A New (Interim) Era Begins...

It was supposed to be just another day at Raptors practice. But oh, how different it was. Let me begin with the night before.

After the horrid Raptors game against the Bulls (more on that a little later), I went back to the station, produced my post-game report and checked in with the rest of the fellas. It turns out some of them were going out for a bevy, so I decided “hey, what’s one drink?”

Anyone who’s ever had one drink knows… it’s never just one drink.
So one drink turned into a few… and a few turned into a 3:30am trip to Golden Griddle. No problem, all I’ve got is a short practice - The Raptors would be flying to Milwaukee.

By the time I got home I had an enlarged belly, a lighter wallet, and an alarm to set for 5 hours from then. Meh, 5 hours. I’ve done worse.

I wake up every 40 minutes – unintentionally – and chug a glass of water each time. When I finally arise for good, I recall the fact that there’s no hot water. Let’s rewind, and bring you into my home for a moment.

It’s Wednesday afternoon. My roommate decides his leaky bathtub faucet is simply too much to bear, so being Mr.Fix-It, he tightens a bolt, unscrews a thingamabobber, and SNAP, BAM, WHOOSH (no, Chuck Swirsky wasn’t in his bedroom) – a screw goes flying across the room, and now his leak is a steady, forceful stream of scolding hot water. Landlord gets contacted. Plumber gets contacted. See you tomorrow morning… in the meantime, shut off the hot water.

So right, no hot water. But you know what, it’s all good. I had a late shower the night before, and a couple hours of Raptors’ practice wouldn’t be much.

A quick recap: I’m not as fresh as I’d like to be. I’m tired as hell. And after doing a quick runaround of the online newspapers, I’m now running a little late.

I get to the ACC with about 15 minutes to spare, get some quality interviews, and I’m feeling pretty good. Soon I’d be done, I’d take a quick nap at my parents’ house, and then go play some basketball.

That plan changed in a hurry.

Just as I shut off my minidisc, after talking with Sam Mitchell, Jalen Rose, Charlie Villanueva, and Chris Bosh, the kind Media Relations folk handed out a piece of paper:

“MLSE President + CEO, Richard Peddie, to make special Press Conference at 2:00pm”

My boss calls – literally as the paper settles in my hand – “I Know. I’ll be there.”
Right now, it’s about 1:05. So we’ve got a solid 55 minutes to speculate on what this whole thing could be about. Everyone decides it’s the farewell to Rob Babcock.

No wonder Sam Mitchell was in the best mood I’ve ever seen him in.

It was true.

So by now, you’ve seen the snippets of the press conference (if you watched it all you likely saw the left side of my head, throughout the whole damn thing). I’ll spare you the quotes, because there were simply too many.

Rob Babcock is no more. I mean, he still exists, but in no capacity as an employee of the Raptors.

What’s up with the timing? Why now?

That’s a question that didn’t really get answered. But with the trade deadline less than a month away (Feb. 23), and the Raptors in a bit of a spiral the thinking apparently was: why not now?

It also gives the Raptors a jump on picking a replacement. Wayne Embry, who served two previous stints as a General Manager (with Milwaukee and Cleveland), will take over on an interim basis. He said he’d stick around as long as they’d need him – whether it be through the draft, the off-season, whatever. But he said he doesn’t want the job. He’s turning 69 in March.

I heard whispers (and this is by no means official) that the Raptors brass wanted to do it on January 1st, but the Raptors were in the midst of a 5-game winning streak, and just capped off a 7-7 December. So why not wait until after an ugly west-coast swing, and another brutal loss to the Bulls (I swear, I’ll get to that in a few minutes).

My thinking is that Babcock may have also wanted to pull the trigger on a deal, which was not a popular one. We’ll never know, now.

So yeah, the press conferences are over, Babcock’s said his farewells (I didn’t really get to speak to Rob all that much, but I have to say, he really seems like a classy, straight-up, guy) and I’m back at the station.

“Hey Zack, The Fan 960 in Calgary wants you on their show. Are you cool with that?”
“Shit yeah, I’m cool with that. When?”
“5 minutes.”
“Wow. Ummm… ok, I’ll be there in 2.”

I go back to the Bullpen, and await the call. I’m a bit nervous. I’d done live updates from a game, I’d done live hits from the press conferences, and I’d done updates nationally. But I’d never been interviewed as a guest for an entire segment.
I was definitely a little nervous.

I think it went pretty well: 10 minutes of going back and forth, talking about my bread and butter – the Raptors.

So that’s done. I’m happy. I’m sweaty. And I’ve got to write/record/produce my reports. I did two different takes on the firing/promotion, and one preview of the Raptors/Bucks for tomorrow.

Finally, at 5:45pm, I get to indulge in a little breakfast. Chicken Ranch Salad. Good times.

Instead of going into an in depth review of the greenery, I’ll lend my two cents on the whole Babcock tenure.

Personally, I think this man got an unfair shake. He gets hired one month before the Hoffa draft, to take over a cash-strapped, underachieving team. He also came from a Timberwolves team that didn’t even have a first round pick. He figures, what do the Raptors need? A big man! Let’s get the guy who dominated in the Mountain West Conference. A man who instilled fear in the opposition, and wasn’t afraid to fight. Fine, he thought he was addressing a need. Obviously, Araujo has yet to prove his worth.

Babcock also hired Sam Mitchell, a coach who I feel is a great leader, and a great motivator. Unlike the three previous Raptors’ coaches, the players actually listen to him.

...The Vince Carter trade.
Obviously very one-sided, talent-wise. But the Raptors’ do get some significant cap-relief after this year, along with an extra two draft picks. And it also gave the center-stage to Bosh – who, as we all know, has been flourishing.

You also can’t understate the importance of this year’s draft, and how well Babcock did. He got ravaged by the media (myself included) about drafting Charlie Villanueva so high, but saved a little face with getting Graham (who was projected as a top 10) at 16, and Roko Ukic (also projected as a possible lottery pick), early in the 2nd round.

Then Babcock dips into Spain, and signs Jose Calderon (who switched spots with Ukic on Tao Ceramica).

And of course, despite the fact that it was his fault for the lofty-deal, he still unloaded Rafer Alston onto the Rockets, in exchange for Mike “Huge-game” James.

So while Babcock did have his obvious faults and blemishes, he also made some good out of a rough situation. And why, if the Raptors can have so much patience in their rookie-players, do they give no leash to their sophomore GM?

I really find it tough to see how Richard Peddie can continuously cover his own ass, by firing his own hires.

Peddie said the search for Babcock – and Embry’s – replacement is already underway, and he’s prepared to offer the president’s position along with it.

==
I’m not sure that you’ve made it this far, so I’m going to keep the Bulls’ recap short.
It’s the 12th straight time Chicago beat the Raptors, and this one was just as ugly. The Raptors went a span of 9 minutes and 9 seconds without a field-goal in the first quarter, while the Bulls went on a 25-4 run. After that, their game of catch-up fell short.

Bulls 104, Raptors 88

Kirk Hinrich went down with a thigh-contusion, and left the role of Raptor-killer for Chris Duhon, who, when the Raptors pulled to within 4 late in the 3rd, fired off back-to-back 3’s. Duhon, who the Raptors signed to an offer-sheet in the summer, finished off with 26 points (6-of-8 from downtown) and 8 assists.

Chris Bosh had a team-high 20 points and 7 boards, while Mike James finished with 19 points (he had only 2 in the first half) and 7 helpers.

I have quotes, but this post is already too long, and so I will kindly leave them out.

==
In case you’re curious… I did make it to the gym, but I only played a couple of runs (I finished 0-for-3 from the field, probably a couple boards, and a few assists). I got a mouthful of someone’s shoulder, and decided a big bag of fatigue was enough to send me to Dominion to fetch some chicken and potatoes.

It was good. The day was great. And I will now go get some much-needed sleep.

==
Please let me know your thoughts on the firing, the thoughts on my post, and anything else that comes to mind.

I truly am curious who reads these posts, so please let me know.

Thanks for your time.