No Storybook Ending

You know how I know this isn’t a Hollywood movie? Well, first off, I’d be better looking.

But basketball-wise, the Raptors would have not only won their last 2 games – and a whole lot more (including that last home game – was “Fan Appreciation Night” one big three-word typo?), but they’d also be in the playoffs and on the way to winning a tough-fought championship.

Well, this certainly isn’t “Hoosiers”… or even “Coach Carter” for that matter. No championship. No playoffs. And for me… no work today.

If this was a script, I’d be at the ACC right now, asking all the right questions in the Raptors’ exit interviews. Instead, I’m sitting here in my basketball shorts and a ragged old t-shirt, watching the other reporters ask the questions on Raptors TV.

Is there no justice?

I don’t know how to look at it, really, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just close my eyes.

This season was tough; both for the Raptors and me.

While they came out of the gates sluggish, I started out quiet. I was young, and timid. They were the same.
The Raptors picked it up after the first month – as did I. I was becoming more vocal, and more involved in the scrums.

Before the all-star break, the Raptors went on the road, and I stayed at home. I seemed to have lost my groove a bit, and again… this is no movie, and I’m no Stella.

However, eventually I did start to get comfortable again… the last few weeks went pretty well, actually. You were with me, you know how it went.

But here we are, and it’s almost like it all came full circle.

The Raptors started 1-15, and ended the season 1-12.

I started a little slow, and ended up sitting here in my chair - while all the action is just south of Front Street.

(To fill you in a little more: I was supposed to be working this morning, but since Raptors TV is carrying all the coverage live, the Fan needed only one representative. I understand how it goes, but that doesn’t mean I need to like it.)

My goal was to be there from start to finish. I had questions to ask. I had hands to shake.

I wanted to talk with Jose one last time in person before Spain – instead, now that’ll be done through e-mail.

I wanted one last word-exchange with my favorite interview – Mo Pete.
The last thing he told me was to get “Energizer” batteries, after he saw me changing my “Industrials.” When engineering ran out of the free “industrials,” I actually went out and bought the good ones, despite telling Mo: “I’ll buy energizers when I can afford them.”

There was so much more I wanted to do… so much I had in mind for this final day.

I wanted to thank the other reporters who helped ingrain that extra ounce of confidence in me. I wanted to thank the Media Relations team for helping me adjust to my dream world. I wanted to talk to Sam Mitchell one more time…

That will obviously have to wait.

If this were a movie script, I’d be a guest on basketball shows across the continent. I’d be catching up with the players in the off-season, and catching up with them without worrying about writing a groundbreaking story.

If this were a movie script, I’d be down there today, instead of being here.

You know what, though? Maybe it is a script. Maybe it’s just getting started. Maybe I’ve got this great story idea, and I’m just rounding up the pieces, and convincing the right people that I’m the right person to be writing it.

I understand that one can not necessarily control their own destiny, but I also know that if it’s something they truly want… they can help pave a nice, smooth path to getting where they want to be.

I’ve knocked down a few walls… but understand there are so many more to break.

This off-season is going to be HUGE. There will be lots of work to do. It’s just a matter of whether the pie is big enough for me to get a slice.

==
I don’t know how often I’ll be updating this blog during the off-season, but I do want to take this time to thank you all for checking in, and spending time with me on my adventures. This has truly been a lot of fun, especially when I hear from the people who read this.

You can not possibly know how gratifying it is to know that something I wrote became part of people’s internet-routines.

I feel blessed to be in this situation… and more so that I have readers to share it with.

Hopefully you’ll stick around, as I slowly make my way towards my sophomore season, and the many more adventures that will come with it.

Thank you.

==
Oh, and as you probably know by now… Chris Bosh just said he WILL sign that extension with the Raptors, barring any unfortunate incidents.

Foiled by Mitchell and his Many Men

If today went as originally planned I’d be sleeping for another 23 minutes; I’d get up, check my e-mail, sift through the internet-papers, take a shower, shave, make some food, and then head to the RBK Court at the ACC. (EDIT: Oh, I'd get dressed, too.)

However, at 1:51 am, I called the Raptors’ media line only to find out there would be no practice today. The Raptors had just been chased out of Florida following back-to-back losses, which made it 10 straight without a win. The season’s winding down... The Raps are bruised, banged-up, and battered. What more are they going to learn in the last remaining week (let alone a 2 hour practice), that they haven’t already drilled to death?

That answer I don't know...

But the repercussions I do:

a) I have a little less money in my pocket
b) I’ve got some free-time to play some outdoor ball when it’s SUNNY out
c) My Passover sedar will be without Sam Mitchell, tonight

I had a plan.

With the season coming to a near (and ugly) close, I was going to ask Sam what he was up to for Passover dinner tonight. I was assuming that he’d say a longer-winded version of “nothing,” to which I would respond by inviting him to my aunt’s house.

After all, we’d had this great talk a couple weeks back, that hadn’t been followed up by anything. It would have been like a season-ending peace-offering…

He’d then appreciate the gesture, come to dinner, and confide in me regarding Raptor-decision-making. He’d ask my opinion on personnel moves, and ask my opinion on rotations and lineups for next season. I’d leave my radio career behind to become an assistant coach in the NBA - a well-paid assistant coach, at that - all because of the fantastic food that my family served up.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, though.

After dinner, Sam, myself, and my cousins, would go for a few drinks… tally up a pricey tab (that Sam would, of course, cover)... and pick up 17 women (that’s how we roll).

Unfortunately, this will never happen. The Raptors won’t practice today, meaning my sedar will be NBA-coach-free tonight. I guess that’s alright. I’ve already had 47 without one… why not 48??

And as it applies to them... there's always next year.


==
I won’t be back-logging the previous few games because they were either on the road… or I wasn’t there. I actually won’t be there on Friday either, I’ve got Saturday’s practice off, and won’t be back on the sidelines (pressbox?) until Monday.

We’ll chat sometime after that.

Something Out of Nothing?

So by now, you could call it “the same old song,” a “broken record” or “salami and cheese gone bad.”

The Raptors and Celtics had a little bit of a shootout down at the OK A-C-C, but once again, it’s the home-team coming up with peanuts. Not even honey-roasted, either. Just plain peanuts. Unsalted at that.

124, 120

For the second time in as many games, Paul Pierce had an off night from the field (just 2/10), but got to the charity stripe at (good)will (18/24) to finish with 22. Wally Szczerbiak also notched 22, while Raef LaFrentz led a 53-point bench contribution with 20 (5/7 from downtown). Gerald Green had another huge dunk to cap off the game, but this time it actually meant something.

Morris Peterson had a game-high 32 points to go along with 8 boards and 6 assists (only one more than he had at the half), but mysteriously intentionally-fouled Ryan Gomes (17 points, 7 rebounds) with 39.8 seconds left (with the Raptors down only 3).

Mike James scored 20 of his 25 in the 2nd half, after looking like he didn’t want to play in the opening 24 minutes.

Matt Bonner had 16 points to go with a career-high 13 rebounds.

So if not for anything else, at least some of the young guys are progressing.

The Raptors re-signed Andre Barrett for the remainder of this, and next, season; leading to another mysterious DNPCD (Did Not Play, Coaches Decision) for Jose Calderon.

I actually bumped into Calderon before the game…

“Hey Zack, I sent you an e-mail…” He said.
“OK, Cool. Hey, how you doing? You feeling ok?” I asked just out of habit.
“Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good.”
“Alright man, do your thing.”

Apparently, his “thing” now means “sitting on the bench.”

Barrett still can’t shoot, but spread the ball around well, picking up 6 assists and no turnovers.

Joey Graham also had another solid showing, picking up 14 points (6/8 shooting), while fouling out after 28 and a half minutes.

I was covering the Celtics on this night, so after the game I went to talk to Mr. Doc Rivers.

“I don’t think you’re going to draw art from this game at all,” Doc said. “It’s not a beautiful game in any way.”
“Paul Pierce has a rough night from the field,” I say. “But we’ve seen it time and time again, the guy gets to the line at will…”
“Yeah, he’s the best. He’s one of the best in the league at getting to the foul line. You know, it’s funny… When you coach against him, like I did in Orlando, you think ‘gosh, this guy lives on the line.’ When you coach him, you don’t think he gets to the line enough. You think he gets fouled every time.”
“You guys did a great job shooting the ball, otherwise, though… 50% from the 3-point line-“
“Raef was huge, obviously. Raef came in and made some big shots for us… When our bench has 53 points… I’m not sure – Marquette math – it could be wrong… But when our bench scores 53 points, we’re going to win most games. And it was on a night when Paul was off from the field, but on from the free-throw line, so we’ll take it.”

A Raptors TV reporter snuck in a question before I got back into my final groove before departing into the locker room…

“Does it almost feel like you guys stole the win? I mean, you guys committed 20 turnovers, but with great shooting, come out on top…”
“Yeah, I mean we gave up 29 points off those turnovers, and I think it’s our third or fourth game in a row, we’re creeping back up in the turnover category, a lot of casual plays… in my opinion, calls that when we kept it simple, we were really good… when we tried to force the action, we’re not. We’re not at that level yet… and that’s something we have to learn.”

It was at that very point that I remembered how much easier it is to talk to the visiting (winning?) coach. I wasn’t paranoid about my phrasing… I just sort of put it out there, and it seems to work. I dominated that scrum. Felt good.

I had some things ready to go for Sam Mitchell (pre-game), but never got it out, because I was still living in my head. Apparently it’s still a work in progress.

So as the coach is wrapping up, I see more than half of the Celtics’ team is already dressed and heading to the team bus. I was literally seeing my story walk away from me, as Raef LaFrentz was the first one out.

I managed to stick a mic in Ryan Gomes’ face, but didn’t ask him anything (I don’t think – despite talking to him at a Raptors’ pre-draft workout). And only got one question into Pierce…

“Paul, you guys are sort of in the same boat as the Raptors… a young team, just trying to work hard. Your team’s down 7, with 4 minutes left. What’s going on in the huddles? What’s the mindstate?”
“We just tried to keep our composure, run our offense, and be more solid on defense. We got the stops that we needed, we rebounded the ball, and we made shots. We got to the line, we moved the ball, executed and got the stops we needed.”

So plenty of quotes, but not much in the ways of a story… The Raptors lost their 5th straight, and got mathematically eliminated from what was an after-thought, anyway… the playoffs.

As soon as the final buzzer went, I called Broadcast News, and filed a 27 second voicer (game recap), which almost instantly doubled my night’s pay. It took two takes, and all of about 57 seconds, including the dialing of the numbers, and waiting for someone to pick it up on the other end.

I saved it, and now have it forever. Something like that gets played by Canadian radio stations across the country. It makes me almost wish I put more time into it, but being rushed and all (I need to race to talk to the coach, and also wanted to say hello to my cousin sitting just a couple rows behind me), I did what I did.

I also e-mailed some clips to a company in Scottsdale, Arizona, which further added to my financial tally.

Not bad at all.

==
On Sunday, the Raptors and Hornets played in what was one of the best showcases of young rookies. Chris Paul (the “rookie of the year” to-be) notched his first triple-double with 24 points, 12 boards and 12 assists, out-doing Charlie Villanueva and Joey Graham.

120, 113 (2OT)

The Raptors thus fall to 1-9 in overtime this season… one more overtime loss would tie the Clippers of ’00-’01, and the Baltimore Bullets of ’52-’53 (a team that went 0-20 on the road).

Charlie V had 25 points to go along with a career-high 18 rebounds, while Joey pitched in with a career-high 19 points.

Mike James fired up blank after blank, connecting on only 5 of his 25 shots.

On the other end, seldom-used-former-Raptor, Aaron Williams, dropped 13 points and 9 rebounds on his old “team.”

==
The Raps are in Indy tonight, Oklahoma City on Friday, and return home to take on the Bobcats on Sunday. I won’t be at that game – going the sportscasting instead – but hopefully something will come up.

Otherwise, I’ll have to start talking about the Jays.

In the meantime, a couple of links I thought were interesting enough to share:

Ever wonder why Vince Carter said he wanted to stop dunking? Check THIS:

And Disco Dirk Nowitzki’s making music (with Steve Nash)… and it’s not in the same vein as ABBA…HERE

Is it fake? I don’t know. It’s definitely not good. Your thoughts??

Breakthrough at the RBK Court

The soundtrack: The Roots – “Do You Want More?!!??!”
The time: 1:35pm (it should be 12:35pm) on Sunday
The story:

So it’s the day after a practice that should have been meaningless. No news and nothing really interesting to investigate, but oh so momentous in the grander scheme of my career.

The Saturday shoot-around “opened” to the media (all 3 of us on this day) an hour after the expected time. Everyone’s still just playing around; Mike James, Andre Barret and Darrick Martin are having a 3-point competition of sorts; Chris Bosh, taped thumb/wrist and all, is jogging around dribbling and making lay-ups, while some of the others are working on post-moves at the other end of the court.

A few minutes later, Mike James is about to leave.

“Anyone want to talk to Mike?” asked the media relations guy.
“I’ll talk to him if anyone else does, but I don’t want to keep him on a Saturday afternoon,” I said.

No one else wanted to talk to him, but I threw a couple generic questions to him anyway, regarding [today’s] game against the Hornets. It wasn't really exciting.

As quiet as the practice was, I wanted to talk to Jose Calderon about my upcoming trip to Spain. (Sidenote: I’m going to Spain with my kind and loving family at the end of May) As I’d told my Dad, I wanted to try and catch a game somewhere. So I asked him about teams to look for, and places to watch them. I also asked how the fans were.

This is not vertabim, mind you, but it’s close:

“You know the soccer fans?” Jose asked in growingly impressive English.
“Oh yeah, I know the soccer fans.” I replied.
“They’re just like that… but for basketball.”

Great.

After he dropped some names of places that I’ll never remember, he thankfully offered me his e-mail address, should I need anything.

What a guy.

Speaking of which, Sam Mitchell decided to stroll on by just a few minutes after that. I had a general idea of what I wanted to ask him: stuff about the Hornets.

Something to the effect of:
“With the Hornets sitting just 2 games out of 8th in the West, are you at all concerned about their intensity?”

I knew, while saying it, that he would eat me for breakfast after spitting out trash like that. He did:

“I thought everybody was supposed to play hard. What are you asking me? I can’t figure out the question.” He then repeated the question to the media relations guy, as if looking for confirmation that he wasn’t crazy. “Everybody we play plays hard. I don’t know how to answer that. I’ll put it to you like this: I assume every NBA team plays hard. I assume that.”

At this point, I obviously wasn’t feeling very good about myself. The scrum went on as usual. No blips. Then he told us to turn our recording devices off. He told us a story about his playing days, and the conversation just turned into a… conversation.

There was a new reporter there (not new in terms of he just got the job, but new as in, he hadn’t covered the Raptors this season) who introduced himself. I really liked the way he worded his questions. There was just something about how he’d sort of tell a story before throwing out what he wanted to ask.

Sam then looked at me and (again, this is by no means verbatim) noted how this reporter had very thought-out questions. He said this reporter had likely written out, and planned, what he wanted to ask.

He then asked me if I wrote out my questions. I told him the truth, “no, I don’t.”

He suggested that I do so from now on. He asked me where I wanted to go in life. Something to the effect of:

“Don’t you want to get out of radio, and eventually write? Get a nice house so you can relax?” He asked.
“No. I want to stay in radio.”
“What, you want your own talk show or something?”
“No. No talk show.”
“Then what? You want to do this every day?”
“Hey, if I could hang out and travel with an NBA team everyday, I’d be a happy man for the rest of my life.”

I think at that point, he understood me. The first-day reporter backed me up, and told Sam to take it easy on me saying ‘I’m just a young guy who loves basketball.’

That’s when the conversation took a turn… for the much, much better. He talked about what he respected in certain reporters, and what he expects from me from now on. He said I need to prepare my questions so they don’t come off so cold.
I told him I do prepare, just not in the conventional way. I know the NBA, and for the most part, I have an idea of what I want to ask. I threw one of his analogies back at him.

“Sam, it’s like you’ve told us time and time again about your rookies. They practice well, but sometimes when the lights come on… they freeze.” I said.
“That’s a confidence thing.” He noted.
“That’s what I’m saying.”

I didn’t want to lay down ALL my cards, and tell him I talk to the players just fine, it’s just that he intimidates the hell out of me, so I didn’t. I left it at that.

Before we wrapped up, Sam said this:

“You’re no longer a rookie.”

When the media relations guy told him I’d be a rookie until the first game of next season, Sam said: “Nope. He’s not a rookie anymore.”

Time to step up.

==
Now I’ll recap the Suns game in brief, seeing as how it all went by in a flash. Phoenix had 12 assists on 16 field goals in the first… and that pretty much dictated the play throughout:

140, 126

That 140 points is the most any team’s ever scored at the ACC (and the second most given up by the Raptors all-time – The Clippers dropped 158 on the Raps at the Skydome in ’98). Steve Nash had 20 points and 10 assists (right around his averages), while Boris Diaw contributed 26 points, 8 boards, and 9 helpers. Leandro Barbosa shot 11/15 for the Suns, to score a team-high 28 off the bench. Phoenix had 37 (!!) assists by night’s end.

For the Raptors: Mo Pete scored a career-best 38 points (13/19 shooting), Mike James notched 36 and 10 dimes, while Pop Sow had career-highs in both points and rebounds (13 and 15, respectively) for his first career double-double.

After the game, Nash was bombarded by the media (as to be expected). I was standing about 6 inches to his right, crowded by his heavy leather coat, and about 6,832 other reporters. I didn’t ask him anything.

In fact, the only Suns I spoke to were Coach Mike D’Antoni and Shawn Marion (who likes to cut the 2nd half of every word out).

Usually by the end of the game, and all the scrums, my bladder tells me it’s time to unleash a urinary fury… So I head to the post-game-show booth, drop off my stuff, and relieve the need. When I get back, I grab my minidisk player and get my things ready to chop up the clips and write up a sched for the hosts.

My player flashes: “NO DISC. NO DISC. NO DISC.”

My heart starts beating rapidly. Like bad trance music, 158 bmp rapidly. I wipe a bead of sweat off my brow, and start to walk over to the hosts to tell them I fumbled badly. I’ve got nothing.

Then I see my co-worker/friend holding the gleaming blue disc, laughing his ass off.

Nothing a kidney-shot wouldn’t change.

…

So that’s that. The Raptors play the Hornets in just a few hours, then host the Celtics (as mentioned in the previous post) on Tuesday. We’ll chat soon.

Wade's World

Or is it? It turns out the NBA’s taking another shot at the dress-code, but this time… on the court. If the league implements what’s being rumoured, there will be o more panty-ho-… err, tights.

Sorry, Wade…



Personally, I think they should just ban Eddy Curry from wearing them, but that’s just me.

Anyway, on Wednesday, you knew it was going to happen. Dwyane Wade erupted in the 4th quarter – going on a personal 9-0 run, to score 16 of his 37 points in the final frame, as the Heat came back from 16 down to steal the win.

98, 94

Just before the game, we learned that Shaq was questionable with a leg injury. I heard one reporter mention to Sam Mitchell that the big “Diesel” had his knee drained, but I hadn’t heard anything before that. So I took off on a pre-tip mission to find the Heat’s Media Relations guy.

I went to the visitor’s dressing room, and found my security-buddies doing their thing. Standing on either side of the door.

“Hey, do you guys know where I can find the Heat’s Media guy?”
“He’s right there,” one of them said, pointing to a man standing about 7 inches away from me.

“Hey there, my name’s Zack Cooper, I’m with the Fan 590… I just heard that Shaq got his knee drained. Can you give me any info on that?”
“Who said that?” The Media Relations guy replied.
“I heard another reporter mention it.”
“Well, I can’t really tell you anything other than he’s a game-time decision…”
“With… a drained knee?”
“With a leg injury?”
“Can you be any more specific?”
“Nope. You can talk to Coach Riley after the game, though.”

Hmmm. Well, the post-game questioning won’t really help my pre-game reports. Oh well. “Leg injury” it is, then.

So yeah… No Shaq, no Alonzo Mourning, and no Chris Bosh. Right now, it appears he’s going to sit out the rest of the season with that “badly” sprained thumb. Probably for the best.
During the game, I text-messaged the other Fan reporter working the game.

“If it’s cool with you, I’d like to cover the Heat tonight… I wanna talk to Wade and Payton.”

Two minutes later, I get this reply:

“Cool. I hear Wade’s down with his media.”

That’s now the joke around the station. While I do find it funny (see: “Lebron’s Down With His Media”), my response was:

“Dick.”

So after the game, I do as planned… go talk to Coach Pat Riley, then head into the Heat locker room.

First up, Gary Payton. A player I grew up loving. My brother used to adore the solid pick-and-roll tandem of Utah’s Stockton and Malone, while I followed the flash and funk of Seattle’s Payton and Kemp. Those were my guys. Just ask anyone that I played in NBA Jam. They felt the fury.

So reporters are asking the man once known as “The Glove” the standard questions. I got into the fray, as well:

“Gary, it seems in that 4th quarter you guys changed up the game defensively. While the Raptors were getting inside throughout the first 3, you guys really buckled down in the 4th, and kept them on the perimeter.”
“Well yeah, that’s because we were [inaudible] picks, we weren’t letting them get open, come free and let Mike [James] go to the basket… We were making him get off the ball, and that was a good thing for us. Make him get off the ball, and make the other people do things with the basketball. Then they start making jump shots, and when they’re missing them, we get the rebound and run it back at them.”

The Raptors TV reporter and I went back and forth with another line of questioning, until I asked:

“…and also, you guys are the hottest team in the NBA since February 1st, is that timing… you guys are just starting to click or… how do you explain that?”

(They’re literally the best team in the NBA in the last two months. After beating the Raptors on that night, they improved to 20-5 since Feb. 1. San Antonio’s next at 20-6)

Gary’s response:

“That’s just timing. I mean, I think we’re just getting in our role. We had to feel each other out, there’s like 8 or 9 new guys. You know, that’s a lot of new guys on one team to try to get into a rhythm in like a month. So we got into our rhythm after about 3, 4 months and now we’re playing together, and believing in each other. I think now we’ve just got more confidence in each other.”

As everyone else started to scatter… I wanted to know if he still kept in touch with “The Reign Man”

“Gary… you still talk to Shawn Kemp at all?”
“Nah, I haven’t… I haven’t talked to him in a while. I haven’t talked to him in a little bit.”

At least there’s always video games.

But back to Wade. It’s certainly his world, and we’re just living in it. I’ve been in locker rooms where guys take their time… but Wade was taking his TIME. After all the other players had left, we got a peak of Mr. Sean John (he models for P.Diddy’s clothing line) fixing him tie, or his collar, or his shoes, every time a certain door swung open.

Not only does he get away with jersey-tugging in the game, but he also roped us all into waiting for him for about 25 minutes.

With that being said, the FAN’s post-game show was already underway, and I had only enough time to get a few quick clips and run back. I didn’t even ask him a single question. While I was a little disappointed in myself, seeing as how I love his game so much, the job has to come first… And it did.

==
Tonight, I’ll be sitting courtside for the game against the Suns… I’ll try and get a question into “Captain (Kid) Canada,” but I know it’s going to be a frenzy.

I’ll be at the station on Sunday, so no Chris Paul questions (damn)… but on Tuesday, against the Celtics, I’ll be making my Broadcast News debut. I’ll be doing what I do for the FAN, but I get paid a little on the side for filing a 30-second post-game report (one which will be played across the country).

==

After buying a $160 pair of “Mo Pete’s” yesterday… the side stuff is very much welcomed.

Holy Villanueva, Batman

In Milwaukee, Chris Bosh catches a Pop Sow foot to the thumb, and leaves the game for good (x-rays come back negative – mild sprain – day-to-day). Charlie Villanueva catches magma (I’m going with “magma”, because “fire” doesn’t really do him justice) and goes Buck-hunting for 48 points (20-32 shooting). That helps send the game to overtime, but we all know how that goes in Raptor-land…

Bucks 125, Raptors 116 (OT)

Toronto’s now 1-8 in O-T this season. A questionable call on Mo Pete ignites Sam Mitchell, who lets out his fury on a ref, and gets the boot. Charlie V’s 48 is the most from any Raptor not named Vince Carter; it’s the highest individual output since 2000; it’s an NBA rookie-high for the season (the previous best was 31 from Ray Felton); it’s the most a Raptors’ rookie has ever scored (Camby dropped 37 in ’97); and last but not least… it’s obviously Charlie’s career-high (previously 27).

Being in Milwaukee… I’ve got no inside dirt on this one… but I assured you, there’s some goodness in this entry… First, I need to go out of my usual order, and skip back to Friday, before touching on Saturday’s practice.

So Minnesota’s in town… Sam Mitchell’s old stomping-squad. Pop Sow starts off with some defensive prowess and gets Kevin Garnett to commit a charge less than a minute-in. That apparently fires up the Raps, who allow only eight T-Wolves’ points in the first quarter – both a Raptors’ franchise-best, and a Timberwolves franchise-low.
Toronto outscores Minnesota 24-8 in that first Q, as the T-Wolves shoot blanks (4/19 from the field).

Later in the game, Minny’s trying to make a comeback… Pop gets tangled up with KG and falls underneath the basket. He “pops” up (for lack of a better word) and begins shoving the former-MVP… getting not only a technical foul, but also the crowd in a frenzy. (There’s something about getting rough with KG that Toronto loves – what up, Bonner?)

Anyway, this one wasn’t really a contest:

Raptors 97, T-Wolves 77

Chris Bosh drops a double-double (17 points, 15 boards) on his 22nd birthday (“I’m just hanging out with the family,” he says after the game. “For real?” I ask. “Yup, just family.”). Matt Bonner gets his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while Pop helps frustrate Garnett, holding him to 15 points (and only 11 shots).
Mo Pete connects on 5 of his 8 3-pointers, for a game-high 21.

However, the 4th quarter looked pretty ugly at times. In fact, the offense went stagnant (which led to boo’s when the fans didn’t get their free pizza) and was held to donuts for a six-minute span in that final frame.

I asked Sam Mitchell about that in the post-game scrum…

“Was there any concern with the offense failing to organize in the 4th?”
“Well yeah, you want to score, but we were playing well defensively… and if we’re up 20 and we don’t score and they don’t score. I dunno, my math teacher will tell me you win by 20.”

It started off so nicely.

All this time, Boston College was losing in overtime (and screwing up my bracket), so most of the guys took a while in the “shower.” We did speak to Bosh, and Pop… who had this nice little gem about his interaction with KG:

“That’s why I’m here for, just to bring the energy up. I make up my mindset, and coach talk to me about how I have a big game tonight…you know, [KG] was just trying to talk sh!t, and you know I’m not going to back down. I just want to bring the energy, you know… that’s why I’m here.”

So after he’s done… the media relations guy walks over and says something along the lines of:

“Pop, you can’t say sh!t on camera...”
“I said sh!t?”
I quickly interject… “He just wants to let people know, he’s not going to take sh!t from the media.”

Alright, so that’s got salami and cheese written all over it, as Chuck would say… now lets move forward.

Saturday’s practice was quiet. 3 reporters including myself. It couldn’t have come at a better time. I read your comments and e-mails (thank you), and hopefully you’ll be happy to know, that I got plenty of good dialogue for you.

We’ll start with Pop, again… here’s the interview, in it’s entirety:

Z: “Hey Pop, what do you consider to be the strengths of your game? What do you bring to the Raptors?”
P: “You know, energy and helping my team do the dirty work.”

While he’s answering this, he looks over to Bosh, who’s making faces at him. So I say:
Z: “Guys like Chris Bosh… can you teach a guy like him to do something different? Like, can the teaching go both-ways?”
P: “Yeah, you know… they look out for me sometimes to see what I do and keep them up – the intensity – and since I’ve been in the lineup, we’ve been doing very well.”
Z: “Everyone talks about this team being so close, on and off the court, what’s your take on that… how do the guys get along?”
P: “We get along GOOD. You know, this is the best team I’ve ever been on in my life, to be honest. These guys, they’re wonderful. We have fun, we enjoy the company of each other. We hang out, but still, when we come out here we play hard.”
Z: “Does that make things a little easier? You know, you might not have your best game, but you come out here and guys still have your back...?”
P: “That’s the thing, because not every night’s going to be your night. But the thing you gotta do, is just help your teammates do the other things.”
Z: “Now how about guys like Hoffa, you know, it appears that sometimes his confidence is down, and he doesn’t get the most minutes-…”
P: “We talk everyday. You know, I was in the same position. I wasn’t playing at all. Now I’m playing, I’m starting, and I know how he feels. But at the same time, he’s still over here working out hard like I do. The thing is, you can never be done on yourself, because you never know when you’ll get the opportunity to play. That’s why he keeps working hard, and I don’t think he’s down on himself.”

After that, it was the most unpleasant scrum with Coach Mitchell to date… He comes over after a light workout, sees the “Raptors TV” cameras and says:

S: “I’m not doing no promos for Raptors TV… and you…” He looks at me, “Are you gonna ask me the same thing you asked me last night?”
Z: “Probably…”
S: “Well then you can write exactly what you wrote last night.”
Z: “Alright, so how do you carry over something LIKE last night’s effort, against a team like the Bucks?”
S: “…just hope we do… How do we carry it over?...”
Z: “Yeah, how do you carry over something like the first quarter’s performance-?”
S: “I doubt if we’ll hold Milwaukee to 8 points…I doubt that, seriously. So we’ll just go out and compete.”

At this point, I know he’s not going to give me any good clips, so a reporter from the Star pipes in:

STAR: “Have you seen significant improvement in Pop, or is just sort of baby steps?”
S: “Baby. Baby Steps.”
STAR: “What are-…”
S: “Guys, look… one game. Okay? Let’s not retire his number or anything. You know? One game. Y’all their worst enemy sometimes, because they play DECENT, and next thing you know, in the papers the headline says ‘THEY HAVE ARRIVED.’ All of a sudden it sets them back 4 or 5 games. Hey, he worked hard, he played hard, he’s got a long way to go.”
Z: “How about Andre Barrett? What do you like about his game?” (He had just received a 2nd 10-day contract)
S: “He’s got a long way to go.”
Z: “Do you like what-?”
S: “Long way to go. Do you watch the games?”
Z: “Yeah…”
S: “Okay, long way to go.”

Thanks for that.

I also spoke to Andre Barrett about the opportunity he’s receiving, but looking up, I see 4 pages of content… I doubt you want to read more… for now.

But please come back, and keep those comments/e-mails coming. I love them.

First Time For Everything

My room is a mess – littered with dirty dishes, mounds of paperwork from Raptors games of weeks past, and wrappers from lozenges and disinfectant wipes used for the powers of good.

My sinuses have finally decided to give me a little breathing room, after plowing through 1.7 boxes of Kleenex in 4 days of work… or lack thereof.

You see, for the first time as a reporter… I called in sick. This soldier missed a game. But not a practice.

Yesterday was my first day back at work, after skipping out on Friday and Saturday festivities. I went down to the ACC, still feeling a little light-headed, after sneezing my brains out while watching College Hoops all weekend.

I guess I picked a good weekend to cave.

Going in, I was going to ask the guys about the main differences between themselves and the Knicks; Only 4.5 games in the standings, but worlds apart in the PR department. In case you’re not familiar, Stephon Marbury and Coach Larry Brown are essentially at wits end. After going through 65 games, and picking up only 19 wins – Marbury wants to go back to “Starbury” – the player with the flash, not the extra pass – and Hometown Brown just wants to win… his way… still. So they’re having it out in the papers, similar to how the Raptors expressed themselves last year.

Thankfully for my energy level, and my good grace of not wanting to share the illness that took me out of commission, others had the same (granted: not too original) line of thinking.

As you’ve been hearing and reading all year, the answers were as consistent as white bread: “We’re all friends, here.”

It’s truly a beautiful thing, from these eyes. Then, a certain reporter kept asking the question:

“Do you wish you had more games left?” Implying: ‘if November’s 1-15 start never happened, where do you think you’d be?’ To me, it didn’t need to be asked, but that’s just me. And essentially, how it works is I build my story around the clips I get.

Once I got back to the station and fired off a couple quick reports, I did a little more research about that last one… the whole: “What if November Never Happened?”

Well, I took all the records from every team in the East, and wiped out the first month. The Raptors would still be 4 games below .500 (23-27), but they would be tied with Philly for 8th (the Sixers own the tie-breaker). The Raps would be just a game out of 7th, 2 out of 6th, and 5 out of home court advantage, believe it or not.

Just thought you might be interested in that.
==
On Friday, the Raptors started out a stinker, only to pull out an amazing win over Milwaukee:

Raptors 97, Bucks 96

Toronto was down 16 points with 5:41 left in the 4th, when they went on a tear to pick up their 3rd win in their last 4 games. Milwaukee had exactly one bucket in that span, by the way.

Chris Bosh had 27 points and 10 boards for double-double #30 on the season. He also had 4 key blocks.

Mike James and Charlie Villanueva each had 14 points (half of Charlie’s came in the final frame).

==
I was there on Wednesday for the game against the Pistons, but that’s nearing week-old-news, so I’ll do another ‘briefy’:

Pistons 105, Raptors 98

Toronto came within 1 point on a couple occasions, but could never overcome the hump.
Teyshaun Prince helped lead an early Motown charge, with 6 of their first 8 points (to finish with 21 points). Chauncey Billups had 26 points and 10 assists.

Bosh was held to 15 points (6/18 shooting, after dropping a career-high 37 in their last meeting). Mike James had 25 points and 11 assists, while Mo Pete had 23 (10/14 from the field).

==
Tonight, the Raptors are in New York, then head to Boston for tomorrow night’s game before returning home for Friday’s tilt with the T-Wolves.

==
Keep all those beautiful e-mails coming… I love hearing what you guys think.
But also don’t shy away from sharing your opinion in the comments section.

Anything you guys want more of? Less of?

What are your thoughts on the Raptors? Share your thoughts.
Thanks for the time.