Season Debut of The Starting 5 With Jack Armstrong

One of the things at the Dino Nation Blog I am most proud of is The Starting 5. It has been the driving force that has made this blog as well known as it is. Given how the NBA Season was sprung on all of us, I did not want to impose on guests during the holiday season as they tried to prepare for an NBA Season, that none of us were sure would happen and when. So, it has been awhile now and we are back at it with the Starting 5. There have been many guests we have had the thrill of having over the years. But this man is by far our favourite he is the colour analyst for the Raptors since the last time we had a lockout prior to this one on Radio at first and now for many years on T.V. Hello Jack Armstrong and welcome back to The Starting 5 for another season. In this episode we talk about the NBA and it's crazy schedule. Jack shares his thoughts on everything from Pounding The Rock to the age old question of if he will ever be joining the rest of the world on Twitter. An in depth look at the struggles of Demar DeRozan. Thoughts on Dwane Casey and the new coaching staff. As well as his thoughts on the new and improved Andrea Bargnani and why he can succeed potentially where Chris Bosh could not. It is all in there in a in depth 30 minute chat with our good friend Jack Armstrong.



Thanks to Jack and now that the Starting 5 is back you can expect all of the guests we have had in the past like Paul Jones, Matt Devlin and our ever growing list of regular guests to be popping by. In addition to any new ones we come across along the way. So hope you enjoyed this one and thanks for your support of the Starting 5 and please make sure to visit us daily for all our work covering the Toronto Raptors. It has been a 4 year plus ride of a lifetime for me. I am so thrilled to have the chance to bring you quality guests like Jack and hopefully some quality info and opinion on a daily basis.

Starting 5 With @Liston

I have mentioned in the blog, how when it started, I never real expected that it would introduce me to so many fantastic people as it has. I would rank near the top of that list our guest today in the Starting 5. He is Tom Liston a great sports fan in general and a very passionate Raptor fan as well. He has a background and works in finance. You might say if you didn't know Tom he fits the stereotype of the corporate suits that occupy the nice seats in the Air Canada Centre. But in knowing him nothing could be further from the truth. He has taken his background and has used some of that knowledge and applied it to sports. He writes for the folks at Raptors Republic doing some excellent pieces based on stats. I have never been a huge person for stats and think sometimes we have gone crazy with them. So we make for an odd pairing. But I do respect Tom and appreciate the work he puts in. He does a pretty good job of taking data and presenting in a entertaining format. Here is the most recent example of what he does at Raptors Republic. We talk everything from stats to business. If you listen to this interview I can almost guarantee you will be smarter for it.

Tom mentioned the all 4 one event and he has his own personal website and you can find more info on there. As we mentioned in the Interview the Team Up Foundation does great work. If you can afford to attend I would encourage you to do so. I would also make the point that MLSE should look to do events in a price range for the average person to take part in. I personal could never afford that cost. It is something I would hope the folks at MLSE consider moving forward. Something else that is for a good cause is what Eric Smith is doing. Eric has worked with some folks to create a T-Shirt to sell where the profits are going to aid the victims of the tragic events in Japan. Aside from doing a good thing it is a pretty cool T-Shirt. They are for sale online now and you can link here to purchase one. Both good causes and if you can afford to contribute to one or both please do. I thank Tom for taking time out to come visit with us here at the Dino Nation. He has always been supportive of me and the blog and it is a mutual thing as I have always been supportive of Tom. I look forward to having him back in the future as guest.

Raptors Dance Pak's Candice In DNB's Starting 5

In the past the Dino Nation Blog has done features on the Raptors Dance Pak. They have been some of the most popular features we have done in the Dino Nation Blog. The answer as to why is far from rocket science. Obviously, the young ladies that make up the Dance Pak are attractive young women. But also hopefully, in these features you have got to know that these ladies have a passion for what they do just like the players that make up the Raptors roster. Candice is in her 3rd year as a member of the Raptors Dance Pak. She is the Co-Captain of 2010-11 Raptors Dance Pak. She already had a brief appearance in the Dino Nation Blog as part of our stuff from this season's Fan Jam. But this is a longer visit as we talk about how Candice became a part of the Dance Pak. We talk about all the travelling she has done this year, with stops in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax. We also talk about the Raptors Dance Pak Blog on Raptors.com. There are videos on there from the trips the ladies made with Kat and some of the other ladies from the Dance Pak. Candice also made her debut on Twitter as have a number of other ladies on the Dance Pak joining Kat who started up on Twitter last season. @CptCandice documented her experience getting on to Twitter in the Dance Pak Blog. We have a great conversation and have a lot of fun. In fact this is the most fun I have had doing an interview for the DNB. Candice was great to talk with and think you will enjoy hearing from her.

So as mentioned at the end of the interview, we are going to try and get one of these done a month at least. I said in a tweet recently, that I have grown to have a lot of respect for what these ladies do and the credit for that goes to Kat. To be honest most times when I am watching sports I am always locked in on the game itself. But in meeting Kat, and now Candice, I have started to learn how hard these ladies work and contribute to the overall experience at Raptors game. Not to mention all the other things they do in the promotion of the Raptors. I know you are thinking as a guy you didn't notice the Dance Pak? I might have noticed but never paid close attention. So in doing these the goal is to try and get across just how hard these ladies work and let you get to know them better in a fun and relaxed way. Candice has been so nice in helping me pull this thing off. These ladies have busy schedules and so do I, so the hardest part sometimes is just finding the time to make it happen. I hope these help you get to know these great young women, that have a passion for dancing, and for the Raptors and basketball. So thanks to Candice for taking time to help me do that for all of you. Seeing as we both had a good time, be fun to do again sometime during the season.

Matt Devlin From Vancouver

I had not missed covering training camp till this Sunday. When the Raptors were having their scrimmage and I was covering the NFL for The Score. However, if I can not be at camp, thankfully we at the Dino Nation Blog know a few people that are at camp. One of those is Matt Devlin and he checks in with us from Vancouver. He will be calling the Raptors pre-season opener tonight on TSN as they take on the Suns. We talk about a bunch of things including that game tonight. We also talk about how the Raptors can build on it's fan base outside of Toronto. Along with talk of all the usual suspects you would suspect, mixed in with a little fun as always with Matt Devlin.

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Thanks to Matt for his time and make sure you tune in to watch him and Jack Armstrong with the call of Suns and Raptors for TSN.

The Starting 5 With Oak

It is a pleasure for me to have talked with for many, one of the most loved Raptors of all time Charles Oakley. We chatted about his thoughts on all this 2010 madness. We look at his time with the Raptors. He also give his thoughts on his desire to coach in the NBA. He gives his thoughts on that and a number of things in the league. We also get into what Charles has done off the floor and what he is up to these days. Charles is looking to start his own cooking show and is involved in a bunch of things including producing movies. It was great to talk with Charles and get his take on a number of subjects. Like any interview I have ever head with Charles there are some interesting and honest answers. This was a great treat for me and I hope it will be for you as well.

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It is always interesting to hear from Charles Oakley and it would be great to see him back as a part of the NBA in some way. If that happens or not is hard to say. However, Charles Oakley will always have things going to keep himself busy and happy. Oakley if he does come back to the NBA, would bring some old school mentality with him and that is a good thing for the league. Whatever Oak does though, he does it with his full effort and it has earned him respect in Toronto, New York and with all NBA fans that watched him play. Much love and thanks to Charles Oakley.

You can follow Charles on Twitter.

Response to this interview was so large it crashed the bandwidth on are normal service. We thank you for the overwhelming response and if you were unable to listen the problem has been corrected and we apologize for this issue.

The Starting 5 with Alex Seixerio From Fan 590

Alex does everything on the Fan590 from updates, to hosting, to reporting, to working sidelines at TFC games. He also is the host of The Fantasy Show on the Fan as well. He was out doing great work at the Olympics in Vancouver and that is about the time things went south for the Raptors. That would only continue leading us to a premature end of the season address from Bryan Colangelo. Alex like all of us was watching and give some thoughts on what Colangelo had to say. He gives his take on CB4, Bargnanai and Triano. In addition to a lot more. It was a fun time and I was happy to have Alex back for I believe his second appearance in the Starting 5. Even at the end, I ask him who has a worse defense TFC who Alex covers or the Raptors. I know zero about soccer but given they lost 3-1, that is a lot of goals for soccer. I also never even knew Colorado had a team in the MLS so that can't be good. But this interview is.

Alex Seixerio

DNB Productions- Starting 5

Thanks to Alex for his time today. Love all of our Fan 590 regulars that include Jack, Paul, Eric and Zack. They all are fun to talk with and bring solid knowledge and opinion to the table. Which is why we are always happy when any of them pay us a visit.

The Starting 5 with REGGIE!! REGGIE!!!

Prior to the Raptors game vs his former team Reggie Evans talked with the Dino Nation Blog about his return, Twitter and more. Reggie has always been fun to talk with and has been a hit with the fans. He was part of an All Access Event at Centre Sports with Raptors fans along with Jose Calderon this past Saturday. Reggie has been good to Toronto fans and they have been good to him. Although Reggie said nothing was worth going through his injury. I asked him if the great reaction from fans upon his return helped make it worth all his hard work to get back.

Reggie Evans " It felt good. It kind of mad me think that they must have felt my pain and struggle that I went through all of that. It felt pretty good."

and is everything good as far has coming back.

Reggie Evans " I can't complain everything is good. I don't have anything to complain about"

Now you can get out there and have an impact and bring your toughness and aggressive play to the floor that must feel good.

Reggie Evans " It is good to have an opportunity instead of just cheering my team on for the full 48 minutes. Now I can get out there and participate and help them out from a physical standpoint on the court. That definitely feels good."

There was that poll in Sports illustrated that ranks you number 1 as on of the meanest guys in the NBA do you take pride in something like that?

Reggie Evans " I just take it for whatever it is. It is cool that I got respect in this league. So it is cool I don't look at in a bad way at all"

Reggie often is giving tickets away on Twitter to his fans/followers on Twitter. I asked him about twitter and his involvement on it.

Reggie Evans " I never did something like it before. A friend of mine David asked me to to do twiiter. I was like alright cool let's make it happen. So he kind of broke it down for me. I was never into the internet stuff like that. So I did it and made it happen and stuff."

But giving tickets away was that something you did with other teams.

Reggie Evans " Never I never did that. I have only done that with Twitter."

Reggie often hops on Twitter and will ask fans some trivia question and first one to get it right wins tickets to a game courtesy of Reggie. Another thing just recently is Reggie tweeted if he reaches 10,000 followers he says he will shave off his beard. Was he serious?

Reggie Evans " Yeah once I get the 10,000 followers. Seems like no one wants to cut my beard off though because my followers slowed down. So it seems like people don't want me to do it."

Did you run this by family or friends or anything?

Reggie Evans " Nah nobody I just came up with it. I just said I get 10,000 followers I would do it. I am just doing it to have fun with the fans. I just came up with it. Really it is just about having some fun with the fans. "

Now I love my readers here at the DNB. I honestly do. But there is no way the Dino Blogger is putting his facial hair on the line for anyone. But the team is starting to get ready for the playoff push so how is Reggie feeling about his game heading into the stretch run?

Reggie Evans " Basically just getting back to my top notch shape like was in the pre-season before I got hurt..I want to be in top notch shape for the playoffs. "

Was it a mixed blessing with his injury that he will have more gas in his tank for the post season?

Reggie Evans- "No, you always wish you can be here to go through the ups and downs with your team.I could say yeah, but I can get rest during the off-season. I played 7 years of the full seasons and stuff like that. I am use to it"

As for March Madness Reggie is always a big supporter of Iowa as I found out during football season in the NCAA. He says if Iowa can't win then he hopes a Big Ten team can win it all. But Reggie will be busy doing what he can to get Raptors back on track. He is really one of the nicest guys off the floor. I can relate in some small way. I played football back in high school and I once got in a fight during a game. People were shocked that I was involved in something like that. Some people just have a different personality when they step on to the field or court. Raptor fans love both personalities of Reggie Evans. The guy on the floor that kicks butt and gives everything in his gas tank. If they have the chance to meet him or interact with him they love the nice caring giving person that legitimately cares about his fans. The Future of Reggie's Beard? He is 4,577 followers shy of being beardless. You can follow Reggie on Twitter @ReggieEvans30 and you may even end up being one of the lucky folks that gets tickets courtesy of Reggie.

You can expect plenty more Reggie Reggie chants at the ACC. I want to thank Reggie for taking the time to talk with me. Reggie Evans is a DNB favourite and like he likes to say on Twitter...BET THAT.

Starting 5 with Zack Cooper From Fan 590

The Dino Nation Blog is always looking to add to our guest list. Zack Cooper works for the Fan 590 and does a lot of work for the Fan 590 in covering the Toronto Raptors. He can be found on many days covering Raptor practices or games. So to have someone like this as a guest is obviously something that will add some insight for us. It has been an off-season full of changes and the faces have changed quite a bit. Zack also hosts the the show Got Game on the Fan 590. That is on Sunday's at 5pm. He has a passion for the whole gaming world, as well as the sports world. So we do talk a little bit on that as well. I also recently had the pleasure of being a guest on The Fan 590 with Zack and was grateful for the opportunity to do that. He gave me my debut as a guest on the station. So it only seemed right to bring him to the Dino Nation Blog for his debut in The Starting 5. It is growing to become quite the impressive line-up. So is the Raptors line-up for that matter. We talk about the latest trade to go down off the top and get into all the moves that have been made. In addition some thoughts on what all of this will mean for Chris Bosh. I hope you will enjoy this latest edition of the Starting 5. There are a few more guests scheduled for this week. Zack is hitting in the lead off spot and does a great job in kicking off what should be a good week for the DNB on the interview front.






It has been great to recently get to know Zack. I am very lucky to have got to know so many talented folks thanks to the Dino Nation Blog. I consider Zack to be one of those talented folks. I had always enjoyed his work and hope to have him as a guest moving forward. I think you will agree he offered some excellent informed opinion and is someone that is around this Raptor Organization and can offer an insider point of view for us. Zack mentioned about Twitter and loving to chat gaming or sports so if you want to follow him on twitter he is @ZCoopertown Two more guests this week so make sure you check back in with us. Both are returning guests to the Starting 5. I am on Twitter as well if you want to keep on top of what is going on with the Dino Nation Blog that is one of the better ways to do it @dinonationblog

NEWS NOTE:

The trade for Roko Ukic and Carlos Delfino for Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems mentioned in this interview is now OFFICIAL the Raptors have issued a press release. Thanks to Holly Mackenzie for the heads up.

Tas Melas Of Basketball Jones Visits(Part 1)

Most who read the Dino Nation Blog know, I liveblog basketball games for The Score as well as write the Dino Nation Blog. One of the people I have got to know based on that is Tas Melas who also live blogs games along with myself. He is part of The Basketball Jones which is something that has become part of my daily routine on a Monday to Friday. If not for working with him I may not have discovered it. They have done well over 400 episodes of the show. It is worth watching everyday if you are a basketball junkie in need of your fix. So being new to it I decided to ask Tas for some background on Basketball Jones and we also talk some NBA Playoffs. We did get into some Raptors as well but it was such a long and hopefully interesting conversation I have made that into a separate parts. I will get that out on the weekend. Let's face it not much is going to change in Raptorland in the next day or two so it all should still be relevant. So for now enjoy Tas and I talking Jones and NBA Playoffs.

It was great having Tas drop by and in Part 2 we talk Raps about CB4 and his future along with Jay Triano and some other things Raptors. You can catch Both Tas and myself live blogging games throughout the playoffs for The Score. I am doing Game 3 of that Rockets and Lakers Series Tas and I talked about. To join in on the fun click on this link at gametime. Follow the Score on Twitter to see what games are being live blogged and when. Dino Nation Blog is also a member of the rapidly growing Twitter Nation where you can follow the Dino Nation Blog. In addition go check out The Basketball Jones and watch it and you will likely like me make it part of your basketball required viewing for the day. The great thing about the Dino Nation Blog has been for me is getting to know so many folks that love talking basketball and are fans of the sport. In Canada we can never find enough people to chat hoops with. That is why I do my best to bring in all the folks that love basketball and have passion for it for you folks. Tas is among those people. So Part 2 is on the Weekend so make sure to check that out.

Jack Armstrong Mid-Season Chat With Dino Nation Blog

Jack Armstrong is one of my favourite guests to have in the Dino Nation Blog. Since we have started our chats he has starting doing his own blog. It is part of the list of sites we have over on the right side of your screen. He also hosts his radio show and is on Hoops when he is in town. In short he is a very busy guy. I am always happy to talk with him for the Dino Nation Blog. Today's interview takes a look back and look forward at this Raptor season. It is an interesting 15 minute chat we have that talks about a number of issues. Jamario Moon and the Raptor wing spots. Bryan Colangelo and the overall outlook for this team. As well as a look at what has gone wrong and why. It starts off with a little fun as well. Given the Raptors recent struggles we can use that. So with that all said here is my interview with Jack Armstrong from earlier today in Chicago.

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We talked before we got started and he has yet to hear anything in terms of movement as relates to Jermaine O'Neal. Reports were out this morning that Raptors and Heat had been exchanging medical records. But as of 10am Chicago time there was no news to report.

I thank Jack as always for making time for the Dino Nation Blog. He is one of the most straight forward guys you will find in the Raptors media and I have always respected in honesty in talking about this team be it here in the Dino Nation Blog or any of the other many places you can hear Jack talking about the team.