Last DNB Before The Draft

Things are going nuts as the draft keeps getting closer. I want to try to have some calm sanity as we get ready for draft night. There are people, myself including all making judgements on these players that make up this draft class. Examining what we like and don't like about players. pretty much putting them under a microscope. There is nothing wrong with that, it is what people are paid to do. However, I just want to stop and hit the pause button for this final moment before the draft. As much as we may like or dislike a given player, for all players that hear there name called it is a special moment. I think that gets lost in the shuffle some times. When in years past we have had Stephen A Smith losing his mind and ripping people at an alarming rate. Dick Vital is the same going off on NBA teams that draft any guy from Europe. It is fine to evaluate and have an opinion. However is it so much to give it 15 seconds to let a kid have his moment before you bury his career for dead?

For most guys in this draft it has been a lifetime of playing and loving a sport that has lead to this moment. There is the odd exception like a Hasheem Thabeet that comes to the game late in life. But even those are special stories as well. Just the fact of 60 dreams being realized is entertaining in and of itself. We do not need the ranting idiots like Stephen A Smith to add fake drama do we? Well actually Stephen A Smith won't be there. He will not be snacking on cheese doodles. Can't say I will miss him. Now if we could some how eliminate Dick Vital we would be making progress. I love the guys passion for the NCAA but he has a clear bias that comes out every year. Love the his passion but leave him off the NBA draft.

Tell me more about these kids as people instead of taking the time to tell me why he is going to be a complete bust.There is still lots of time between picks to do that. But would it be so bad to use an extra 30-45 seconds of talking to these kids. After all this is the biggest moment in their lives to this point professionally.To often in this modern sports world it is all about breaking down people and not enough about building them up. I want to see fresh young faces that still have that star eyed look and may one day become a star. Do we not get enough of people talking about the draft prior to it?

I guess the point to all of this is to say, when you are watching the draft, even if it is for 5 seconds think how life changing a moment it is for every person you see. There are a lot of crappy reality shows on television. The draft is real and the people who lives change are as well. They will have entire careers to be evaluated and judged. But on this day I want to see a bit more of the magic of the moment and a bit less of the talking heads.

So whoever that newest Raptor will be. Understand that for him it is the greatest moment of his basketball life. Even if it is not the guy you want to be picked. Besides there have been times when picks were not loved by fans and worked out well. Damon Stoudamire was booed in Toronto and he went and won rookie of the year. He said on draft night he would turn those boos to cheers and he did that. ESPN just destroyed Charlie Villianuva and he ended up the second best player in his class according to ROY voting. There is always going to be the busts like the Hoffas. However still do you think he really lost? He got paid and made an amount of money that if he handles it right could set him up for a long time. That is what the great thing is of the draft that it can change people's lives for the better.So Bust or All Star is to be determined but the impact on lives is certain.

Just thought this was a good thing to write prior to the draft and perhaps add a bit of perspective to all of this. You are all welcome to come join us on The Score.com for are liveblog @ 7pm as I will be hosting with Scott Carefoot and we will have Holly MacKenzie at the draft tweet for us live from NYC. It should be a good part. I will add the direct link later but if you don't see that posted just go to www.thescore.com and click on liveblogs and you should find the blog listed and just click on it and it is as simple as that. I am going to be there to the end at midnight. Scott will be there for the first round. I guess he is the David Stern of our show. But it is going to be fun and I have been looking forward to this for awhile. So it would be great if you would like to share your draft night and be part of our draft party on the score.com

That is all for me till after the draft. I likely will still do the odd tweet. Because I am rapidly becoming a Twitter addict. You can follow me @dinonationblog on Twitter if you miss me in between blogs.

Direct Link To Live Blog of NBA Draft On The Score.com 7-12pm

Getting NASHTY On A Wednesday

I this year for the first time in a long time am actually interested in the NBA Playoffs despite the Raptors not being in them. Normally I find it to painful to watch a lot of the playoffs without the Raptors in it. Steve Nash is much like me it would seem. Normally as a player when he is not involved he doesn't like watching. However this year he has been watching. He is on Twitter and Facebook. I became a fan of Steve Nash on Facebook and he has been giving his thoughts on the playoffs it is an interesting read to say the least. To get the take of one of the better players in the game. That is what is good about this new world we live in. You can get info that even 10 years ago would have been not possible. Steve also has a diet that he follows on his facebook fan page as well. You may have read that I am pretty convinced that having Steve Nash come to the Raptors might be an answer. You may not agree but that is cool. I think Steve Nash as a Raptor could be the answer in the short term for the Raps to turn it around quickly. Nash even at his age is better than Jose Calderon. If Nash is the plans of Colangeo that is good news for Jay Triano.

Triano and Nash are know to have a great relationship and if Nash is coming it only makes the idea of a Triano era as head coach. Colangelo is said to have meet with Triano yesterday and I would love to know if the name of Nash came up. It would make sense it would as both Triano and Colangelo know him well. That would be only 1 of a number of topics that would be on the table. It was telling when Colangelo said that he had not talked to anyone about the coaching job in Toronto. It would seem as I said the other day, unless Triano showed up with a lamp shade on his head in his underwear the job was likely his. Just a matter of the details. Those details will include a new coaching staff. Mark Ivaroni will be the lead assistant in that staff. If Triano was not down with that he basically would shoot himself in the foot. It is key for a G.M and coach to have a good working relationship however can Triano really be anything but a yes man to Colangelo? I don't mean it as it sounds. However what bothers me is that Triano really is faced with a tough situation. Despite what everyone says I am not convinced you could not bring in someone with a better resume. Washington has hired Flip Saunders to take their coaching job. He would not be a choice of mine for the job here. However if you compare resumes is it even close in comparison to Triano. There are lots of other guys that you could say the same about. So is a combination of Ivaroni, Triano and Colangelo going to work? Can Jay feel secure at all in his job if Ivaroni is sitting on the bench with him? Ivaroni was long said to be Colangelo's guy and if not for Sam Mitchell winning coach of the year many feel Ivaroni would have been named the head coach and Sam would be fired. If you brought in Nash that may balance things out a bit and give Jay a little more security. However you cut it the idea of Triano as head coach makes me feel uneasy. Based on the fact he is Canadian I have always wanted to see him have success. I may not think he is the right guy but he is our guy. It makes me think if Jay Triano was from Fort Worth Texas and not Niagara Falls Ontario does anyone think people would be so calm about all this? That being said people like Jack Armstrong, Paul Jones and others have confidence in Triano and I respect them and hope they are right and I am wrong.

Taking a look at NBA Awards no surprises to this point. Mike Brown is the coach of the year. He did a great job and has that Lebron guy to make him look good. Dwight Howard was the defensive player of the year and it is well deserved. Lebron James could have got this award but I suspect another award is coming his way. Today Derrick Rose is going to be announced as the Rookie of the Year. He ran away with the award and is taking his Bulls to places few thought they would go at the start of the year.

Lastly a fond farewell to Stephen A Smith. It seems that he was on the edge of keeping his job. Makes all that Bosh stuff ring kind of hollow doesn't it? Well least Stephen A Smith can have sometime to have some cheese doodles. If you have not seen this on You Tube before here it is from 2006 Draft.



So there you have it. Cheese doodles were also a favourite snack of Madonna back in the days when she made the movie Desperately Seeking Susan. So Stephen A and Madonna have that in common. The Stephen A Smith era on ESPN lasted far to long.This blog hopeful did not.

Round Ball Review Talks To Stephen

So in this episode of the Round Ball Review, J.B Superstar is sent on assignment to interview Stephen A Smith. Things do not exactly work out that way though. He will encounter someone else.



So that is a wrap for this edition of the round ball review. In a season with not much to laugh about hopefully J.B and Joey can bring you some laughs. I know I have a lot of fun doing them.

Bad Day, Bad Data , Season Looks Doomed

I guess this is no shock. Jalen Rose was shooting off his mouth it only goes to figure that Stephen A Smith felt the need to up the ante on the whole Chris Bosh story about 2010. Stephen A Smith who you will recall insulted Bosh last year and made some rather less than kind comments about him. In other words I am sure he is super tight with Bosh. Hell I may be tighter with Bosh and we have never spoke a word to each other or have met one another in life. We are facebook friends and follow each others twitters. Something tells me Stephen A Smith would get rejected by Bosh. So having said all of this the ESPN so called Insider, or whatever they are calling him this week, claims that Bosh has told Colangelo he is gone in 2010. The real shame is there is not a story about Stephen A going somewhere in 2010. Like to cover basketball in Iceland. But as Smith reports if you can call it that. He says that both Miami and Dallas have interest in Bosh. Heck Stephen A why not make up 5 other teams that want Bosh as well. I mean Phil Jackson was fined for saying he liked Bosh so add the Lakers. Orlando I am sure would love a front court of Bosh and Howard. Houston is not that far from Dallas why not say that a Bosh for T-Mac trade is being talked about? Go all the way. That will teach Jalen Rose for stealing your bit of being a no nothing idiot, in my opinion and I would venture to say I am not alone. Smith did say he did not see Colangelo moving Bosh at the deadline. Which makes total sense because why would he say that he would. Smith could be made to look like a jacka$$ when the trade didn't happen so way to cover that butt Stephen A Smith another great job. The guys at Raptors Republic have the full story and the video of Smith saying his words of wisdom.

As For The Game Today....

I am probably just as angry about that. I mean if you read this morning it is not like I expected the Raptors to win or anything. However the effort of this team was truly brutal in the second half. I mean were that worried they might be late for their Super Bowl party and wanted to make sure this game would not go to overtime? I think the 20+ point Magic win we were certain that was not going to happen after less than a minute into the second half. Here is a link to my live blog for The Score and you can read my thoughts on the game and a number of issues.

I have no doubt Chris Bosh is angry and he should be. First and foremost his own play was not to the level that he expects from himself. His team around him was pretty awful as well. News that Jose Calderon is still not right with his hamstring it just has all the makings of what Bosh did not want to hear a few weeks ago. A lost season. I can not really come up with anything to say to dispute that it is not.

It was a very angry crowd at the ACC today as well. They booed and did it loudly and with just cause. I understand that Bosh and others have suggested that fans should not boo and it serves no purpose. However I share in common a love of the Dallas Cowboys with Chris Bosh. In the last game ever at Texas Stadium the Cowboys were booed off the field for a terrible performance against the Baltimore Ravens. I don't hear anyone in the NFL saying Dallas Cowboy fans are bad. They like Raptor fans just expected and demanded more effort from the team they love. So here is an idea don't complain about the people booing just do what you can to change it. I admit that I have no idea what it feels like to be booed by 19,000 people. I am sure it feels awful. If it happened to me though I would bust my butt to make sure it never happened again.

The focus of Bryan Colangelo and this fan base is rapidly going to shift to next season. It is time for the people on this roster to show if they want to be part of the future in Toronto or not. I am not just talking about Bosh and 2010. I am talking about every player on this roster. I really don't anyone on this roster should be untouchable at this point beyond Bosh and that is based on thinking Stephen A Smith is wrong which I am confident he is. I would want to know what each and ever player is worth. It is not to say I would trade a Bargnani or Calderon but I would at least want a idea what they are worth.

The only thing I am clear about as this is the start of February. It is going to be a long 3 months in Raptorland. This was far from what was advertised at the start of the season.