The start of the weekend mail

Not bad, ladies and gentlemen, a late flurry even with a down website helped get this to a manageable size.

Got a few left for tomorrow but could always use more.

You all know the drill, right.

Think I’m going to coast a bit this morning; have a feature to write for Monday, a cold and cough to beat off and a practice to go to.

So enjoy and we’ll be back in the morning.

‘Twas a pretty game Friday, no? -

Q: Thanks for your blog. As a bb fan living in Pacifica, news of the Raptors is rare. So, thanks.

And thanks again, for explain what TOD means. I've been frustrated because I've missed other definitions. HOTH? Hated Other Team? Could you occasionally tell us newer readers what they all mean?

Beverley G, Vancouver

A: Heroes Of The Hardcourt.

And we’ve only got a couple of other regular ones like He Who Shall Not Be Named (guy who used to wear No. 15 here; not Garbo) and Dancing With The Stars.

If we develop more, I’ll let you.

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Oh yeah.

It was Mr. Rick who did the shutterbug duties on Friday night; here are the fruits of his labour.

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Q: Greetings, so I am curious, for those of us that haven't followed basketball for a long period of time, haven't really played the game, whether history will rate Dwane as an exceptionally talented coach? Even acknowledging the "coaches get to much blame....and credit..." the HOTH have actually been surprisingly competitive beyond what I imagine the expectation was for them in their front office.

Perhaps Dwane is just "in the right place at the right time" or can we accept that he was an enlightened hire? I am not suggesting that anyone else be deemed deficient just that there seems to be more of a focus and a plan this year leaving me with the thought that it must be coming from the coach's office. Certainly BC and his staff share in this as they have placed the players but oncourt success starts with the team and its game night guidance, hence the coaching contributions.

As always thanks for what you do,

Doug T, Brantford

PS: from experience, six kids between two years and thirty (and three! grandkids) a parent's involvement never ends it simply changes as the years go on. Super Son will always have a need for you and one day you may have more of a need for him. Just remember one thing in all dealings with your kids, one day they may be in charge of your Depends.

A: I think what Dwane has that makes him stand out is a personality that says, “Hey, follow me. I know where I’m going” and it instills confidence in those around him. I think his background oozes success and demands respect and I think getting off to a pretty good start showed the players that the lessons he was preaching would work.

I still think coaches get too much blame when things go wrong and too much credit when things go right; but we are seeing a group respond in the best possible way.

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Q: Hey Doug, love your blog. I check it everyday for my HOTH updates. What's your opinion of Greg Oden? Injuries truly have sucked for the poor guy but there is a 7 foot talent there when healthy. I think it would smart for the raptors to chase him. And I think a position on a rebuilding raptors squad could benefit his career as well. Rumours reported Pacers but why go where Hibbert plays big minutes? Colangelo loves first round picks and i think this one makes good sense. Whatcha think? Thanks.

Blake J, Trenton

A: Sorry, I think it makes no sense whatsoever unless – if and when Oden can show any semblance of health – you can get him on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal. Even then, is he better than Bargnani? Or better than Valanciunas? Can’t say can we? So stick with what you’ve got.

Now, I feel terrible for the kid that his knees have betrayed him so much but there’s no indication it’ll ever be different. I wonder if he’ll play another NBA game ever.

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Q: Hi Doug. How about some news on the Regend?

N B, Toronto

A: Not really much to report and I haven’t seen him in a while but he’s playing a few minutes each night, anywhere from eight to 15 or 16 and doing his usual good job of getting his team extra possessions. Oh, and he was fined $35,000 by the NBA Friday for making an obscene gesture during a game; something about a middle finger.

Other than that it’s same old, same old although I did hear this week that he’s looking for a new agent.

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Q: Hi Doug. Any bounties in basketball or baseball that you have ever heard about?

Kevin M, Maple

A: Never, actually, at least not the NFL style.

Of course, we know that pitchers will throw at a guy and a guy will take a hard foul but that’s more to do with a specific game than any team-sanctioned “bounty” for taking someone out of a game.

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Q: Why did they let Rasual Butler go? Seemed like it came out of the blue, and there wasn't much media coverage of it that I saw.

Graham V, Vancouver

A: There was enough media coverage because I pretty much chalked it up to “guy who can’t play, won’t.”

He was released mostly because he wasn’t playing and wouldn’t and they thought they’d give him a chance to see if he could catch on with some other team. That didn’t work out too well although he did have some sniffs, I’m told.

The Goods On The Game, Heat at Raptors

It would appear all's good with our website now.

Let's hope it stays that way.

Is the Heat hype dying down just a bit?

I recall chatting with Chris Bosh at all-star weekend in a rather quiet moment – the throngs were over bothering Dwight Howard about his future and Chris was been left pretty much alone.

We were talking about that very thing, how the Heat were, it seemed, close to “just another team” rather than a circus sideshow that they had become their first year together.

He liked it, of course, and figured that maybe all the hoopla was, in some good way, dying down.

It has. But only to a point.

The Heat pays its only visit of the season to Toronto tonight and they come in carrying much less baggage and intrigue than they did last season.

They are good, no question, but they don’t seem to be The Basketball Beatles any more. They attract crowds but not nutty ones; they are popular but not as loathed.

Guess that’s natural with the passage of time and the calming of emotions, but the one thing they’ve done to help ease thing is not do anything stupid; they’ve played – and played extremely well for most of the season – but they have pretty much just gone about the business of doing it.

It will be interesting to see the reaction they get tonight from the audience, which might be a full house but that’s not assured since a check of ticket availability Thursday afternoon showed all kinds still out there ready to be purchased for exorbitant prices.

I’m sure there will be a smattering of boos for Bosh (still contend he needs more cheers than boos for the seven years he gave the franchise; seven years where he was never really, truly surrounded by another star for long enough) and I’m sure there will be a smattering of cheers for LeBron (although certainly not to the disproportionate level of love shown, say, Kobe Bryant or Jeremy Lin).

But the overall sense I get, and it is perhaps because we haven’t over-hyped the game (I remember going to Indy a day before the Heat came here a year ago for the express purpose of seeing Chris), is that this is just another game, albeit one against a marquee opponent.

I could be proved wrong but there seems to be a lack of the venom which was free-flowing a season ago.

How they manipulated the system is still wrong and still rankles but it seems to rankle a little bit less.

Agree?

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I am all about apps.

A week after the switch, I gotta tell you, I’m quite okay with this iPhone thingy.

Have learned to type using the pads of my thumbs rather than the nails (hello, autocorrect!), the speed is amazing and we’re good to go.

Apps time, people. I don’t play games, would rather have printed information that video and all suggestions gratefully accepted.

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Mail?

I have no idea when our website got entirely back to normal – huge glitches yesterday – so I have no idea how many, if any, of you got to check things out yesterday.

But if you didn’t, I really need some mail and you can click here to send it.

Say hi, I don’t bite.

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Brawl?

They call that TFC-Santos dust-up the other night a brawl?

I’ve been around a few bouts of fisticuffs in my day – I’ve seen flares lit in Greek arenas and machine gun-toting guards flanking fans for their safety, I remember a Canada-Brazil (I believe it was) tussle in Montreal where a chair might have flown, recall a minor Canada-New Zealand scrape in either London or Kitchener a few years back.

What’d they all have in common?

A lot of guys swinging while backing up and looking askance for teammates, coaches or police officers to come in and save the day.

Sure, it’s emotional and there’s lots of jawing and chatting and gesticulating but brawl? In the loosest form of the word, I guess.

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So, how many of you looked at the giant jar of pennies somewhere on some counter in the house last night and thought:

“What the heck am I going to do with these now?”

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With our website issues, not sure if you’ll be able to find Nothin’ But Net or all the stuff that goes with it. Suffice it to say, it deals with the surging San Antonio Spurs, mainly, and how you cannot discount them as a legitimate championship contender.

But it also includes a very good Dwane Casey line that came from when we were talking about the Heat and how you go about playing them.

“Make sure you go to mass in the morning, that’s the key.”

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This one caught me entirely by surprise yesterday.

The NBL Canada has lost its commissioner – John Kennedy has to step down after this weekend’s all-star weekend in Halifax due to a “family emergency.”

That’s a tough blow to the league – and I don’t know what the private family emergency is but I hope it’s not too too serious because John’s a good guy who helped me a lot this season – and the next hire is even more important.

A lot of groundwork went into getting ready for this huge off-season when sponsorship deals have to be put in place, expansion needs to be discussed and some franchises need to be guided through tough markets.

One of the problems leading into the first season was the short time some teams had to make deals; they need the entirety of this season to get ready for Year 2 and the board now has to act quickly – and get the right man – for the job.

Better polish my resume, eh?

(I keed, I keed)

 

Things you haven't seen before and a great player leaves us

There really is no figuring these Raptors out, is there?

Solid against New York, good against Chicago, execrable against Orlando and then last night with two guys playing who probably didn’t know all their teammates names, they beat a pretty good Denver team pretty handily.

I know it’s one game and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but it was a pretty solid night, mostly from a coach who massaged a so-so roster masterfully.

And away we go …

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THREE POINTERS

Seldom-seen call

We all know this team really doesn’t have a break-down offensive player – especially now that Leandro Barbosa has taken his leave – and that often leaves them in a pickle when the clock’s running down on quarters, halves and games.

They always have to run something a bit intricate, some kind of screen-roll stuff, weak-side picks, something that involves two or three players.

Last night, however, with something of an abomination of a group on the floor to end the third quarter – including a point guard who’d been in town less than 48 hours -- we saw something I don’t recall seeing:

A one-four flat clearout for DeMar DeRozan.

Didn’t work – DeRozan missed a jumper before Ed Davis got a steal and Ben Uzoh a game-tying bucket – but it was at least an indication of what they’d do in somewhat dire straits.

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Travelogue time

Maybe you didn’t read the game story all the way to the end and if you didn’t, don’t worry.

Dwane’s discussing the end the first half, when three fouls on Uzoh and the fear of a third foul on Calderon forced him to use Gary Forbes at the point and the coach shows his Canadiana and, I’m sure, endears himself even more to the masses.

And broke up the post-game media session as we kind of giggled ourselves out of the room.

“He’s not a point guard as he showed right before halftime. You talk about emotions, that was probably the most emotion I’ve had this year; (I) was yelling ‘one shot, one shot’ and he went off trying to discover Canada … He went up to Winnipeg and over to Halifax and then he went to the hole.”

That’s a guy who knows how to play to his audience.

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But …

Not sure what more we can say about the play of Forbes late except that it’s been very solid offensively and if they were planning to use the final 20 or so games of the season to find out what they, they must be a bit pleased.

Another double-double last night – his second in three games – and he’s far, far more effective off the ball than he is with it in his hands.

His shot’s more smooth, he gets to the glass to give them more rebounding at the shooting guard than they’ve had in years and he’s giving them every indication he might be able to handle a greater role next season.

His defence needs lots of work – he tends to lose his man quite easily chasing someone around screens – but that could come with time. What he’s got – a true scorer’s mentality and touch – you can’t teach and it’s been quite the find over last week and a half or so.

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More?

Of course, along with the usual plea for mail.

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Not sure how many of you have heard of Earl Scruggs but you know his iconic song – at least those of you of a certain vintage certainly have – and he passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 88.

Best TV sitcom theme song ever?

Not sure about that although it’d be on the list, that’s for sure.

The Ballad Of Jed Clampett may not have been Earl’s best work – the guy revolutionized banjo playing – but it’s the one everyone knows.

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Okay, so Super Son is now taller than I am and he just got his first job and he and the school band is off on a music trip to Vienna without any parents next month.

My job’s done with him, right?

Time to relax and live out my dotage?

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The one thing I was impressed with about Jeremy Lin far more than his playing ability was how he handled himself during that whole Linsanity thing that’s thankfully all but dead.

He was calm and deferential and not at all dismissive of the silly questions; he knew who he was, where he was and he didn’t let anything go to his head. He was mature and grounded and quite impressive.

Well, he went up another notch yesterday.

You know the ESPN guy who was fired for that rather thoughtless overnight headline a month or so ago?

Well, Lin, holding no grudges, took the dude out for dinner the other night; a first-class move.

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Kinda blew it by not putting this in here yesterday but remember how I was telling you about Natalie Achonwa and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the NCAA women’s Final Four?

She had 18 and 7 when Notre Dame drilled Maryland in the regional final and next up is Connecticut in the Final Four semis on Sunday in Denver.

People whose opinion on women’s basketball I respect tell me no one beats Baylor, which gets Stanford in the other semi.

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Okay, there’ll be lots and lots of time for us to chat about TOD (Team Of Destiny, the Seamheads, the Blue Jays) as the season approaches – chatting that’ll probably start pretty soon – but you’ve got to love a team with a 45-year-old backup shortstop, don’t you?

We of That Certain Vintage are quite happy that Omar Vizquel won a job yesterday.

And, yes, we’ll get into this more, but did you notice that they’re 21-4 in Florida? Twenty-one and four!

I’m telling you, that’s a team worth watching.

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Hang on a sec.

Baseball season’s already started?

Ichiro had four hits over in Japan yesterday?

How’d that happen?

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The Goods On The Game, Nuggets at Raptors

Hey, folks.

How's everyone doing?

The Magic Johnson story just keeps getting bigger

You’d have to look long and hard to find a more interesting, intriguing, compelling (I’m not even sure what the right word would be) sports figure of last half century or so than Magic Johnson.

Agree?

The breadth of his life, publicly at least, has been astounding.

We knew him as a smiley-faced teen re-energizing NCAA basketball.

We knew him as a smiley-faced young man re-energizing NBA basketball, revolutionizing the game with the Showtime Lakers, a freak of nature 6-9 point guard who played even the drudgery of the regular season with unabridged joy and who was at his best when titles were on the line.

But forget that, actually, if you can. It’s all well and good that he played a kid’s game with a kid’s attitude, all smiles and fun and upbeat and up-tempo and the Lakers with him were a joy to watch.

When news came down last night that his group had been the successful bidders to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers (a cool $2 billion, it says in this dispatch) you kind of just shook your head in amazement.

There are those who want our athletes to use their power and their pedestal and their iconic status for the good of the greater cause.

No one – well, very few that I can think of in the world of professional sports since I’ve been hanging around the games – has done it like Magic.

Yes, you have David Robinson and the school he founded in San Antonio, and Jalen Rose and the incredible work his foundation is doing with education in Detroit and I’m sure there are others doing similar work.

But Magic? Magic has given hope and support and brought education to the fore in so many areas it’s incredible.

He became one of the leaders of the HIV campaign after his startling revelation 20 years ago and what he’s done to raise money and awareness since then is nothing short of amazing.

He became a wildly-successful businessman in his post-playing career; with theatres and coffee shops and sundry other endeavours that showed all athletes that there was a chance to make a difference in the economic lives of fans aside from bringing them joy on the court.

And now?

Now to own one of the iconic sports franchises ever – one that needs some kind of recovery from the mess left by the previous ownership – cements him as a guy who actually did something grand once the games were over.

Far too many great athletes simply pay lip service to making a difference in the world when they’re done playing before they fade off into their lives, the television studio or periodic appearances at charitable events.

Magic built an empire all while serving as a beacon for the fight against HIV.

This may not be the crowning moment of his post-career work but it is another giant step for a giant of our times.

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To quote a sitcom icon:

Holy crap.

People sure get defensive, or offensive, or whatever, when it’s pizza talk, don’t they?

This has all the makings of Jose-TJ to stir the passions if you wade through all the comments yesterday.

Classic.

Last word? For now, at least?

Here’s Zorro’s piece, he’s the guy who landed in the office and was asked to come up with the follow-up story.

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So much for my early prognostication about Martina Navratilova and DWTS.

Sure, they embarrassed here with that get-up last night but, honestly? As a dancer she makes a great tennis icon.

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Now this may cause a bit of a quandary.

Got news late last night – think the news landed while I was napping, actually – that Jerryd Bayless has a torn oblique muscle and he’ll miss the rest of the regular season.

The quandary is not whether or not Ben Uzoh can adequately fill the backup point guard role, that’s relatively inconsequential. The quandary is whether or not the Raptors feel confident enough in what they’ve seen from Bayless so far to make any longer-term commitment to him in the summer when he becomes a restricted free agent.

Maybe they have, but some of the people I’ve spoken to were looking to this last month to determine precisely what they had in the young guard.

The backcourt is going to need some reconstruction over the summer, far more so than the frontcourt, and if there are any lingering questions about where Jerryd fits, it’s not good at all that he’ll have missed this last month.

I feel terrible for the kid; he wanted to play in Chicago, wanted to play the second half of the Orlando game after he was hurt again and getting those MRI results on Monday had to be a huge blow.

Too bad.

For him and his employers.

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No one’s going to mention that the pucks have been mathematically eliminated from the post-season before the HOTH, right?

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There are days when it’s kind of boring to go to practice with these fellows, it’s hard to come up with a story that’s truly interesting and can be told well. We’re often standing around perplexed, wondering if the day’s missive will be something pedestrian like an injury update or a look ahead to the next team.

Those are all legit stories, don’t get me wrong, it’s that they don’t really energize you and they’ve been done so often they are almost done by rote.

It’s especially true with this group, all fine young men who are more than willing to chat with us each day but there aren’t too many great tales left to tell. It’s not their fault, it’s just the way it is; as I said, it’s a good group but there’s not a Reggie Evans quote machine among ‘em.

Then we get a new guy and all of a sudden Alan Anderson’s story turns into a moment of revitalization, he gives good anecdotes and has a life’s story to tell.

It’s kind of cool and as the grunts departed the practice facility, there was a spring in our steps. Not bad for the dog days of the season.

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Mail? Yeah, we’d better start.

Do. It. Here.

Thanks.

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Old bad habits show up and another new guy is arriving

Yes, it was an entirely ugly game, poorly played at both ends by the locals but if you’ve learned on thing about this team this season it’s that consistency is not a trademark.

Too bad because the good’s been pretty good. But the bad’s been pretty ugly.

The thing is, the bad usually only lasts a quarter or so which means every game can be competitive; when he bad lasts 48, you get last night.

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THREE POINTERS

New kid on the block

Okay, folks, time to get to know Ben Uzoh.

The press release should come out later this morning – not precisely sure when but it’ll be before the 9:30 a.m. start of their day – telling all and sundry that Uzoh, a 6-3 guard who’s been toiling with Rio Grande Valley of the D League, is the latest add-on as the season marches inexorably to its dreary end.

Don’t know an awful lot about him, I do recall he had a cup of coffee with the Nets last season and had an oh-so-brief time in Cleveland last month.

It’s unclear whether it’s another 10-day deal or something until the end of the season but with Jerryd Bayless being hurt – and Bayless wanted to keep going last night even after his hip seized up – more guard help can’t hurt.

Unclear, again, whether he’ll really help or get a chance to play but considering Alan Anderson got eight minutes last night even though he probably hadn’t even met some of his teammates, it’s entirely possible that Uzoh ends up in the rotation tomorrow night.

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Rotation time

Actually, with the dearth of guards – and who knows when DeRozan or Bayless will be back, although the plan is Wednesday – we’re getting a look at what a good guard rotation is for a playoff team when or if the post-season ever rolls around.

You run three guys through the two guard spots, first sub is for the shooting guard with a combo guard about 10 minutes, the starting point guard goes about 14 minutes before getting about a four-minute break and the starting shooting guard replaces the backup about five minutes into the second quarter.

You do the same thing approximately in the second half, no one plays much more than 40 minutes and it’s a nice, tight rotation.

Maybe it doesn’t happen for every game in the regular season because of foul trouble or back-to-backs or whatever but I really like that as a way to maximize your best players in the biggest games.

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One thing being learned

All season, even when he wasn’t playing or was playing a position he’s really not suited for, the coaches have been telling us that Gary Forbes was a true NBA scorer.

Guess they were right.

It may not be a revelation to them but I imagine some folks are surprised at how seamless Forbes has made the transition from spectator to contributor; he’s twice set career highs in points in the last week (20 in Memphis, 21 last night) and he looks entirely comfortable about there.

Not sure what the long-term plans are for him but it has to be comforting to know that he can score rather easily, and possesses a really smooth jump shot.

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Sure, a wee bit more

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Let’s say you’re interested in American college basketball solely for the Canadian content because (a) you’re a nationalistic zealot or (b) well, there might not be a (b).

So no reason to watch any more, is there?

As the funnyman used to say …

“Wrong, yak breath.”

If you can find it deep on some satellite TV station – and as far as I can tell there’s no one in Canadian broadcasting remotely interested in it and I can understand why – the NCAA women’s championship would fill that Canadian need. At least for one more night tonight as they finish up their Elite Eight.

Natalie Achonwa of Guelph (this is an old story but it might catch you up) plays an awful lot for Notre Dame, No. 1 seed in the Raleigh Region.

You’ll read more about her, and the rest of the very good Canadian senior women’s team, in the next few months because they’re off to the final Olympic qualification tournament in Turkey in late June and will be the big Canadian basketball story this summer.

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I (heart) Stan Van Gundy even more after this quote following the rather embarrassing end.

“I was like, ‘wow, they’re going to cut the lead to 16 and the whole place went nuts like they won the championship, I had no idea what was going on.

“I mean, everybody’s on their feet, standing ovation and the whole thing and then a guy in the crowd next to me sitting baseline said everybody gets a free pizza so I guess that was exciting. That was the loudest the crowd was all night, they were into that. That was a big basket by Ed Davis.

“They’re going to put that on their highlight film at the end of the year. I was like ‘wow what happened I though he had like an 18-point play and tied the game or something.”

Oh, no, Stan, that was just for a piece of lukewarm cardboard covered in sauce and faux cheese.

“Really? We got a standing ovation for a slice? They told me they got a free pizza. A slice? A slice you have to sit in your seat and clap; you can’t stand up on a slice, that’s bad etiquette.”

Yes, folks. That’s what some of the Toronto fans are becoming known for around the league.

Proud?

And having watched Dwane Casey have to go down after the game and explain/apologize to Stan and having watched most of the bench up telling the guys on the floor to dribble out the clock, I’m kind of hoping Bryan meets with whatever marketing mavens came up with that nonsense and says something along the liens of:

“Will the ridiculousness ever end? Please”

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Hmm, I type “Wrong, yak breath” and have some time on my hands, start thinking about mayonnaise jars and Funk and Wagnall and one thing leads to another and …

No, they don’t make late-night TV like that any more.

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Okay, I could tolerate the camouflage jerseys on a one-off basis; support the troops and all that.

But to wear ‘em again? And with two more times to come?

Well, you can place the blame for that squarely with the Tallest of Foreheads in New York; the NBA mandates the minimum number of times a team has to wear an “other” jersey in a season.

I still think a one-off situation is the best way to show support for something but I’m not in marketing, which is one of the driving forces of the league I cover.

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The Goods On The Game, Magic at Raptors

Welcome back.

Ready to kick off this long homestand?

Good.

Raptors making do with what they have as injuries/illnesses mount

Anyone ready for Solomon Alabi, 7-1 shooting guard?

Didn’t think so but if things get any worse for the Raptors on the injury/illness front, who knows what might happen.

DeMar DeRozan has been ruled out of Monday’s home game against the Orlando Magic because of a sore left ankle and James Johnson missed shootaround Monday morning with the so-called “flu-like symptoms” so there could be some weird and wonderful lineups coming.

“We’ve got a makeshift crew,” was how coach Dwane Casey put it Monday morning.

The good news?

Jerryd Bayless, out for a couple of games with a hip-pointer, made it through shootaround unscathed and is likely to play Monday night.

And while Casey has to make do with whatever healthy bodies he has available, help may be on the way. President and general manager Bryan Colangelo and his chief assistant, Ed Stefanski, are beating the bushes trying to find someone to come in for at least a few days.

“They’re working on that, different names and different people so they’re prepared for it, we just have to wait and see who’s available,” said Casey. They’ve already got the list and Bryan’s made calls and Ed’s made calls to different people.

“Right now we mainly need bodies just for shootaround and practice because it’s unfair to Solo and Ed and I just talked about it.”

 

 

 

A return to greatness, a great dunk and a great one is gone

Not sure there’ve been too many athletes of the last decade or so who have been as polarizing as Tiger Woods.

It has been my experience that there are almost as many people out there who would like him to see him fail as would like to see him dominate; he became his own worst enemy, and turned even more people off, with the personal problems that became so public.

Yes, he can be a tad standoffish, closed and cold with the public and the media, there was a sense of entitlement that the enablers who surrounded him created that certainly didn’t make him a cuddly icon for all sports fans to embrace.

You can argue that because of that rather prickly nature and because of the cocoon that he lived in – build by those make oodles of money off him, actually – made him what he was: One of the truly dominant athletes of this era.

Fans, lots of fans, simply didn’t like him, even after that one-legged U.S. Open triumph over the People’s Choice Rocco Mediate in what was one of the most compelling individual performances I can recall.

But you can never, or should never, doubt his abilities, even in the face of injury and personal strife that looked like it was going to derail one of the greatest careers in the game of golf.

(We can debate where he fits among the Jacks and Hogans another day).

Watching him storm to a significant win on Sunday afternoon, even if the attention was divided between the golf and some basketball, was to see him almost back to where he was. Red shirt, fist pumping, putts going in from everywhere.

It was a Tiger performance and regardless of what you think of him, it was impressive and will, I’m sure, have even the most casual fans tuned in once the Masters kicks off.

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It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to sit alongside Mr. McCown as a weekly co-host on the good show on the FAN590 or whatever the call the station now.

But when I did, I always hoped there’d be a time during the week when we got to talk to Bert Randolph Sugar, one of the all-time great boxing guys.

He was an historian, a writer, a raconteur and just generally an entertaining fellow, a guy who could spin a yarn with the best of ‘em.

Not sure what it is, but that sport seems to provide us with all kinds of characters, some genuine, some just shady enough to be interesting, all with stories to tell.

Bert was one of the best, I first heard of him way back in his Boxing Illustrated days in the 70s, and he passed away Sunday at 75 after a long battle with lung cancer.

I’m not sure how many, if any, of you would have come across him in your travels, or if anyone out there even pays attention to boxing any more, but Bert was a guy with a giant personality in a game that used to be filled with them.

Wherever he is today, I bet he’s making people laugh.

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Right, the Raptors.

Quiet day Sunday – they had some high falutin’ buntoss with the other MLSE dudes last night – but I know they were feeling quite good about themselves.

As well they should have been.

All season long, it’s been the work ethic of this team that’s been impressive, the way Dwane Casey can coax solid performances and good defence out of a team that wavers between beaten up and over-matched most nights.

Those games Friday and Saturday might have been the most back-to-back outings of the season for one huge reason:

They did not give in. At any level.

They didn’t fold against the Knicks down the stretch and never took a step backwards.

They didn’t flinch against the Bulls despite missing two key pieces, playing their fourth game in five nights and meeting a very good rested team at home.

If this season was about discovery, and developing a style and an attitude, I think we saw over the weekend that the journey is well underway. Now it’s on general manager Bryan Colangelo to beef up the talent and it remains on Casey to keep doing the excellent job that he has.

There is – at times – lots of promise. Whether it goes unfulfilled is the question.

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I haven’t looked all that closely because I don’t have to write a few grafs until later but I’m pretty sure the Bracket Embarrassment will be at an all-time high.

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Speaking of American college sports, we all know the neon Baylor Bears men’s team was an outstanding story until they ran into Kentucky on Sunday and it was cool that Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III was in the stands to watch them.

But the most impressive Baylor athlete, and perhaps the most impressive Baylor athletic feat, was Brittney Griner with this highlight reel play.

I know at some point a woman basketball player dunking will be somewhat the norm simply because the game and the athletes are evolving so quickly and so impressively. But we’re not there yet and plays like Griner’s are somewhat eye-opening.

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One of the good nights of my basketball season came a couple of weeks ago when I finally got down to London to see an NBL Canada playoff game.

Loud. Family filled. Fun. Good, intense competition.

I can only imagine what it was like Sunday afternoon when the Lightning won the league’s inaugural title in Game 5 over the Halifax Rainmen.

You know my long-held opinion of that league: They did a bang-up job in their first year, the calibre of play was excellent, the connection between franchises and their fans was great and there were no true calamities.

It is a credit to the seven ownership groups and commissioner John Kennedy that Year 1 was such a hit.

But now the hard work begins. Now is the time to get to work on next year, to see if they can maybe add a couple of teams in Ontario – I’d suggest either Kitchener or Windsor or Ottawa or Kingston would make the most sense – and to put in place the regional and local sponsorship deals that will solidify the existing franchises.

Oshawa’s an area where they have to get to work, they got a late start last season and it showed in that hockey-mad town, and since the strength of the league is only as good as its weakest link, I’d expect a concentration of effort out there.

It was an excellent year – I know people in all the league cities would probably agree – but it’s not time to rest on any laurels.

Good luck.

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Five games, nine days, all at home. Game, day off, game, day off, lather, rinse repeat.

What’s a guy to do with all that idle time?

Guess I’ll find out – and sure there will be stuff to fill the off-days, but it’s going to be a very nice stretch.

And, yes, an IGBT for each of ‘em, starting with tonight and the Magic around 7. See you then.

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