Jack Armstrong Helps Us Celberate 5 Years Of The DNB

Today marks officially five years of doing the Dino Nation Blog. I have in that time accomplished a lot of things. One of the things that I am most proud of is earning the respect of our guest today Jack Armstrong. I may have told this story before but I will repeat it in case you have not read it or heard it before. I started doing work covering basketball back in college on a radio sports show. I was able to get Chuck Swirsky and Eric Smith to come on as guests on occasion.  I felt lucky enough with being able to do that. Still, I really wanted to have this other guy named Jack Armstrong as a guest. I admired his no nonsense tell it like it is approach. I just didn't have the courage to say hey Chuck or hey Eric it is great having you on the show but I really would also like to have Jack Armstrong could you help me out? At the time I thought it might have insulted them. When I started the DNB I realized that was silly and asked Eric if it would be possible to pass along that I would like to talk with Jack and Eric's broadcast partner Paul Jones.

He would and both have ended up being guests here on the Starting 5. Both have also behind the scenes so to speak given me great encouragement and advice. It started out just in written form and now has advanced into audio form for years. We now have two podcasts and Eric was a guest on This Week In Raptorland talking about his charity mission this season to help hurricane victims in New York and New Jersey. I get into that with Jack today at the end of our interview. Jack is a Brooklyn native and has had many people both  in his family and friends directly impacted by this. So who better to make a sales pitch on behalf of Eric.

Don't worry we talk a ton of basketball before that including Andrea Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan, Raptors not getting calls and a lot more. The support and encouragement of Jack Armstrong since Eric got us together has been tremendous. I can not tell you how much it means to me. I have never told Jack this but he honestly reminds me in many ways of my own father who I lost at the age of 13. There is nobody that I know from my work in the Dino Nation Blog that I would do more for or defend to the end of the earth than Jack Armstrong. He has NEVER once turned me down to do an interview. He is a joy to work with and it is truly one of the best experiences I have had in 5 years of doing this.

So with that said please have a listen to yet another great conversation with myself and Jack Armstrong:


In five years of covering this team I have had a lot of ups and some downs but it has been a fun ride. Do I wish the Raptors had performed better over that time? Of course I do, but that never impacts on how hard I work at what I am doing. The list of people I could thank would be a long one. I will just say for all the people that have over the years come to this thing I created be they as guests or as readers and listeners of what I do...Thank You.

The Dino Nation Blog can at times be rough around the edges. I do my best to balance keeping going after my dreams and looking after my family concerns. I think one of my favourite memories of both involves Jack Armstrong too. I had an interview with Jack and it fell on my mom's birthday. I asked him if he would sing White Christmas for my mom because she loves snow and Happy Birthday seemed to cliched. Jack was happy to comply. He has sung here, talked a ton of basketball, even some out of the box stuff like breaking down the basketball skills of Barrack Obama.

No matter what has been thrown Jack's way here in the DNB he has always come through for us and I am always thankful to see him or talk with him. I met players and do many things but to say that Jack Armstrong knows me and respects me ranks at the top of my list of things I have accomplished because I respect him so much.