Bad uniforms, bad decisions and a couple of big losses

A series of unrelated notes and things because I pretty much coasted for a bit of yesterday and nothing sticks in my mind, or my craw, this morning.

Well, a few things do …

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I remember talking with The First Lady Of The Beat, who also dabbles in the soccer and the track and a handful of other sports, and she’s telling me about some fancy-schmancy sports-fashion thing she was at to unveil the new Canadian soccer strips.

Was a good time, apparently, and she’s kind of impressed if I recall so before the NBA game, I decide to check out the Canada-US friendly, not in hopes of seeing a goal (far too much to ask) but so I can see what the lads look like.

Funnily enough, the guide says the games on Sportsnet but something must be wrong because I recognize the Yanks but who’s that team in blue?

Can’t be Canada, right?

Canada is red. Or Canada is white. Or Canada is some combination of red and white.

Right?

Wrong.

Blue.

Blue!!!

Look, I don’t really care all that much about colours of uniforms or styles of uniforms (I kind of miss the old baseball flannels but realize time marches on) but there’s one thing about which I’d dead certain.

A Canadian team, in any sport in any competition in any venue at any time, needs to be decked out at least partially in red. And don’t give me the little red flag on the shoulder of the jerseys, it doesn’t count.

Red is how we are, it’s what we are.

I don’t know if Sunday was a one-night abomination but I sure hope so. (It was, thankfully; whew!) Because not since I was up in Ottawa eons ago and the women’s hockey team showed up in hoary clichéd pink did a national team uniform miss by so much.

End of rant.

Good game, though. The lads may not have scored but they didn’t give one up, either. Imagine that, a 0-0 soccer draw.

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So a couple of best-of-threes in the NBA?

I’m okay with that.

If you stayed up to watch the end of the Heat-Celtics, I hope you were like me and totally put off with the way Miami handled the last two possessions of the overtime, where they had four guys stand around while Dwyane Wade tried to figure out a way to get a shot off.

At no point in either of them did it look like he even considered the other four Miami players on the court, he was going to get a shot come hell or high water and it ended up that a 29 per cent three-point shooter took some twisting, off-balance three-pointer to win and it was entirely fitting that it didn’t go in.

Look, I love a team with a guy on it who can break down his man and make a play and win a game. But sometimes breaking down a man and making a play means precisely that – making a play for your team and not for yourself.

Hero ball, as it’s called in some circles, is all fun and games and it makes for nice highlights with a game-winner but, in many instances, it’s just stupid.

Sometimes – often times – you need a screen, you need to have someone set a screen for someone else, you need to look at all your options and then make a play that gives your team the best chance to win or tie.

Wade did none of that and his coach, Erik Spoelstra, completely abdicated all responsibility by simply saying: “Throw the ball to Dwyane, he’ll do something.”

Yes, stars win games and you want stars with the ball in their hand in those situations; but you also want stars to do what’s right for their team and that’s making the right play.

Wade didn’t. He coach showed no imagination in that final possession.

Looks good on them.

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The West Wing remains one of the greatest television shows ever made and Mrs. Landingham was a very cool.

RIP.

Other dramas that I wish were still around on some way up there channel of constant repeats?

Lou Grant.

Had a crush on Billie; knew a handful of photogs like Animal; who didn’t love Lou. Classic.

White Shadow.

Sure, lots of cliché characters but Salami made me laugh every now and then; can you make the case it was Friday Nights Lights Lite?

Six Feet Under

Totally under-rated; a story about a funeral home run by a weird family? They don’t make ‘em like that any more. Sadly.

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So I’m sitting at Mickey Mantle’s the other night (the OKC restaurant, not his house) and there’s two guys a couple of stools down.

They look up to see Hubie Brown and Kevin Calabro walk into the other part of the restaurant and the dudes are like two starstruck kids.

One says:

“He knows more about basketball than anyone alive.”

Close.

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Big-ish week for the HOTH coming up for all those who need to know the minutia.

The NBA’s pre-draft camp starts Wednesday in Chicago, top 60 prospects get weighed, measured, psychologically probed in private meetings with teams and do some drills.

Nothing gets decided, that’s for sure, but lists are certainly narrowed.

And that’s all I’ve got to sate your appetite for all things Raptors.

Sorry.

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Now, when we’re going down the list of old time sitcoms, you know Hogan’s Heroes was near, or at, the top of that list, don’t you?

And Newkirk, while now Klink or Hostetler or even Hogan or Schultz, as pretty good.

RIP.

Tough weekend, no?

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Now, I know I picked San Antonio in seven games in what I still hope turns into an epic Western Conference final and that remains a distinct possibility.

But after seeing two games in person – and it was like watching basketball on amphetamines considering what the Eastern Conference has to offer – I’m wondering about the wisdom of that selection.

I wonder if, as the series goes on, that the Spurs lack of athleticism and relative age doesn’t get to them. The Thunder can run through you and over you and passed you if you let them and the longer this thing goes, I now think the better their chances are.

One things is for certain: It is truly delightful basketball to watch most of the time; hope I can stay up late again after a long, busy day to watch it.

(And, no, not IGBT, there’s a bit of a reception I have to go to this afternoon and who knows what it’ll turn into.)

And having seen first Thabo Sefolosha come out of nowhere and help win a game and then seeing Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins go out of their minds offensively and win a game, I’m kind of excited to see which role player rises to the occasion tonight.

Matt Bonner, perhaps? I’d like to think so but the Thunder are just too long and too quick to give him the room he needs to operate so we can take him off the list, I’m afraid.

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Comments

[J]

@TLI:

I don't know... I found "Raptors fan" to be quite ignorant as well. It's amusing that he/she would call someone ignorant when his/her diatribe reeked of a lack of education. Quite painful to read, really.