We’ve got something new again, our own Toronto Star Raptors facebook page because, well, because that’s what we do.
Jenni – our Social Media Editor and the woman who’s going to make it all work and, actually, do most of the work – tells me it’s going to have a whole bunch of extras you might not get in my run-of-the-mill existence.
Some photo galleries, stuff like a “Question Of The Day” and bells and whistles galore.
It’s been up there on the interwebs for a couple of days but they finally got me to sit still for a minute for a return of – wait for it – Grunt TV, which we’ll make a regular part of the fun.
So now the agents are fully in the fray as the NBA lockout reaches its most critical day yet and all I can say to that is:
Good grief.
If you’ve read all the stuff from yesterday – there’s a good recap here – a handful of high-powered agents are insinuating themselves into the lockout by suggesting players reject any deal that calls for any reduction in the percentage of basketball related income they get (it’s at 57 per cent now, owners originally proposed 46 and I think a 50-50 split might get it done) and the agents are still calling for decertification of the union and the wretched legal battle that will bring on.
Me?
I think they should go away.
I think the players are fully capable of making a decision for themselves – and there will be a full vote on whatever deal the negotiating teams come up with – and if there is a more transparent conflict of interest with agents to stand to make all their money off whatever new contracts their clients sign, I can’t think of what it is.
And for a guy who generally sided with the players in this dispute because they are giving back and giving back and seemingly getting nothing in return, it’s kind of distasteful to think they’d not be able to come to their own conclusions on what, or what doesn’t, constitute a deal they live with.
I’ve long thought that basketball agents have held far too much sway in the way the game is operated, either through engineering trades for their clients with complicit general managers or complaining behind the scenes about how their clients are being used by any specific coach/team/organization.
I understand that they can be used as resources, to give advice, help with contract negotiations and things like that, but at the same time, that should only be when they’re asked by players, not as a pre-emptive strike like this seems to be.
I can only imagine how Billy Hunter and Derek Fisher feel, being so undermined by men whose primary interest is making money off their clients.
Could be a wild day in New York today and I have a feeling we’ll know by this evening what the prognosis is for the rest of the exhibition games and the planned start of the season.
-
What’s this????
Yes, we are in uncharted territory here.
And there would appear to be more to come.
Stay tuned.
-
So, I’m watching the ball game last night and one thing come quickly to mind:
How, um, chunky is C.C. Sabathia?
Wow.
Yes, I know baseball players – some of them, at least – are far from svelte or athletic or in anything remotely close to top physical condition but, my Lord.
He’s huge.
That’s a caboose that more shelf than anything else and the size of his legs is, well, quite something.
Anyway, I guess it proves that girth and bulk count for something the game because he’s been good for a very long time.
But, man.
That’s a large fellow and I’m wondering if his late-season swoon – his numbers in the last five or six weeks are quite pedestrian – doesn’t have something to do with his physical condition.
-
One of the all-time great “sing at the top of your lungs while driving” songs and it’s been 31 41 (you know me and math) years since Janis Joplin died.
Just our usual musical interlude.
-
I’m guessing my Yankees-Tampa ALCS is close to dead, isn’t it?
And what’s going on in the baseball playoffs hammers home one point we’ve made here often:
Home field advantage in baseball counts less than in any other sport, I think.
Probably has to do with how much pitching controls the post-season and good pitching travels anywhere so we’ve seen in the Tampa series, the first two games of the Yankees-Tigers series and in the Phillies-Cards thing that home field doesn’t mean an awful lot.
If I had to rank the major pro sports and the impact that playing home has, it’d probably go this way:
Basketball
Maybe it’s the rims, maybe it’s the momentum a team gets from the crowd, maybe it’s something entirely different but there probably isn’t any question that it’s the most pronounced advantage of the major North American pro sports.
Football
It’s probably got as much to do with weather – or the lack of weather for teams built to play in domes – but home teams do seem to have a bit of an edge, don’t they?
Hockey
I guess it’s the standard size of the playing surface, and the fact in-game momentum or “runs” don’t play as big a part in the outcome as they do in, say, the basketball but it strikes me that a lot of road hockey teams win.
Baseball
Pitching. Pitching. Pitching.
Now, it might be a bit different for games that go extra innings but that’s not all that a common occurrence.
You concur?
-
Hey!
Pucks start Thursday here and for some reason known only to the Tall Foreheads who plan these things, they’re conscripting me to be part of some IGBT.
Just wanted to let you know so you can plan your week, it out to be a hoot.
-
Okay, off the Mother Ship to see what other fun things we can change around here.
Reports out of Brazil say Leandro Barbosa’s going to play a little basketball in his native land this fall, he’s signed, or is going to sign, with the storied Flemengo franchise.
It’s no surprise at all, his brother-slash-agent-slash-spokesman had said a month or so ago that he’d check out other possibilities and it makes entire sense that Leandro would stay at home.
Unlike Sonny Weems, though, Barbosa’s deal has an out for whenever the NBA lockout gets settled so he will be back in Toronto whenever there are games to be played.
I know Leandro a little bit and know how he feels about his homeland, his family there and his love of all things Brazil so the chance to play a little basketball there before coming back to the NBA would suit him just perfectly.
It’s good for him, it’s no sweat for the Raptors so this seems to be one of those win-win situations.
I still contend you’re not going to see a flood of North Americans headed to European leagues, there’s not enough money, not enough roster spots, not enough coddling to keep them happy for even a couple of months.
But why wouldn’t a non-North American stay in his country and play? Be with family, familiar surroundings, work on his game, stay in shape and not have to travel back to this continent and sit around and wait.
I’m dead certain you’ll hear about a lot more guys in Barbosa’s situation who stay at home and play until they’re summoned back to North America.
Good for them.
-
Okay, all this talk yesterday about the Ex got me thinking even more about the olden days.
Two things came to mind:
Those ice cream waffle sandwiches you used to get.
And cotton candy.
Not sure why those two stuck in my head, maybe I’m a traditionalist and don’t know about these new fangled donut-burgers or what have you.
But ice cream waffle sandwiches and cotton candy are the perfect meal.
Q: Hi Doug, are you missing Summer League yet ? :) I actually am - after having watched Team Canada, Ryerson and the Baylor crew, it reminded me of how there is a lot of really entertaining non-NBA basketball out there.
Wayne P, Toronto
A: I miss Summer League like I miss a migraine.
But you’re right, this has been a good time for the game in the city, I’m really ticked that life got in the way of seeing any of it personally.
But that should serve as a reminder: If this thing drags on and the start of the NBA season is delayed, there are other alternatives for the hard-core fans who want some basketball.
-
So a guy’s sitting on a stool working away and there’s all kinds of TVs on, one of which has the CFL game.
And the first reaction? Where the heck is everyone?
Yes, I know they were 1-6 (entirely on merit, I’m told) but even when they’ve been this bad, there’s always seemed to be a core of about 18,000-20,000 who showed up.
What happened?
Did losing finally cost them people? Ticket prices? The stadium? The experience?
I have a friend, a diehard Argo fan from back in the old Exhibition Stadium days, and he’s so fed up with the losses, the transient nature of the roster, the experience at the park, that he’s given up season tickets he’s had forever.
And now he doesn’t even want to drive down to catch a game, knowing he can get the best seat in the house simply by walking up to the box office.
It’s too bad, really.
Used to be that Argo games had an “event” feel to them, even in the mausoleum that a two-thirds empty Rogers Centre is.
I hope they get it back; I’m doubtful that they will.
-
Still, the worst CFL game you’ve ever seen is probably better than any pre-season NFL football because I tried to watch some of one last night and needed to splash cold water on my face to stay awake.
-
Oh, from the Department of Utterly Ridiculous, guess what arrived yesterday?
The NBA pre-season schedule.
Guffaw. Guffaw. Guffaw.
Bet they’ll sell a lot of tickets to those games now.
Four at home, which is good, and only one neutral site game, in Grand Rapids, Mich., which will mark my first trip to that megalopolis.
The Raptors have been there before and I guess I need to check with my Mighty Old Colleague because, if memory serves, I was able to shuffle off that glamour trip to her back in the day.
You will notice, however, that there are no Canadian cities outside of Toronto on the schedule and you can chalk that up entirely to the on-going labour dispute.
These schedules get worked on beginning months in advance and it would have been unfair – and not business-prudent – for them to book an arena, find local sponsors in some other Canadian city knowing full well they might have to pull the plug on the game at the last minute.
Too bad, though; it’s always been fun to travel around with the circus; hope we get to do it in 2012.
Oh, and this labour thing’s screwing with training camp, too.
Because there’s so much planning needed to pull that off – booking gyms, finding hotels, making other travel arrangements – I fully expect even if training camp starts on time it’ll be in boring old Toronto rather than some exotic locale like St. Catharines or Ottawa or Vancouver.
In search of wireless and morning respite, a bedraggled grunt makes his way to Starbuck on the Lane in Niagara for an hour or so of peace and quiet and a wee bit of work.
First guy he sees when he walks in the door: Another Niagara Falls guy, former NBA head coach and it turns into a couple of old friends chatting.
Yeah, Jay’s doing all right, actually.
It is, as we all know, a very quiet time around the NBA – even if there wasn’t a lockout – but it doesn’t mean there aren’t things to do.
One of the very best programs the NBA runs is its Basketball Without Borders events each summer and Jay’s off this weekend to Ljubljana, Slovenia for a week or so to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the camps that bring together the best young players in Europe for basketball- and life-skill lessons.
The fact it’s on in Slovenia is rather significant.
It’s the first time a camp’s been held in one of the former Yugoslav republics, which was the site of the very first one and was for young kids from that former country.
It’s an excellent program and it’s good that the NBA and FIBA kept it going (they’ve been in Rio and are going to Johannesburg next month) in this odd summer.
Of course, because of the lockout, no current players can take part as they do every other summer.
So, the NBA has invited a handful of former players to each camp and, yes, he will be there.
Beats the alternative and if they get the one today, the finish to the trip will be far better than the start.
-
RIP Bubba.
I cannot believe he never won an Emmy.
-
Because, as we know, it’s all about me …
Q: Good morning Doug. I was just wondering why you write your blog so early in the morning? Since your beat job mostly has you working at night and sometimes into the early hours why not write it then so you can actually get a good nights rest?
Richard H, Whitby
A: Good question, one I’ve actually asked myself, too.
And the answer always goes like this:
“Self, what in tarnation doing getting up so early to get that blog up by 8 or 8:30 in the morning?”
“You know why. That’s when the Irregulars in this neck of the woods are getting to work, high traffic time on the interweb before they start their jobs.”
“Self, you’re a dope. Why not do it after the game, get it done by 2 or 3 a.m. and get some sleep?”
“Who are you calling a dope? You know how it is. There’s a bit of an adrenaline rush when the night’s finally over and you need to decompress. Plus, a guy really likes decompressing most nights. Just as easy to get a few hours sleep and start quasi-fresh. Besides, some days I have germs of ideas done in the afternoon or early evening and it’s not that hard to simply expand on them.”
“Self, you are wise old soul. Sorry I asked.”
-
Traffic thing of the day
(And, yes, I’ll move on to something else soon, I promise)
I’ve been lucky enough to have been in Athens, Istanbul, Rome, Madrid, Beijing, London and Barcelona over the course of a career and have seen first hand some of the zaniest traffic known to man.
You know how it is: Six cars come to one corner, six are at the other, people walking and gesticulating like crazy.
Know what I don’t remember seeing?
A fender-bender.
I don’t know it is but, man, those people can drive. A little crazily, sure, but no one seems to get hurt.
-
So a guy’s searching for the right Bubba Smith video (because that’s what we do here at a Raptors blog, search for video of now-deceased ex-football players and thespians) and, of course, these all pop up.
If there was a series of TV commercials better than Tastes Great, Less Filling, I’m not sure what they were.
-
Mail?
Please.
I have a Sopwith Camel flight to Baltimore today and while I’m sure it’ll be bumpy and cramped, could use some work to keep my mind occupied.
And, have an entire night of crabcakes and stools so …
So Billy Hunter does a speaking engagement yesterday and says it’s likely the entire 2011-12 NBA season will be cancelled, the league filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board the other day while suing the players association in federal court as pre-emptive strike against decertification and, as a friend said the other day:
Doug Smith has been a sportswriter for more than 30 years, a journey that's included seven Olympic Games, numerous and varied championships and more dreary regular season games than he'd care to remember. Here, he'll talk about them all, as well as current events and pop culture. (Just don’t ask him about music nowadays — it's not his cup of tea).
TheStar.com
Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Toronto Star or www.thestar.com. The Star is not responsible for the content or views expressed on external sites.
Distribution, transmission or republication of any material is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form. www.thestar.com online since 1996.
Recent Comments