First comedies and now dramas as we do a movie day

A step back from the usual today, okay?

It’s been a really slow week (two days of golf and, yes, I did a curling story yesterday in my Fish Out Of Water kind of late summer) and a slow night last night so let’s step away for a second, all right?

-

Okay, poll time to get us ready for the weekend and after spending a few minutes this morning doing research here, I think the weekend’s entertainment might have been decided, for all of us I hope.

So we’ve agreed, pretty much, that Bull Durham and Caddyshack are at the top of the sports comedy list, right?

Well, how about dramas?

So many to choose from, some based in reality, some based in fiction, some just great, great, great stories well told.

And, frankly, all of my favourites are older, which tells me either I have to get to the theatre more often for something other than The Three Stooges with Super Son or they just don’t make sports movies any more. I’m thinking the latter.

The top three?

I’m torn, really.

It’s got to be either Hoosiers or Raging Bull, right?

Couple of different ones, to be sure, but, man are they good.

For the longest time it was Hoosiers, who doesn’t remember Jimmy Chitwood making the shot.

But …

DeNiro, Pesci, Scorcese?

Can’t beat it and just looking for clips makes me move it to the top.

(And, yes, I had to find the trailer because the language in about every scene isn’t quite fit for a family blog)

Third?

Gotta be Field of Dreams, doesn’t it?

And it’d be creeping up on the top two.

Only thing is that I liked Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe a wee bit more than the movie it spawned.

Still, if this doesn’t get you, I don’t know what will.

Now if you were to round out a Top 5 with, say, The Hustler and The Natural, you’d be doing pretty well in my books.

-

So, to the things I don’t quite get can we add American college football?

I see the season’s begun down there and all that means is that I can turn away from the TV most Saturday afternoons because it holds absolutely no interest for me.

Sure, I may watch a bowl game in some holiday stupor because it’s white noise but other than that? Nada.

Not sure why, actually, but it’s never been something that’s been big to me. Didn’t go to a school so I don’t have that lifetime allegiance, I’m not sure the games are played at a high enough level to be considered top notch and, of course, the practical beatification of coaches and “programs” is something I have a very hard time dealing with.

I’m sure for some alums it’s a great thing; for the majority of my circle of friends it’s nothing to get worked up about at all.

-

Mail?

If you don’t mind, I’d take some more.

Got a lot of it done already so there might be a chance to sleep in tomorrow a wee bit but there’s always room for more.

Click. Write. Send. Say hello.

You’ll be glad you did.

-

Okay, I’ve steered quite clear of all things political for a while but when I was flipping around the dial last night please tell me I did not see an aging Clint Eastwood (a true giant of the film industry, one of the greats of all time) talking to an empty chair at the Republican bun toss.

Please, I beseech you to tell me that didn’t happen.

Hmm.

Seems it did and if that doesn’t go down as one of the more ridiculous things you’ve seen or read this week, your life is far more entertaining than mine.

We now return you to our normal shenanigans.

-

Say, if you’re driving somewhere after work today, say between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., and wanted to flip the radio dial over to FAN590 here in Toronto, I bet you’ll be wildly entertained.

Since they seem to be far down the list of possible round table participants, I’ll be there. Hopefully we’ll do a lot of pucks.

-

Cousin Sekou puts together the news that the Lakers, who decided earlier this week that they’d put up a statue honouring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (a well deserved honour for one of the somehow under-rated greats of the game), are now going to retire Shaq’s number.

Now, there is no disputing that Shaquille O’Neal had a brilliant tenure in Los Angeles, his numbers were astonishing and the three straight championships were a testament to just how good he and Kobe were with that group.

But, you know what?

I don’t think they should retire the number.

To me, that’s the ultimate honour for a player and I think you need to be associated with a franchise for far longer than Shaq was with the Lakers to get that kind of treatment.

Things like retiring numbers, like so many other things in sports these days, seems to happen to often; I think in some ways it diminishes it because it happens so frequently.

-

 

Important early work to be done; and a movie correction

Holy smokes.

It’s Aug. 30?

Where’d the summer go?

Oh yeah, to Lords and Horse Guard’s Parade and Olympic Park and The Ship and The Swan and, of course, The Cheese.

Anyway, the point is that now that it’s getting close to Labour Day – and the start of school – it’s almost getting time for the lads to start rolling back into town to have the “informal” workouts that precede training camps for almost every basketball team on Earth.

And it’s left us to wonder:

Who’s going to organize stuff – or who has organized stuff during the summer – for the HOTH as they get ready for their first full camp under Dwane Casey.

For all that this team is, it’s still relatively young and there are more than a few new pieces to get acclimated and, frankly, the earlier they get together in the gym, the better.

The September workouts (which by rule cannot be held under the auspices of the team’s full coaching staff; wink, wink) can be of vital importance to many teams in many ways and no team can really benefit more than the one in Toronto.

The workouts truly are relatively informal, coaches do not script them, they include more scrimmaging than I imagine they’ll get in the week of training camp and it’s when relationships between new teammates are forged, both on and off the court.

I remember back in the day when this team was bordering on good and everyone would be in town by the first week or two of September and they’d all be in the gym every day, hanging out and getting up shots and either getting to know each other or getting re-acquainted after a summer off. Those were huge days in building cohesion and relationships that made the season just a little bit better.

I can imagine – and I haven’t spoken to a player or a coach in a few days because they’re all still scattered around the world it seems – that everyone starts rolling back into town the middle of next week and by the start of the second week of September, everyone’s here and working together.

It’s hugely important and it’s when things like on-court leaders emerge, it’s when players see how new guys work and there’s a little bit of Follow The Leader going on. If this guy’s in the gym, that guy wants to be in the gym; if this guy says everyone be here at 2 p.m. and everyone’s there at 2 p.m., you can hear about some leadership being developed.

Yes, the true work on Xs and Os begins Oct. 1 when Dwane and his staff get their mitts on the team; but equally important work begins away from the prying eyes of the coaches.

-

Oh boy.

Remember the other day when I had the temerity to suggest Caddyshack was perhaps tied with Bull Durham as the best sports comedy ever?

Well, The Slightly Less Tall Partner In Crime of the Tall Expat you met – kind of – early this month took umbrage, as she would.

No, it’s not tied because:

No Kevin Costner.

That, of course, means nothing to be but a No Susan Sarandon point might have hit home.

You can’t have a mechanical groundhog as a major character.

It was mechanical?

The presence of that guy who played Ted on Mary Tyler Moore. I don’t like him.

One of the great thespians of all time in that role, we shall agree to disagree.

And most important … no baseball.

Yes, yes. That is true; I am suitably chastised.

So …

(And, fair warning, there is a bad word in here but you try to find a good Bull Durham clip without one, I dare ya)

Yes, it is the best sports comedy ever. Indeed.

-

Another day on the links, another day of no cart crashes and nothing untoward occurring, although I will fully admit that when I went out bogey-bogey and Super Son went out bogey-par I was a tad miffed.

But any day that includes a four-hour round of golf and then wings at the local cannot ever be bad.

-

So, finally a night arrives with couch time available and it’s nice to relax and watch mindless TV and what happens?

Not only is Modern Family a repeat, but also it’s a repeat of one a guy saw on the plane less than two weeks ago.

Instead of entertainment, it’s white noise.

-

What’s more difficult to comprehend or, more accurately, what do you care less about:

HRR?

Or

BRI?

Thank goodness I’m not at all interested in the machinations of another sport’s collective bargaining process and don’t have to learn one single thing about it.

Now, I don’t want the pucks to go away because I fully understand the impact it has on people who work in or around the arena and billionaires fighting with millionaires while normal folks get hurt really sucks.

But, man, every time I see a story about negotiations, I yawn, close my eyes and think ‘wow, am I ever glad I don’t have to deal with any of that crap this year.’

Still, those folks who run restaurants and bars around the arena and the men and women who work as ushers and concession workers and the rest of it are going to get screwed again if there’s a pucks lockout and that’s truly bad.

-

Mail?

Please, sir (or madam), I want more.

Click. Write. Send.

-

Life lessons to learn on the links; don't try some of these at home

Well, no calamities in the links, I can happily report.

Super Son drove the cart like he’d been driving his entire life (best line: “It only goes about 10 kilometres an hour, it’s not like Mom’s car”) and there were no tumbles, spills and only one retreat from one fairway to the previous green to retrieve a forgotten wedge (him, not me).

Anyway, try as I might, I couldn’t get the young lad to wager and, yeah, it kind of made a day of golf a bit less interesting. After all, who doesn’t like to have a little something on the line just to make the day interesting.

But, noooooo.

He’s so content with the major bucks he brings in weekly as Buggy Boy that he didn’t want his father getting in his pocket; smart kid, I guess.

Too bad.

You see, what was once the regular foursome – or the six guys who alternately made up the regular foursome depending on work and family commitments and the length of time Super Wives had been feeding us Alpo for whatever indiscretion got us in the doghouse – used to have a series of wagers that took an abacus to figure out but added some juice to the day.

We’ve had Nassaus with each of the other three guys (“you give me two a side, I’ll give you one a side, I’ll take three from you on the front and we’ll renegotiate at the turn” used to be the first tee conversations) along with sundry other group bets.

There’d be sandies and Arnies and bingo-bango-bongo; sometimes we’d change up two-man teams every six holes just so we could alternately help and loathe our playing partners and then, for good measure, we’d bring out the Snake.

What’s that?

Well, it could get pretty costly, actually.

You’d hold “the snake” every time you three-putt and it grows every time someone does and the poor bloke “holding” it when the round’s over owes each of other three guys a buck for each three putt.

Let’s say as a group you have 10 in a round, quite a plausible number as it turns out, and you’re the last guy in the group to have three-whacked a green. That means you owe each of the other three $10 and, I swear, I’ve seen days where playing 17 and 18 was like a clinic in how to miss a green from a fairway; it’s far easier and smarter to play about 10 yards short so you can get up and down in two or three rather than to strike a six-iron beautifully from 170 yards that leaves you 50 feet of double-breaking downhiller to negotiate.

Ah, so much to teach a young golfer, isn’t there?

-

Oh, you knew this was coming, right?

-

So yesterday they find out that Joey Bats is done for the year, the kid Stroman didn’t know enough to check with a trainer before eating some medication he bought over the counter and he’s got 50 games to think about how dumb that was.

Toss in the fact it seems about a dozen pitchers are at some level of post-operative rehab, JP Arencibia hasn’t caught a game in a month or so and we have no idea if, or when, Hobbs Brett Lawrie will be back and I wonder just how often every day that Alex Anthopoulos curses the Baseball Gods.

Seriously, this season has gone so far off the rails in so many ways for TOD it’s almost like you just have to laugh and shake your head in incredulity and chalk it up to “just one of those seasons.”

But I must admit it’s been a huge disappointment; this year was supposed to be fun, it’s turned into a late-summer, early-fall death march, just like so many other years.

-

Yes, the weekend approacheth so, yes, we shall solicit mail from all our friends and acquaintances and those among you with queries on your minds.

Click. Write. Send.

-

Raptors news. Such that it is.

Boy, am I ever glad I spent a couple of hours Sunday slogging through our arduous on-like booking tool to set up October-November-December travel.

Especially happy that I found, finally, a somewhat convenient flight to Memphis for the pre-season game (you try getting easy flights there, dare ya) just two days before THEY CHANGED THE DATE OF THE GAME!

Still don’t have a reason – Memphis paper can’t tell me, team website doesn’t have an explanation – but if you were going on Oct. 15, don’t. Go on Oct. 26 instead, see you there.

Oh, boss? We’re going to have to pay a wee penalty to change my flight, blame Memphis. That’s what happens when you book/plan early.

-

Oh yeah, one more golf story that’s kind of gambling and recommended for only the hearties of you out there.

It’s known as The Cooler of Terror

You know all those little bottles of liquors you have stashed somewhere in the house, the little shot bottles of scotch or rye or rum or port or gin or vodka or whatever?

Well, you grab one of those small cooler bags we all use for bottles of water or whatever and all four guys bring all the tiny bottles they have and dump them in there.

Now, here’s where it gets good.

Every time one of you three putts, someone holds the bag above his head, the offending bad putter reached in blindly, grabs a bottle and has to drink it.

Right there. Greenside.

I’m telling you, if you can’t get the speed of the greens or have trouble reading lines, it can be a loooooooong day.

Or, as we’ve said:

"The more you three-putt … the more you three-putt.”

Nope, Super Son couldn’t do that one, that’s for sure.

And I don’t recommend it for you, either.

Well, I kind of do but make sure someone’s waiting in the parking lot with a big car to drive you all home.

-

Okay, we’ll be back to some semblance of normal, whatever that is, tomorrow morning.

Fore!

-

 

 

 

Basketball's next challenge, and playoffs in the season are cool

So they’ll wrap up the Canada Basketball camp down at the arena today and the 30 or so players and 15 or so coaches will go off on their merry ways to the there schools and teams and clubs and then what?

Well, then the pressure shifts to the poobahs at Canada Basketball who must now find a way to leverage all this good feeling and all this summer’s success into the thing that the drives the process as much as anything:

Money.

Yeah, there is still a need for funding for these various programs (I didn’t get a final figure but if this five-day camp didn’t cost somewhere near six figures I’d be very surprised) and the various teams that have to play and my man Wayne Parrish and his fellow big shots are, I’m sure, out beating the bushes trying to find partners to come aboard.

Should be a no-brainer for some. If you want to get in on the ground floor with an increasingly successful international game (and check out this to see who did what this summer), now is the time.

Everything else would seem to be in place.

The senior men have a group of talented, wiling participants right now, the age-group teams are well on their way to being significant players in the world and I honestly don’t remember a time since I started watching this group in 1992 when more optimism abounded. It’s really shocking and if I know Wayne and Maurizio and the boys and girls, they’ll be able to turn this good feeling into some tangible financial gains and things can keep going the way they have been.

It’s essential to capitalize on the summer and the promise of the marquee senior men’s team. Nothing is going to happen on the court now until next summer; the hard work is in the various boardrooms and meeting rooms and now the focus has to shift to the organization as a whole rather than the teams as individual entities.

There is no doubt the game is growing and flourishing more than ever in Canada – and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find another national organization that can match the overall success Canada Basketball’s had this summer – and there’s no reason to think it won’t keep going that way.

-

Okay, fill up those golf ball dispensers, Super Son and I are about to hack and slash our way through Niagara for a couple of days.

He, of course, seems more interested in riding in and driving the cart than making birdies and bogeys (can’t wait to introduce him to automatic two-down presses) but what the heck.

Couple of rounds of golf, some wings and pizza at the local, various things Super Wife won’t let happen at home (NO VEGETABLES, except maybe celery and blue cheese dip) and it could be a good couple of days.

Speaking of …

Best sports comedy ever?

If it’s not, it’s tied with Bull Durham.

-

Know what I kind of find cool about the soccer?

Playoffs during the season.

Not sure how many, if any, of you know that the FCs have a big “League” game tonight against a Mexican side and what it’s done is, I understand, created some interest in a dreary season.

You’ve got the Champions League in European football and that’s very cool, you’ve got other “Cup” competitions that unfold during a season and what it does is add some juice to a year.

They do it in European basketball, too, with the EuroLeague for the best teams and other Cup competitions for some basic domestic leagues.

It’s fun, it creates a bit more buzz, the competitions take a while to unfold and they actually can give also-rans something to play for if they keep winning or pulling upsets.

There is no way TFC would be playing a meaningful game in the dreadful season without the outside tournaments and it has to be a bit of a boost to the players and their long-suffering fans.

Same thing goes in England, I’d suspect, with the FA Cup where unknown sides can pull an upset or two and I’m sure there are other examples in other leagues over there.

Sadly, they can’t do it here with the two sports that would make most sense – basketball and the pucks – for a couple of reasons.

One, the leagues play far too many regular season games – if they went from 82 to, say, 68 or 70 and lopped a couple of weeks off the length of the season it’d be great – and, two, there probably isn’t the competition outside the established leagues to make it worth anyone’s while.

But what if they did this?

What if they cut the NBA season short by about 10 games or so and created some kind of Global Cup where all 30 teams here and the top 10 or 15 in Europe were split into groups for a round-robin (say one two-game trip to the continent, a two-game trip here for each European team) and the top teams then moved into either another round-robin or an elimination series.

How cool would that be?

Very cool.

And it’s not going to happen because (a) no league wants to cut its season short and (b) it would underscore just how dreadful some regular season nights are.

Too bad, isn’t it?

-

One last note on the basketball and then we’ll let it rest.

The one thing that most people I talked to brought up – and it was a chatfest hanging around with a gaggle of old friends the two days I was in the gym – was the calibre of coaching these kids have had when they were growing up.

There was a time not too long ago when the provincial associations didn’t work all that closely with the national team program and it was a serious issue.

Now? Now the groups are working together, the calibre of youth coaching is getting better and better every summer and the collaborative effort is only making things better for everyone concerned.

Good to see.

-

 

 

A significant accomplishment for a group of young women

Remember when we last saw the women’s basketball team at the London Olympics and they were hoping their run to the quarter-finals would serve as some sort of impetus to the next group of young Canadian girls?

Seems it worked even before, or more quickly, than they could have imagined.

It was a bit under-reported on the weekend – sorry about that, things got in the way – but the Canadian Under-17 girls finished a tremendous world championship with a bronze medal after beating Japan 84-77.

That’s a rather significant accomplishment – as far as I can tell it’s the first age-group world championship medal a Canadian women’s team has ever won – and should serve notice that the next era could be as good as the one we’re experiencing right now.

The Canadians finished between the powerful and unbeaten Americans and silver medallists Spain in the tournament, which caps the international season for Canada Basketball.

We cannot be sure how many of these girls will eventually play for the senior team (there’s still a junior career to think about for many of them) but there is one thing we can be sure of:

Canada Basketball is putting in place some wildly important and well devised grass roots programs – especially on the female side – that can only help keep the country among the top teams in the world in the years to come.

Unlike the boys, who have AAU and club teams that offer top notch competition, a lot of these girls are truly homegrown and what Canada Basketball is apparently doing is providing them with the right amount of training and coaching to allow them to succeed.

We’ll get more into the big picture of the game in Canada over the next couple of days – there’s still a stop to be made this afternoon to wrap up the senior men’s camp – but suffice it say a world championships medal for the Under-17 girls is the most significant accomplishment of many for an organization that has turned itself around incredibly over the last five years.

-

Saw something Friday that I’d only seen one other time in my life and, man, it just seems so weird.

While waiting for the gang to show up before Springsteen epic, was sitting on a stool passing time.

And the guy two over from me was sipping his beer and in between sips he’d drop one or two olives into his drink.

Yeah, olives. Regular old green olives.

Had seen that one time before, in a saloon in, I believe, Sioux Falls or some other outpost when we were there with the lads for a pre-season game.

I didn’t get it then, I just don’t get it. Maybe it has to with my basic aversion to olives but, really, olives in beer?

Someone explain it to me.

-

So, Bruce.

No, I don’t get to an awful lot of concerts – just doesn’t seem to be enough time – but it wouldn’t matter because they would all pale in comparison.

Incredible.

Three hours, 40 minutes – according to Springsteen-ologists I trust it was among it’s in the top 10 all time in terms of time on stage – and it was like nothing I’d seen before.

Wide-ranging set list with old classics and new stuff from the current release and more energy, start to finish, than you could possibly imagine.

Oh, and the six- or seven-song encore was almost too much to take.

Personal favourites:

I heard him do The Rising and felt chills.

Thunder Road in the encore was spine-tingling.

My City of Ruins, another classic.

Oh, and I have no idea why but this is among the all-time favourites.

And I’m glad I got to hear it. Can’t really explain the feeling except to say that it’s rather incredible.

But here’s one for you.

I’m sure there are musicians out there who connect with their audiences like Springsteen does – there has to be, I presume – but I don’t think there’s another guy, and his band, who pour more energy into every single performance, every single song than the E Street Band does.

It’s like they feel they owe the audience their very, very best each night and there’s a palpable feeling.

It’s something else indeed.

And, yes, Super Family already has tickets for Copps in October, I’m going to try to rejig a travel schedule so I can get there, too.

-

Another basketball note – and, no, there is likely to be no Raptors news this week, either; still holiday time – and one we’ve been a tad remiss about of late.

Remember the NBL Canada? Well, it’s draft night, they’ve just come off their second combine to take a look at the talent and everything would seem to be on track for another solid season.

There’s a new team in Windsor, I see former NBAer Cliff Levingston is taking over the coaching gig in Halifax and the Quebec team is moving into a more suitable facility in Laval.

The league has done just what it had to, it didn’t try to grow too fast off a good first season, hoping instead to capitalize on the inroads it made last year to make the second year better.

We’ll get into it more as the 2012-13 season gets closer but if you’ve got a chance to help ‘em out in any of the league’s cities, I’d say do it; it’s a worthwhile endeavour and they are going about things the right way.

-

Oh yeah, one more left over from Friday.

Remember how I used to think Yannick Noah was the coolest guy in the world?

Well, he’s now tied atop the list, I believe, with Little Steven Van Zandt.

Dude’s an incredible musician, a pretty good actor and I’m driving around Saturday and, after playing nearly four hours on Friday night, I hear him in hosting a live afternoon version of Little Steven’s Underground Garage on Q107.

That’s one cool dude.

-

 

 

 

The end of the weekend mail

Okay, told you today would be better and longer and have some more stuff in it.

Have fun, we’ll be back tomorrow with the usual stuff.

-

Q: First, this is friendly question. Second, am also from the Falls (say hi to Bubba). With story on national team is pic with you beside Triano. Anything in how you cover stories like this that's different from others i.e. hold to higher standard etc?

K J, Toronto

A: No, not really. Same standards apply to pretty much everything I write. Yes, there’s a level of familiarity there – and has been with the national team since I’ve been writing about it since 1992 – but everyone’s careful to separate the work part from the personal part. It happened that way with the Raptors, happens that way with Canada.

Good picture though, wasn’t it?

-

Q: Hey Doug. If all the chips fell in Canada's favor from now to Rio, what do you think our SMNT could expect in terms of placing at the Rio tournament. Looking at the camp roster, the name that sticks out as a potential all-star is Wiggins; and that is if he "fulfills his potential." Just wondering if we realistically have the weapons to medal in an Olympics?

Also, looking at the current and prospective talent, do you not see some seriously hurt feelings in the SMNT backcourt going forward (Joseph, Ennis, Pangos, Heislip, Kabongo, Cadougan)? Can we trade a couple of pg's to the D.R. for the Al Horford...maybe?

Thanks Doug

Nick A, Toronto

A: I can’t guess about Rio and I warn you, the qualification process is hard, very hard. As it stands now, only 12 countries make the Olympics – there are 24 in the world championships – but if they get there, I’d think anything less than a top eight finish would be a disappointment.

As for the guards, it’s going to be very interesting to see who emerges as the toughest – mentally and physically – over the next few years to grab the job.

-

Q: Hey Doug: Since you asked so politely, here goes my question: A lot of people are putting a lot of 'hope' in Jonas Valanciunas? In your opinion, what is the biggest adjustment, or the most difficult part of the learning curve for him in his first year? What are YOUR expectations of him? Will he lead us to an NBA Championship next year?

Thanks for all that you do - even in these 'down' times in the NBA, you still find basketball (and other) tidbits to bring us. It is greatly appreciated!

Tim H, Windsor

A: The biggest adjustment on the court will be learning how to defend without fouling. It’s hard to figure out what you can get away with, how physical you can be, how strong the other guys are. I fully expect more than a few games of foul trouble early in the season.

My expectations? Less than some, I think. I would imagine it takes most of the season for him to get truly comfortable.

-

Q: Ciao Sir Douglas. I hope that after your Olympic summer you and your family could spend some time having nice holidays. Now the question.

I know that many NBA teams have very good scouting staff watching players all over the world (the Raptors probably have one of the best one). But I think that many times they are too much focused only on very young (18-20 years old) prospects. Two kinds of different players who could be interesting for the NBA and for my beloved Raps are:

Worldwide famous Navarro is the best example. He is a well known player who is dominating the Euroleague in the last years, who won the MVP title in the last NT Euro championships and who was able to play a wonderful final in London. With the current financial situation in Europe (particularly in Italy, Greece and Spain) every team could sign him or other experienced but not old players (Spanoulis, Teodosic, Bouroussis are only the first names in my mind).

The underrated and not famous over the sea. The best example is the probably unknown Luigi Datome._24 years old, he is an Italian professional basketball player. With height of 6.8 he plays the small forward position. Great athlete, good shooter, nice defender and always working in the gym. Datome was named the Italian League's Best Player Under 22 in 2009, while a member of the Italian League club Virtus Roma. He currently renewed the contract with Virtus Roma reducing his salary because he knows that the team has big financial issues.

Excluding the 3 NBA Italian players he and Daniel Hackett are the best Italian players.

He has also been a member of the senior men's Italian national basketball team. He played at EuroBasket 2007 and EuroBasket 2009._During the last game of the Euro NT qualifications he played an outstanding and winning game vs Turkey that's a very good team. With the minimum NBA contract he could be a very good choice for the Raptors in a position that's still a BIG HOLE. I know that you could think that I'm overevaluating him but probably he could be considered very very similar to Landry Fields. For sure he has no NBA experience but is a little higher, a better shooter and a lot (LOT) cheaper.

What's your opinion? I think that the Raptors fans could appreciate so much Datome and Hackett with their approach to the game like gladiators, always battling on the floor.

Post Scriptum: sorry for my grammatically weak english, but I hope that you and your faithful readers sometimes could close your eyes and skip the errors.

Doug, just an addendum. This is the video of Datome's dunk over Erden during the game in which he scored 23 points (Gallinari 16, Hackett 15) in the 78-69 Italian win vs. Turkey.

Paolo P, Roma

A: I asked a couple of people about Datome and they think he’s an intriguing player but they aren’t sure if he’s got the game to be a regular in the NBA. They did both say he’s the fourth best Italian player after the three that are here in the NBA but they figure he’ll stay and make all kinds of money in Europe.

But from what I’ve seen, and heard, I bet the fans would indeed take to him, they do like that work ethic and skill.

I can’t really speak to Hackett but I will say this: The European leagues are scouted so well that if he wanted to come and was good enough, some team would snap him up. That they haven’t tells me something.

-

Q: Hey Doug. Have you ever witnessed OAK Launching Basketballs at the Opposition if they took to much time in the Shootaround? Like Vince said on OTR. Must of been hilarious.

Bob W, Winnipeg

A: Never actually saw it, but did see the day he tried to get into a scuffle with Jeff McInnis after a shootaround here, a little brouhaha that ended up with Oak getting suspended. Wouldn’t surprise me, though, if he didn’t toss a ball every now and then just to let visiting teams know it was time to give up the court.

-

Q: Hi Doug... I have a new puppy, a phoney Spinone. Any tips? Can you use the extendable leash from the couch, or do things get too tangled? Is it better to teach her to come and to sit, or to leap from about four feet away into your body? Stuffed toys... a little chicken, or a baby Carleton?

Enjoy your stuff! Thanks

Bob E, Kanata

A: Oh, I’ve always though the leap was way cool, especially if they miss by just a half step; that’ll teach ‘em to be better at it, experience is the best teacher.

(I keed; a little)

Do yourself a favour though: Teach the little canine urchin to sleep in; it sounds all well and good to have a morning walk in the pre-dawn period but, trust me, if you’re up at 5:30 or so doing, say, a blog, you get a bit tired of going outside while the coffee’s brewing and work awaits.

Best of luck.

Oh, find the one sports mascot you hate more than any other, find a way to get a stuffed version of it and let her rip it to bits; loads of fun.

The start of the weekend mail

Sorry for being late and a bit short.

Was a long, long, long night of great music. More on that Monday, more mail tomorrow and here’s this to get you through the day.

-

Q: Hi Doug! How are you? (You wanted us to ask, so I've done it :) ... But seriously, how are you? Time zone adustment completed? London 2012 laundry washed, dried, ironed and neatly put away? Random receipts found and pesky expense reports filed?)

Anyway, good points in your blog about the men’s basketball program. The women's program, thanks to its appearance in London, must be considered ahead of the men's in terms of creating and building on a legacy. This summer (and throughout the exciting qualifying process) young Canadian girls were able to watch our senior women’s team wear the national jersey, play on TV and then finally in the 2012 Olympics.

So, that being said, I am wondering if Canada Basketball has (done the right thing and) extended Allison McNeill's contract? And hopefully for at least four more years! Thank you. (And do you have any update on our U17 Women's team at the FIBA World Championships? I think they were playing the Netherlands Friday, but I haven't seen any score at the time I sent this along.)

Lorie P, London

A: The update is that the under-17 girls beat Netherlands by a point in what I’m told was a great game and play the USA today in the semifinals. They have now two games to play for a medal.

As for Allison, nothing’s been done yet but I believe her deal isn’t up until the end of the calendar and it’s usually the first of the next year before anything’s done. And if she wants the job, it has to be hers and I’ve had no indication she doesn’t.

And me? All seems pretty much back to normal, kinda boring at times to tell you the truth. It's like post-Olympic letdown.

-

Q: Good work in London, Doug. This has been, and is, a good time to re-evaluate what we-you call sports and our connections to sport: especially when it comes to the pros vs the rest.

With the Pan Am games - and athletes from entire hemisphere - coming to Toronto-GTA in 2015 we have a great opportunity to engage with sport in new and fuller ways.

It has to do what we think, what we are taught, what the media says COUNTS as sport.

One reason your columns are so engaging is that we learn of your involvement with your son's teams and with regional sports competitions. The irony, of course, is that without everyday community-based sports, the pros in their own lives would never have become pros!

It is a challenge for us all to get out from under the deluge of celebrity-driven mass professional sports "entertainment".

Q: What are the prospects for the 2015 Pan Am games here in Toronto-GTA to re-engage us in support for sport as will be on display when 10,000+ athletes from the Western hemisphere come to play here in our community?

Charles N, Toronto

A: It’s going to be quite interesting to see how the general public takes to that event. I fear it may get lost a bit in a typically busy summer but I hope people get out to at least see something. The thing will be what the legacy is, first in facilities that future generations will benefit from, and then from any momentum it gives young kids to take up sport seriously.

I know it will be covered by the media almost as well as the Olympics were, at least that’s our plan right now, so the awareness may boost interest.

No, it’s not the Olympics but it’s big and it does bring together world class athletes.

-

Q: Hi Doug. This might be a bit naive question but, How much cash do the Raps have in there wallet? Because there are still some big name free agents out the (e.g. Alonzo Gee, Josh Howard, Michael Redd) do you think the raps could if they wanted to afford any of them? Have a nice day,

Mike B, Czech Republic

A: They have very little money to spend outside of cap exception and even less interest in adding any of those guys, none of whom would be considered in the least a difference maker. They like what they have, still have a roster spot for some flexibility in deals and aren’t going to be adding anyone.

-

Q: Doug: When you leave for 3 weeks, to cover an event like the Olympics, some drift away. It's like an NBA, or NHL lockout. Win us back with some of your nifty insider, Raps news. Get into B.C.'s ear and pry out a tidbit for us. We're still here, and are getting antsy for the start of the season.

Ken B, Matheson

A: I wish I could but I can’t. Bryan’s on vacation, Dwane’s on vacation, the players are scattered and the rest of the front office is doing mundane front office things like travel schedules and the like.

This is, has always been and will always be the dead time around the NBA.

Sorry.

-

Q: Golf Guru - with the 9 handicap. Jack N said that he always went to the US open at least two weeks in advance. My question is course management.

I will assume the course is closed but other players are likely to be there also. Do they play 18 holes? Do they put 20 balls down and swing away. Do they find the trouble spots and put 20 balls down. What happens to the golfers ahead or behind? Do they book time for certain holes and for certain times?

Me - I gave up golf till I was able to compete properly. No need to pay green fees and lose my temper when I can do that for free.

Second question. There are a lot of female lead singers but there seems to be a lack of female backup musicians.

Any thoughts on that matter.

Peter T, London

A: Generally practice rounds are quite informal and I’ve known guys to drop a second ball in a fairway or putt three or four times each green to work on specific shots and lines. And they play quickly enough, and everyone understands the informal nature of the rounds, that there are few delays.

-

Q: My wife and I have our tickets for the Raptors intra-squad game in Halifax, October 6. We are expecting you will be around for that game and the preceding days of training camp? If so, we East Coast Irregulars need to begin planning the reception!

Eric H, Broad Cove, N.S.

A: I’ll be there for the week of camp, the Monday night until the Saturday night but am getting back home right after the scrimmage. I am sure, however, that there will be evenings to hang out in that great city and I’ll be asking for tips as I did in Ottawa and Vancouver.

Looking forward to it very much.

-

Q: Hi Doug, how are you? Things well here, any chance Montreal will ever get an NBA team?

Doug B, Ottawa

A: I’ll never say never but there’s a 99.999999999999 per cent chance it’ll never happen. So, yes, there is a chance as the movie once told us.

Important tales from the past can set up the future

We’re standing in the atrium of the arena yesterday afternoon waiting for the Canada Basketball shindig to start and I’m looking around and seeing Greg Francis and Shawn Swords and Peter Guarasci and Rowan Barrett and Steve Konchalski and Joe Raso and I’m sure others I’ve forgotten so I’m sorry about that.

We’ve got Jay Triano and Steve Nash about to take the podium and all I can think of is ‘when did they turn the clocks back 12 or 14 years?’

And you know what?

I’m glad they did.

The continuum of basketball, men’s basketball in particular, kind of took a hit in the mid-2000s, guys floated in and out of the program at the upper level, there didn’t seem to be a consistency of eras that I think is necessary to keep things going in the right direction.

And, please, that is not a knock on Leo or what he did in those years, he got the senior team to one worlds, came within a game or two of grander success and did what he could with what he had.

But there was a disconnect between the group that was more successful than any since the 1980s and the kids who are coming up through the system now and that connection is vital.

I know when Jay and Steve sat down with that group last night – with the others there to lend credence to what they said about what have to be known as the good old days – they would have recounted what it meant to be successful on an international stage, what it meant to individuals, what it meant to basketball fans in the country, what it mean to the growth of the game all over.

And I hope the young kids listened and were imbued with some sense of pride and desire when it comes to representing Canada.

Basketball, more than any other sport for young kids in our country, is far too dominated by visions of grandeur to the south.

Some think – wrongly – that it’s more important to be thought highly of by Americans than it is to play for Canada; that for some reason the validation from the United States trumps the feeling one would get from putting on a Canada uniform and making a name for yourself with your people.

Guys like Triano and Nash and Barrett and Francis and Guarasci and Swords and Konchalski and Raso know that; I trust their message will be heard.

-

Bruce!

Tonight!

Yes, it should be good, glad Super Son will see and hear him for the first time – albeit from the upper reaches of the dome – and talk about your fortuitous timing.

Arrived back from London to a pile of New Yorkers to go through as part of the usual evening routine and this somewhat excellent profile was in one of them.

You should read it.

And then you should listen to this.

-

Lance Armstrong is giving up his fight against doping allegations and will be stripped of seven Tour de France titles?

Yawn.

Look, I don’t know whether Lance Armstrong cheated or didn’t cheat – barring any incontrovertible evidence of his own to the contrary, the current case against him would suggest that he did – but now that he’s apparently going to go away and not deal with it anymore is welcome.

Good.

It’s been, to me, a boring tale of he-said, she-said since the saga began, we have what should have been one of the great heroes of sports torn down and now going away because the spectre of drugs and performance-enhancing substances has driven him away.

It goes – once again – to our propensity to be let down by those we admire most, to have people we put on a pedestal tumble greatly because of something of their own doing.

Too bad but not unusual, is it? We’ve had other sporting icons prove to be quite flawed in the final analysis.

Armstrong should have been lauded for all that he did, for his fight against cancer, for the money he raised to fight that disease; he has done some tremendous things.

Now?

Now he will be remembered as a drug cheat in most circles – rightly or wrongly – because a man who spent years trying to protect his legacy and prove his innocence has given up that fight.

That’s kind of telling, isn’t it?

Oh, and I can’t ever forgive him for dumping Sheryl Crow so there’s that, too.

-

Hang on.

Rogers might buy The Score?

Don’t they own everything already?

I can’t keep this stuff straight and all I know is that, somehow, it’s going to cost me more money on my cable bill.

-

Mail?

May have some time pre-show this afternoon to knock some off and a bit of time tomorrow before a possible trip to the Bills game – and no one’s caught me up on the gridiron yet, by the way people – so …

Click. Write. Send.

-

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with this screaming talking head known as Skip Bayless, who makes his living being somewhat of a buffoon on some Inane ESPN morning chat show but he represents all that is wrong with the sports media today.

He did what people of his ilk do, said something outrageous in hopes of garnering fame and ratings when he slagged Derek Jeter the other day.

As we’ve said often before, there are a lot of problems with some segments of the sports media today, there are people who never go anywhere, never speak to anyone, people who don’t do hard work who pass themselves off as experts when in fact they are entertainers first and foremost, often with the primary goal of fame rather than imparting information in context and with a reasoned bent.

Bayless, who I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to, comes across – and should be considered – a bit of a blowhard who makes a passable living making bold and outrageous statements on a morning chat show.

Everything – from hello to goodbye and every word in between – should be summarily ignored as the rantings of a caricature of all that is wrong with broadcast media today.

-

 

 

It's a long process that requires some patience

There is genuine and legitimate excitement out there about the prospects for the Canadian senior men’s basketball team.

There are a handful of excellent young players fanned out across prep schools, universities and the NBA; there is a charismatic and accomplished leader in Steve Nash to twist some arms and cajole players into playing; Nash’s assistant, Rowan Barrett, is an excellent choice, he has a cachet with precisely the groups of youngsters and their “advisors” that’s needed; and in Jay Triano they have a skilled coach who knows exactly what’s needed to have international success.

The future hasn’t looked this good in a very, very long time.

Pardon the big old heaping of cold water, though.

This team is four years away from being truly legitimate and I hope that the same people who are over-the-top excited about it realize that.

Yes, they are very good young players that Nash is trying to convince to see the benefits of playing for the national team but that same youth is going to be hard to get past.

Yes, they should qualify for the 2014 worlds – to not to would be a failure of epic proportions – but asking them to be legitimate contenders in what will be the first significant senior competition of many of their lives is asking too much.

That’s when they learn; it’s the two years after when they are supposed to make their move and even that’s not going to be that easy.

The Olympics are tough to get to, with just 12 teams and some automatic entries that basically weaken the field, the qualification process is difficult and some good teams don’t get there.

The best thing?

Well, the best thing about this time in FIBA Americas basketball is that Canada could very well be the second best team in the region and, because the States doesn’t even have to go to the worlds qualifier next year in Venezuela, there is a chance to do something significant there.

Argentina’s time is past, Brazil’s good but old and the other perennial contenders like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela are hardly any better than Canada.

 

What that could mean – if the Americans do their part and win the 2014 worlds to gain an automatic berth in the 2016 Olympics and Brazil’s in as host – is that Canada has an easier path than ever to get to the Rio Games.

But – and this is where people need not get ahead of themselves – doing well in this hemisphere really means nothing. What Canada has to do now is start proving itself against the world, it cannot simply be happy with being a good FIBA Americas team, that doesn’t mean a thing in the bigger picture. It’s the world that counts and the world is a tough place, it’s going to take years to make a mark there.

Basketball Canada officials know this and have patience, fans and sponsors better, too.

-

No, I have no problem with the TOD losing with 45-year-old Omar Vizquel getting thrown out trying to steal second with two out and down a run in the ninth last night in Detroit.

It’s not like crack Tiger closer Jose Valverde was going to get lit up, he’s apparently got a slow move to the plate and I’d rather take a chance on one guy getting one hit with a runner on second than needing two off a guy like Valverde, which they would have had they not tried to run.

Sometimes you have to try to make things happen; sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

-

I have no idea why but I found this in the car CD player, cranked it up to an almost uncomfortable level of volume and now I’ve been singing like a fool for hours.

And it reminds me that Chris De Burgh is vastly under-rated in my circles.

No, they don’t write songs like the used to; who doesn’t like a good ballad or a good story or good lyrics?

-

Getting back to basketball for a quick minute.

The Canadian cadetttes, the under-17 girls at the world championship, might have a chance to do something special.

They beat Korea yesterday to finish the preliminary round at 3-2 and that puts them third in their group going into Friday’s quarter-finals.

How big is that?

Well, they get the host Netherlands in the quarters, avoid the powerful United States and a win over the hosts gives them two games to play for a medal.

Now, if they beat Netherlands they’ll get the States, most likely, in the semis but even a loss there gives ‘em a game to play for bronze.

Yeah, we’ll track them a bit more closely now, been kind of lax in that this week.

-

Someone told me there might be a pucks lockout?

If there is, I just want to point out that I didn’t poach the hockey when there was no basketball and I’d appreciate the same consideration from my brethren if things go dark in arenas.

Thanks.

-

No, I don’t have nearly enough mail.

No ‘hellos’, no ‘how are you’s’, no surprises.

Come on folks.

Click. Write. Send.

-

 

 

Is there any use for season tickets any more?

I’m working on this little story yesterday – turns out it doesn’t have a huge impact here because the Raptors aren’t fully involved – and when I was telling someone about it, this question was asked:

Why does anyone buy season tickets any more?

Good question.

The story – the NBA and Ticketmaster are combining forces on a secondary ticket market website where teams and people can unload excess inventory – led to a discussion, and some thought, about the whole ticket issued as it pertains to pro sports around these parts these days.

And I wondered: Are season tickets even worth it now?

Can’t be, can they be?

It’s not like you can’t get a seat to a game if you want it, and you can sit pretty much anywhere you want and pay whatever price you like. It’s not like the good old days when the HOTH sold out 40 of 41 nights a year in the Vince Era; it’s not like the good old days when the TOD drew 54,000 a night to concrete bubble downtown; even the Pucks have seats available if you want them.

So what’s the value in season tickets?

I guess I could see eight guys going in on four seats, maybe; I suppose business still like to have them to parcel out to clients and employees as some perk but past that?

I know some teams – the Raptors being one of them – offer some kind of perks to people who fork over big bucks, insider stuff like the odd meet-and-greet with players and management but is that enough?

Do teams need to do more over longer periods than just the season to entice people into committing large amounts of money on little more than faith that that the team will be good?

Do they have to offer even more perks that normal people can’t get and what would those perks be? In this day and age of uber-expensive tickets and the fact you can always get a seat to pretty much any game you want, I don’t see a reason now to commit lots of money off the top.

Do you?

As for the Ticketmaster plan, what it does, I guess, is give teams more control and provides one-stop shopping for people who want to either get what’s left or pick up seats that ticket-holders don’t want to use.

But that’s also what places like Stubhub do, with the one difference being the market dictates the price in that case, not the team.

I can remember reading about a Stubhub ticket for some Nets game last year where the price dropped to less than $1 and some games went for $5. In a secondary-ticket market, that’d be what I’d want as a buyer, a chance to pay true market rate rather than some arbitrary amount set by a team or a league or a person who’s looking to cut his losses.

Now, since I don’t buy a lot of tickets, I’m wondering what the public perception is? People? What have you got?

-

Not sure I’ll see this or anything like it from Section 524B on Friday night but, man, this is pretty good, no?

Bruce, Little Steven, a legendary anthem.

-

Okay, Hazelville and surrounding area locals, pay attention.

If you’re wandering by Long Branch and have a hankering for a burger, you cannot do better than Woody’s.

Excellent find by Super Wife and Super Son, it’s a little dive on a corner and now supplants Five Guys near the top of the go-to burger list.

Try the cheddar-stuffed one, you won’t regret it and the tasty micro-brewed pilsner was a nice find, wish I’d remembered the name.

-

Mail?

Yeah, let’s get started.

Not much basketball to talk about, really, but there must be other stuff on your mind, right?

Click. Write. Send. Say hello. It’s always nice to hear from old friends.

-

So I get home and get to the couch – man, I missed that couch – and flip on the TOD game because, well, because that’s habit and, frankly, I’m kind of interested to see how Ricky Romero does because I quite like him as a pitcher and he’s always been a stand-up guy when I’ve had the chance to talk to him.

Well, he gets hammered – his own doing with eight walks in six innings – and it’s kind of tough to watch.

I don’t know what’s gone wrong with him – doesn’t seem that anyone does – but I do know this: He’s handling himself with class and dignity and I am sure he’ll come out of this mess a better pitcher and probably a better guy.

I’m always interested in seeing how athletes react to adversity, whether they look for things to blame – sometimes with veiled references to outside forces, sometimes blatantly – or whether they take responsibility.

Romero does.

Read Griff’s piece here, Romero is a stand-up guy, fully willing to heap the blame on himself, fully wiling to stand an answer questions when there are athletes who would run and hide.

Look, there is no doubt Romero’s a gifted major league pitcher, you don’t win as many games as he has over his career without having above-average stuff.

It’s also no secret that he’s lost it for this season, can’t figure out what’s wrong exactly and lurches from start to start a little bit mystified and wondering what’s going to come out of his arm every time he takes the mound.

But he walks out there every four or five days with his head high to give it what he’s got and if he doesn’t have it, he accepts it, tries to explain it and gets ready to do it all again.

Will his ‘A’ stuff come back? Undoubtedly.

But I think fans have learned more about him in failure as they did when things were going well. And that’s got to be the only good thing to come out of this lost season.

-

Hey, looks like I might have to go cover the Bills on Saturday night, someone catch me up on the football, would you?

Thanks.

-