NBA NEWS

Just a couple of thoughts from last night over hyped NBA draft and how it will affect the Raptors. The biggest news has to be the arrival of Ray Allen and Zach Randolph to the Atlantic Division. While everyone is focused on Oden and Durant, this division just got a lot better. These are two very good players who will make Boston and New York better. Allen doesn’t worry me too much as the Raptors generally play good perimeter defense and the chances of Allen and Paul Pierce staying healthy all year are pretty slim. Randolph is more of a problem. He is one of the few big men in the league who play very well against Bosh. The Knicks are going to be able to put Randolph and Eddie Curry on the floor at the same time and at a combined weight of 543 pounds, that is a lot of beef.

The Raptors had a quiet day even though there were rumors swirling around Jose Calderon and Bargnani. I am sure that GM Brian Colangelo listened to lots of offers over the past week but he knew that he was in control of any trade and clearly no one was willing to meet his price. I have complete faith in Colangelo and in this case no move was the best move. He did pick up the rights to Greek forward Giorgos Printezis for a 2008 second round pick. A good move as the Raptors need players not picks.

The draft turned out to be pretty boring but this year’s crop of rookies promise to be exciting. I am looking forward to seeing how they do and if they are as good as all the hype. The impending controversy with the Milwaukee Buck’s first round pick, Yi Jianlian, should be interesting. I haven’t been able to find the reason he doesn’t want to play there so let me know if you know anything. M.J. is going the path of Gretzsky as being a great player and terrible GM. J Rich? Why? The guy can’t play defense and will probably have some kind of injury for a portion of the year. They needed a big name to help Emeka Okafor not a huge contract. Jordan needs to go back to shucking underwear and leave the drafting to professionals.

Tuesday Tribute

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Welcome to "Tuesday Tribute": a weekly video tribute to whatever I want.

This week we celebrate Gino Odjick. Don't be confused... I'm talking about the Gino Odjick that played in the NHL, not any other Gino Odjick you may have had in mind.

I'm not sure how big Gino's balls are, but my guess is that they resemble small planetoids. Holy crap this guy is tough. How tough you might ask? Well, lets review his career highlights...

In Gino's 12 years in the NHL...
-most goals in a season: 16
-most assists in a season: 13
-most points in a season: 29
-career goals: 64
-career assists: 73
-career points: 137
-career penalty minutes: 2,567

Hmmm... I wonder if he played in the NHL for 12 years because of his passing skills? This guy beat the crap out of everyone... almost literally.

I have to admit that I'm a big Bob Probert fan... but Gino really is one of a kind.

Gino beating up St.Louis (all of them)



Gino beating up Buffalo, after crunching Hasek



Gino says hi to Todd Harvery

Salt on Monday

The NHL draft just passed and you can still feel the excitement! Three hours of Pierre ‘Blue Sky’ McGuire, Bob ‘no Doug’ McKenzie, and Farhan (Farhan?) Lalji screaming at you for three hours on a Friday evening! If that isn’t riveting television, then I just don’t know what excites you.

Don’t forget that we also had the thrilling MLB draft this weekend as well!
Wow, yet another draft featuring players that we have never heard of and won’t see for about three years. This is sports broadcasting at it’s best.

There are only two sports leagues that have relevant drafts; the NFL and the NBA.
Why?
The NHL and MLB draft is essentially a draft to stock their minor league teams and develop these players for the future.
The NFL and the NBA draft out of their developmental league – otherwise known as the NCAA. And the beauty of this system is that these leagues don’t even have to worry about funding this NCAA thing as the players aren’t ‘paid’ – stop laughing Chris Webber!! – and the Pro leagues get finely tuned athletes at an age where they can contribute immediately.
In football and basketball, the top picks most often go from high draft pick to on the field impact player in the first year. (In fact if you are a first rounder in either league and you aren’t starting or making a huge contribution, then you are largely considered a bust or a Redskin..)

How far will this notion of a televised draft go? Are we going to start televising the draw for poker tournaments? Or has that already happened.
If someone wants to televise the CFL draft, I might just start living in a park and drinking after-shave for the buzz.

BTW, Bill Simmons kills the NHL draft. You gotta read it.

When Sports Writers Attack!!




I know you all must have been distracted by the momentous hockey and baseball drafts this past weekend, and you might have missed out on a media spat that spilled out of Colorado.
Turns out that a longtime Colarado beat writer Adrian Dater has taken offence to the talking heads at the WORLDWIDE LEADER ESPN, and he flipped out on his blog - the blog is known as ‘The Masterdater Mail bag’. Seems Mr. Dater is sick of ESPN stealing stories and calling it their own. He wants some respect for the guys in the trenches who dig out all those great quotes that the humorists and on air commentators use on their shows and online columns.
Really?
Here is a beat writer, the guy who is forced to go into dressing rooms and get that precious ‘110%’ quote and he is bemoaning a lack of respect for what he does.
Thanks Adrian, I don’t know what I would do without your post game interviews – “the guys were really working tonight”, “ they just kept coming”, “there is no quit in this dressing room” – because everyone knows that the most interesting quotes in the sports world come from players talking to beat writers who are compelled to suck up to the athletes in order to maintain access (and their jobs). In fact Adrian, I’ll give you the post game quotes after the first regular season Avalanche game.

IF THE AV’s WIN:
Paul Stastny – “ I really had good jump out there tonight, I think the whole team is a lot more comfortable with each other this year

Joe Sakic – “ We are really starting to put it together, hopefully we can stay injury free and keep this going.”

Peter Budaj – “I was seeing the puck really well tonight”

Ken Klee – “You want to talk to me?”

IF THE AV’s LOSE;

Paul Stastny – “We just didn’t have any jump out there tonight.”

Joe Sakic – “ We have to put this together. Guys have to realize that training camp is over and we have to get going.”

Peter Budaj – “ I just wasn’t seeing the puck well tonight”

Ken Klee - “ You want to talk to me?”

There you go Adrian. Free of charge. Take the night off, do something nice with your wife or girlfriend.
I am a river to my people.

And finally, (because it seems like this column has gotten all serious like) ,it seems the Anaheim Ducks really know how to celebrate that Cup win.

Tuesday Tribute

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Welcome to "Tuesday Tribute": a weekly video tribute to whatever I want.

This week we celebrate Team Canada. Huh? In June? Oh yes, my friends... Team Canada in June!

In anticipation of the major soccer match on Thursday vs. the U.S.A., I thought it would be nice to teach you all a thing or two about what our national team has been doing at the Gold Cup this year.

Team Canada has earned a berth in the semi-finals this year in the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament south of the border, and has done so with some very exciting footy. After a sluggish start, they are really turning it on. As a matter of fact, they are playing so well that Team Canada's world FIFA ranking has jumped to #56, from #94. If they can pull off the upset against the U.S. (which I think they can), then that ranking will continue to improve.

This all comes as a surprise, as Canada's Soccer Asscociation (CSA- governing body of National Soccer in Canada) had no plans on being competitive in this tournament. It seems that the focus of the CSA is qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (if you ask me, that's exactly where it should be).

In any case, this team is showing great improvement over the past few months. In my opinion, the problem with Canada's soccer program has always been about experience. We simply don't have our National team playing in enough competitive matches. This is simply a matter of having enough bodies on the pitch. Most of our decent players have been overseas in recent years, and we haven't had enough quality men to put together a competitive team. Other countries can do without their stars, as they have the depth to replace them. This year however, with the rise of the MSL and Toronto FC, more and more of our players are closer to home and are more available to take part in the National program. This trend will continue, as will the skill level of our team.

I think we're seeing early signs of progress this year in the Gold Cup. Canada's offence really is a thing of beauty. The defence could be tightened up a little, but they really are playing more and more like a team. Dwayne De Rosario was just awesome vs. Guatemala last week. His teammate, Ali Gerba (probably the coolest name ever on the National team) is also down right nasty around the goal.

Team Canada is alot of fun to watch, and with a victory on Thursday they could show the world just how far they've come.

Quarterfinal Highlights: Canada 3-0 Guatemala

You know you've made it when your video clips have Euro-dance music!

Salt on Monday

Hello people and say welcome back to your favorite weekly column ‘Salt on Monday’. The beginning of June is the slow season for sporting addicts, and the busy season for their mates. Between weddings, stags, engagement parties, and family issues, Salt on Monday couldn’t give you a column last week.

But we’re back, and while we are happy that the NBA, and NHL have crowned champions, and the NFL is merely six weeks away from training camp, we can still find some salty issues to share with you.
As always, I am a river to my people. A salty, bitter, sour river.

ALERT!! ALERT!!! ALERT!!!
Breaking news folks, the Stanley Cup finalists the Ottawa Senators have decided to part ways with their GM John Muckler. Seems second place just doesn’t agree with Billionaire Eugene Melnyk. I guess Melnyk saw what we all saw; that Ottawa would still wilt when you came at them head on. The Leafs used that trick every time they played the Bytown skaters in the playoffs, and battered them into submission. This year, Pittsburgh tried to skate with Ottawa – and that might work for Pittsburgh next year – but their young team couldn’t match the Senators. New Jersey tried to go Trap to Trap, and see who could execute the left wing lock with more proficiency, but without a monster performance from their best player Brodeur, the Devils went away with a whimper. You already know how I feel about Buffalo. A pretend team full of perimeter players just wasn’t going to make the cup finals.

So when Anaheim decided to punch the Sens in the face, they didn’t punch back. They just didn’t have the players with the type of grit needed to punch back at the end of this six-week tournament.

That said, they made the freaking finals people!!! What does new G.M. Brian Murray have to do to keep his job? Well, the first thing I would suggest to him is that he not hire a coach with General Managing experience, because that tends not work out so well.
Just ask John Muckler.

Both the NBA and the NHL had horrible television ratings for their finals. The finals in the NBA topped out at a 6.9 million share out of the 113 million television households in the United States. To make sense of that number just think that the LOWEST ranked NFL game last year was the 2nd Monday Night Game of the opening weekend (San Diego vs the Raiders) - after the Opening Thursday game, the Sunday day and night games, and after the 1st Monday Night Football game – and that was only available on Cable and was watched by 7.9 million households. As to the NHL television ratings in the USA, let’s just say that if Chris, Brad and I drove to Buffalo and watched the finals in a bar we might just have doubled the national ratings.

What is the answer for these two leagues? Well Don Cherry has the answer.
(Note to Don. There is NASCAR and then there is Demolition Derby.
NASCAR has millions of fans and commands a huge television audience.
Demolition Derby is a staple of county fairs all across the south.
Sometimes the Demolition Derby winner gets to take home the winning purse of a basket of homemade biscuits with chittlin’s.
NASCAR winners fly home in their private jets with millions of dollars in prize money and endorsements.
More fighting turns the game of hockey into Demolition Derby, not NASCAR.)

THE HAMILTON STEELERS? THE HAMILTON STINKERS?
THE HAMILTON notMAPLELEAFS?

What will Blackberry Billionaire call his new toy, formerly known as the Nashville Predators? I know there are a lot of people out there who think that the Leafs will never allow a team within their NHL mandated ‘Competition Zone’. Well that was until a man with some big stones walked into the picture. As soon as Jim Balsillie worked out a deal in principle with Preds owner Craig Leipold, who got tired of losing money, to pay a whopping $220 million for the team - which was only valued at $111 million in 2004 - did you notice the announcement from the Federal Governments Competition Bureau regarding NHL Non-Compete clauses. Must be something of a coincidence right?
Balsillie is overpaying for the team in order to pave the way for a move into Southern Ontario. No way is Leipold leaving $220 million on the table no matter what the NHL Board of Governors says. And will the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays object to the sudden increase in the value of their team? Will they give back the millions of dollars they stand to gain from a television deal in an area that is crazy about Hockey? Get ready Leaf fans, yet another team in southern Ontario will get to the Cup Finals before the Leafs do.

And Finally….







Is Tiger on the clear?????
And will his nipples just remain erect indefinitely?

A Fire Side Chat

Alright, we here at torontosportsblog have been wrong about almost everything this spring. Wrong about the Raptors, Pistons, all the hockey matchups and Brad’s sexuality (He has a crush on the crazy manager in the first video below. After watching the video Brad sighed; ‘I wish he would toss me like he tossed that base’.) So god dammit, we are going to be right about this.

Tonight the NBA playoffs will begin and Lebron James has a chance to forever separate himself from the Jordan comparisons. At 22, Jordan was not anywhere close to leading his team to the finals and when he did finally get there he had better players around him than James does. Lebron can smell his destiny, he can feel himself hoisting the championship trophy in one arm and the playoff MVP trophy in the other. Too bad the only think he is going to feel is the cold, hard bitch slap of the Spurs. The Spurs are too good of a TEAM for the Cavs and they are not going to implode the way Detroit did.

You think Gary Bettman is a little bit jealous of David Stern right now? Hockey just finished one of the most boring Stanley Cup finals I have ever watched. Other than Alfredsson trying to break Niedermayers knee with a slap shot and a Pronger elbow, there wasn’t much to talk about. The series received the lowest ratings EVER for NBC…..hmmmm….that doesn’t bode well for a new T.V. contract Gary.

The NBA, on the other hand, is about the showcase its brightest young star on its biggest stage. If Lebron can make keep this series close the ratings will be huge. Think of the marketing: “One man against the best team of the decade. Can the King defeat his enemy and rule his kingdom?”

David Stern secretly wants Lebron to win. Even though the NBA has been pushing the team concept with its “It takes 5” commercials, it is way easier to market a player than a team. Lebron obviously wants this too. This series could play right into his goals of “Global Icon” and first sports billionaire. If he wins this championship we will see him shucking every product in every country in the world; his agent must be drooling at the prospect. Too bad he isn’t going win.

I predict a 5 game series ending in a Spurs victory. I love Lebron but right now Duncan has a better team and is a smarter player. No one has been able to consistently beat the Spurs and that isn’t going to change now. Let’s hope I am wrong. Let’s hope this is a great series that goes 7 games because after this we have a long, long, long wait for anything other than baseball highlights. The guys at the Score and TSN are getting ready to join sports fans in the annual numbing of the brain that summer brings. Imagine having to try and make a half hour sports show with nothing but baseball highlights for 3 months. They should get Pierre McGuire hopped up on speedballs to do highlight packages for Jays games. His shiny, bulbous head might explode as he desperately tries to make people get excited about Jason Phillips striking out for the 4th time in one night. I would love to see Jody Vance get drunk and start making fun of all the country bumpkins she works with at Sportsnet (who in their right mind watches that channel for any reason other than to look at her?).

Well enough of that. I hope you have enjoyed the fire side chat with the Young Master. Remember, if you need any advice on any type of fantasy sport or any sports in general I am the one to contact and will be able to answer all your questions.

Go Dunn Go!

Tuesday Tribute

Holla!
Welcome to "Tuesday Tribute": a weekly video tribute to whatever I want.

This week we celebrate "Crazy Baseball Manager". Autoracing fans go to autoraces to get shitfaced and hopefully see a bad accident. A-Ball fans go to baseball games to get shitfaced and hopefully see this...



Highlight at 1:16: Hunting Wabbits



Highlight: He manages the Montgomery Biscuits!



Highlight at 1:07: I didn't sign up for this shit!


For more "Crazy Baseball Manager" craziness, talk to Chris about how his fantasy baseball team is doing. HA HA (pretty crappy!)

Salt on Monday

Today folks, your esteemed author got some air time on the celebrated Fan590 radio station. Prime Time Sports host Bob McCowan reacted to some recent comments by one Gary Sheffield.

Sheffield basically said that Latin players were easier to control and that black players wouldn’t be controlled as easily.

Sheffield’s comments are indefensible. Had he said that MLB teams have more leverage over Latin players in that they control their ability to work in North America and run virtual baseball sweatshops in Latin countries where the options are either beg for food or learn to steal third base. ( And doesn’t this information put a new face on that fabled Blue Jay camp in the Dominican town of San Pedro de Macoris. ‘Hey Tony Fernandez, you’re going to snag grounders for the next 13 hours or you can go stand outside the resort and beg for pennies with the rest of your family… ’)

He didn’t say that.
He is an idiot to be sure.

So when a caller phoned in to Prime Time sports complaining that nothing would happen to Sheffield over these comments because Sheffield is black, McCowan agreed. I heard this and immediately called in. (Actually I was on hold with Prime Time because I was going to comment on the dirtiest player in the league Chris Pronger, but more on that later..)

McCowan agreed to the caller who felt that black athletes had some kind of carte blanche regarding public comments, and that nothing would be done to Sheffield because of this media pass.

I called in to correct these guys.

Nothing will happen to Gary Sheffield because he can hit Major League pitching – with power - at around a .300 average, not because he is black. That is the truth of the sporting world today.

The second part of the McCowan characterization was the feeling that White athletes don’t make controversial statements like this because they would be run out of their sport if they did.

White athletes don’t have to make comments about anything because there isn’t a sport out there that discriminates against them. The sporting world mirrors the real world. Nobody got fired because black athletes weren’t allowed to play Quarterback in the NFL until about 1984. No one gets up in arms about the automatic ‘leadership qualities’ that prospective white athletes get or the automatic ‘natural athlete’ tag that black athletes get.

I digress.




When Pronger Attacks.

Well Chris Pronger has done it again. This time he throws a well-concealed forearm into the face of Dean McCammond and concusses him. And even though Pronger had been suspended for THE EXACT SAME ACT (blow to the head) in the previous round and suspended for one game, the NHL cannot bring itself to suspend this repeat offender for anything more than a single game.

Is there a job with less accountability that of head of NHL player suspensions? They could have given Pronger an award and no one would have been surprised. They could have baked him a banana chocolate cheesecake and no one would have been surprised. Nice work Colin Campbell!!

I thought that this series would have hinged on the ability of the Ottawa forwards to harass and tire out the Anaheim defensemen. Turns out that this series is being defined by the emergence of Ray Emery, the tenacity of the Senators second and third line players, and the emergence of Cory Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. What it hasn’t been about is the cASH line – Alfredsson, Heatly, Spezza – or Andy McDonald/Teemu Selanne. The skill players have disappeared in this series in part because the Ducks don’t mind playing what they consider to be close to the ‘edge’ and the Senators have decided to match them clutch for clutch and grab for grab. Unfortunately for Anaheim, the refs have been calling them for more and more penalties and that is going to serve as their epitaph if things don’t change.

The Young Master Says

Is anyone else sick of looking at Rachael Ray? Anyone? Well I am and I don’t care if Alan thinks she is ‘sneaky hot’. There was a meeting of the Torontosportsbloggers minds on Sunday night. It was an eventful evening filled with chicken wings, small white man beer (aka Coors Light) and general hazing of Alan's poor baseball fantasy management (he traded Adam Dunn for Brian Giles!?!?!). During this time we outlined our plan for this illustrious website and how we can bring its dedicated readers, all 8 of you, a better experience. What exactly did we discuss? Well that is top secret information, but rest assured, it includes more hate and salt than you can possibly handle. Enough about us, let talk about sports.



UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship for those of you with the same IQ as the fighters) has finally broken into the mainstream of sports. The Liddell/Jackson fight drew huge crowds and was the most talked about sporting event of the weekend. UFC provides similar drama to professional wrestling but with the added bonus of inflicting real pain. Didn’t John Lennon say “All you need is blood”? I personally don’t really like UFC but when there are good knockouts, the ones that hurt your soul, it is makes for great watching.



Those same knock outs are also making news. Sports Illustrated has an article about UFC violence on their cover this week. This isn’t a sport that you sit down and watch with your 10 year old, but the UFC promoters don’t care about that market. The sport is rapidly growing and both men and women enjoy watching the beatings. A woman in my office recently mentioned how much she likes UFC; clearly a lust for violence doesn’t follow gender lines. I should ask my wife what she thinks; I have a feeling she would really like it. She is a New Zealander and under the calm Kiwi exterior there is a blood crazed lunatic as evidenced in that country’s history of cannibalism and love of Rugby.



Violence has always attracted fans/mobs and is the subject of psychohistory majors not sports bloggers but the success of UFC says something about sports today. Basketball and baseball are creating stiff punishments in an effort to eliminate fighting. The NBA will even suspend a player for simply moving from the bench area to the court during an altercation; a rule that was misapplied and led to the end of the Phoenix Suns season. Both these sports are having problems drawing fans. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman can sense the same thing as the UFC promoters and refuses to ban fighting in his league. He knows that fighting is all that is keeping Americans interested in hockey but it can’t match the level of violence that the UFC provides.

There is a huge and heretofore untapped market of people who want blood. They want to see two people get into a ring with the intention of hurting each other as much as possible. My opinion is that if adults want to watch this then let them, but where do you draw the line. If you allow violence to creep into societal norms where do you stop it? Do we want “Running Man” style programs on T.V? I wouldn’t mind watching Stephen Harper and Stephan Dion try to escape a robo-Gilles Duceppe with chainsaws for arms; it would make for better T.V. than the House of Commons. Mr. Dion: “Mr. Speaker, the Honourable man from Laurier-Sainte-Marie has threatened me with dismemberment because I ask my questions in English!!!”


Anyway…..I think I was talking about violence. It isn’t realistic to keep violence out of mainstream sports and if we do then it will go underground anyway (remember when Rambo dipped his knuckles in glass?). Some enterprising producer should turn UFC into the next great reality T.V. show for washed up celebrities and athletes. Imagine getting to watch Tie Domi and Stephan Brogan tangle in the octagon, I would pay to see that.




Tony Romo’s stage name could be “The Butter Finger Kid” and he could take on Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams in the choke artist match. Or Ben Johnson vs Barry Bonds in steroid match sponsored by Balco; the match-ups are endless.

That’s all for now folks, happy June and keep a look out for the handsome torontosportsblogger near you!