennon and Bono. Does that make a good Top 5?

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Mail. Please. Now. Serious issues with the number of questions this week, I can only hope you’ve been holding out for the last minute warning.

Thanks.

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Total digression but if I hear one more Canadian store refer to today as Black Friday and offer untold sales and specials because it’s American Thanksgiving, I may barf.

Or perhaps boycott them. This is their in the States day. Let ‘em have it.

-

 

 

Me and my friend 8-ball dissect Thanksgiving football

Oh boy.

Never mind live turkey, Mr. 8-ball, I think you should have brought some Wild Turkey for the holiday. After all, nothing spices up the old family-sit-around-and-remember-why-you-don’t-see-each-other-for-364-days-a-year afternoon than solid intoxicants.

Anyway, Tall Foreheads figure I need to keep you in line throughout the day so …

You sayeth:

It’s a wonder the Lions agree to play this game every year — they’re 4-27 all-time on U.S. Thanksgiving. However, the last team they beat on turkey day was Green Bay. Eight years ago. Not quite the same thing. Packers (-6.5)

I sayeth:

Are you high?

Yes, I know it’s early and, sure, the Packers are covering right now but if the sissy Lions had actually, you know, tried to score some points in those final two possessions rather than taking the air out of the ball and lying down … well, we might be having a different conversation.

But apparently not. Holy Bat-meldown, Batman. Never seen a team self-destruct quite like those Detroits did in the 27-15 loss.

I’m all about the Lions today, kid. After all, I actually attended a Lions Thanksgiving Day game as a fan – back in the old Silverdome days and I seem to recall they beat the Bills so I’ve got some history.

(Thanks, google, was 1994, Lions win)

As an aside: Did you see the tackle after the catch Calvin Johnson made when his helmet came off? How many of you always wonder if there’s a head in it when that happens?

Yeah, I do.

Oh, and did you see the wee fracas near the end of the half?

Is there anything more stupid in all of sports than football players – with all that gladiator equipment – fighting? Really.

See you – and perchance rip you – after the game.

Now I'm off to watch me some Nickelback. They any good?

Oops.

Guess all that Lion love was unrequited. Nice composure, nice antics, nice quarterbacking.

Seriously, did that Suh dude really stomp on the guy’s arm?

‘Cause he was, you know, blocked?

If you’ve got dopes like that pulling punk moves like that – as if there were no cameras that were going to catch it – you deserve to lose.

Yes, he most certainly did and the guy named “dirtiest player in the league” in one of those silly surveys lives up to the billing.

So I bow to 8-ball’s superior intelligence; the Packers are indeed all that and a bag of chips. Helps with the other team throws in a measure of self-destruction but, still …

And Aaron Rodgers is quite good, no?

Oh yeah, Nickleback is, um, underwhelming.

Guess there was no one from Detroit – not a band, a person, a bunch of kids from the neighbourhood – they could have hired, a point also raised by the one and only Jalen Rose.

Yeah, that’s Detroit. Musical wasteland. May as well find a so-so Canadian band.

Next up? I’ve got the Cowboys, big time, over the Dolphins.

 Cowboys fans get a glimpse at Lord Stanley's chalice. PHOTO BY DAVE FESCHUK

 

And on to Game 2

 

Okay, okay, okay.

You are the smartest inanimate object I know – and that’s mainly because I saw Super Dog move once (she was going after a treat).

You sayeth

It’s not that we do believe in Miami’s three-game win streak. It’s that we don’t believe in Tony Romo in a showpiece game.

Miami (+7)

I sayeth (so far and it is only halftime)

This is a dog of a game. A pooch. A waste of a couple of hours so far. Matt Moore looks like, well, Matt Moore and Tony Romo gave up his Tony Orlando imitation just before the half, courtesy of, um, Matt Moore. And I believe I just saw our Dolphin-loving fan of a boss slam his video camera to the floor on his way out of the afternoon news meeting.

(Okay, that’s lie. You and I both know I go near the office only on the penalty of death because one time I was there a couple of weeks ago and I had no chair, no internet connection and some dude from entertainment was sitting at his desk sleeping and snoring like Otis from the Andy Griffith Show).

Romo, you say? Well, he’s doing his best Tebow, isn’t he? Just ugly enough to be effective.

But again we caution: There’s lots of time left and if the second half is as riveting as the first, I’m pretty sure I’ll nap and you should tell me what happened.

If this was the NCAA, this would be that LSU-Alabama Game Of The Century. And we know how that worked out, don’t we?

Enrique Iglesias? Oh, how I hate halftimes of big TV games.

Arrgggghhh!!

Tony Tebow, er Tim Romo, ah, Tony Romo throws two interceptions in the first quarter and you’re looking like a genius.

Then he pulls out a win with a pretty good final drive and you get the win when the Dolphins cover.

How do you do this?

I hope you OD on tryptophan tonight and sleep through the weekend because you’re going to be insufferable if you have a good Sunday.

Forget that the Dolphins looked like the Dolphins at times (breath a sigh of relief Buffalonians, your Bills might not now finish last in the AFC East), the Cowboys played well when they had to and all of a sudden doesn’t the NFC East look a whole lot more interesting.

No Leon Lett memories, either.

But five lead changes, a pretty exciting second half and it kind of bailed out a long afternoon in front of the TV, didn’t it?

That’ll be it for me now, I know when I’m licked. I’ll watch Harbaugh-Harbaugh for a bit but 5 a.m. comes early and I know I’m going to have nightmares of you laughing at me.

Wearing this: