Walk The Talk . Better Still STFU !

Ha , ha , ha . Can't get enuff of the Leo Rautins' Canada national team (mis)adventure. The 'know it all' of basketball this side of town was a big flop as a national basketball coach, Rautin's boys disfintegrated before the qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics even finished. The 2 main recruits by Leo , 76er Sam Dalembert and NCAA standout , Juan Mendez , left the team in not so good terms. Expect rantings when the Raptors play the Sixers next season. Rautins will not let his 'personal feelings' aside when describing Dalembert's play on the court. When last season, Sam D. cannot seem do anything wrong (because Leo was still courting Sam to join the national team) when describing the Canadian convert's actions on the court , Raptors TV watchers now will think they are listening to Rush Limbaugh !. Whereas Sam D. was treated by the Raps TV Analyst Rautins before like Obama is being handled by mainstream US media, he now joins traitor Vince and long time national team deserter Jamal Magliore in the Leo's hate list. In other words , Leo Rautins is now Leo Rantings !
Leo's embarasment will extend tonight when Kobe , Melo, DWade , CP3 and Co. ose 4 are one name players better known by their nicknames or known by their initialsare expected to toy with his no name players. Quick test , name me the 1st 5 of the Canadian men's basketball team ? Uhh,h hmmm , aah ? How about Nito , JD , NLess and X3 ! These names are one name handles. too. Cool and easy to remember. Nito is Incognito , JD is John Doe and NLess is Nameless and X3 is player X wearing jersey no.3 !

GM Picks Calderon !

Old news ? Naaah . I'm referring to another GM and not the Bryan Colangelo kind. The one known in Canada as Generous Motors ! Yep . General Motors via one of its division ,Chevrolet , agreed with the Spanish Basketball Federation to be the offifial car sponsor. Therefore , one will expect to see Jose Calderon driving a Chevy car . Maybe , but not coach Sam Mitchell who as Torontonians know is a Ford endorser. I wonder if Sam will still push Ford Fusion now that T.J.Ford is but an illusion ?
Talking about cars , everybody is excited about next generation cars especially with the ever increasing price of gasoline.Only the rich and the NBA players with their gas guzzling Escalades are immune to the high gas price. Thank God for the hybrids which are now plying the highways and streets of oil sand rich Canada. That's not all. , every car manufacturer are coming out with their version of the electric car. The 1st one to do so will make a bundle of money coz guys like ex Raptor , Matt Bonner , will purchase one. Over at GM , everyone is excited fabout the Volt. They call the GM Volt the Toyota Killer .They say this plug in electric car will catapult American made cars to the forefront once again. The Big 3 from Detroit not Boston will be relevant again. Hmmm . GM Volt huh . I know only of GM bolt . Yeah , bolt as in escape or dissapear with unusual urgency . The Raptor GM bolting TO as fast as the electric car if the team fails to improve next season !

' Goin' Back To Indiana , Indiana Here I Come '.

Free agents signing starts today with a bang... or is it with a boing, depending on who the teams acquired ? Elton Brand is set to join Philadelphia . That's a bang . Mikael Pietrus will hook up with Orlando.... a likely boing . Elton can play except the piano. The other Elton can do that. A certified 20/10 guy --that's 20 points and 10 rebounds per game- Brand can make the Sixers a contender this coming season. Pietrus is a 20/10 baller too . I meant , he has a 20/10 court vision . All he knows is how to shoot from all angles even from the bench as a member of the Warriors. Come to think of it , Don Nelson's men are supposed to do just that. The hell with other facets of the game. In any case , these 2 developments in the Eastern conference spell trouble for the Raptors. These will surely make it hard for the Raps to go past the Magic who beat them in the 1st round in this year's playoffs or even to hang on to the no. 6 spot in the Eastern conference with emergence of the 76ers as one of the powers in the East. It will all defend on how healthy the new Raptor Jermaine O'Neal will be .' Jermaine comes out early in the off season unlike most NBA players who usually don't start practicng until June ' said famed NBA trainer Joe Abunassar. Hey , Trainer To The Stars . O'Neal starts his season early because the Pacers end their past 3 seasons early too !
Talking about the newest Raptor who the team will intro today to the fans and the TO media . I don't why B.C. and Co. need to do that. O'Neal is already known to most NBA followers since he entered the NBA as a Trailblazer straight from high school . One thing about Jermaine, the guy is not lacking in self confidence. Even as a benchwarmer in the star studded Portland team in his early years . Jermaine proclaimed himself as a future All Star. He eventually became a 3 time All Star with the Indiana Pacers. Will Jermaine regain the form that made him a member of the NBA All Star starting 5 ? Not sure . Oh well , if anything else fails , Jermaine can always come back to Indy as a member of the Jackson 5 !




Jermaine ' Tito' Jackson :Sweeeeet !

Outsourcing , The NBA Way !

I've been saying a long time ago that B.C. should start recruiting from Asia for players to wear the Raptors uniform.It's a way to add value to the franchise and of course , marketing wise. But B.C.'s europecentric approach in bolstering the lineup of the men in red continues this season with the addition of Roko Uric from Croatia . Yes , Colangelo drafted Nathan Jawai, a 7'0" center from Australia, for a change . But how many ( basketball paying ) fans are from Australia residing in T.O ? Or even just the population of Australians here ! The easiest way to find out is to ask those swaggering drunks coming out of downtown bars if they are Aussies ! Or another way is to ask those dancing Matildas in local ballrooms if they are from down under . No, mate is their likely answer. I was fortunate enough to watch some NBL games ( Australian pro league ) when I was in Australia some years back . They don't play bad basketball , I told myself . If only these white mates can jump like kangaroos , they will be awesome.Do you know how the Raptors got Jawai ? It's via Jim Kelly, head scout of the Raptors , who spent some time in Asia years ago before joining the Raps. Kelly is married to a Filipina and used to write a sports column in the Philippines. Like it or not , B.C. will soon outsource players from third world countries..... to meet the NBA salary cap !

If the NBA is wise , India and the rest of Asia aside from China , will be places to go for basketball players. In fact , MLSE should lead the way . Imagine how many Indians will fill the ACC if the Raptors have a turban wearing MJ play alike or a skilled Hindu slashing to the basket instead of the stomach of a appendicitis suffering patient in a TO hospital. Or even a bearded Pakistani driving the lane instead of a dilapidated metro cab ! Indians are really a tall breed . The average height of Indian nationals stand at 5'8" . There are parts of the country where people are as tall as the Europeans . The only reason they appear less tall is because Indians sway their heads sideway if they agree with what you are saying instead of up and down when nodding .A country of a billion people should produce a handfull of 1st class basketball players. The Raps need to bring some prospects in Canada soon -- put them in a rigorous training for 3-4 years , watch them develop into NBA caliber players and walah! the Raptors will have a bevy low cost but highly skilled players. And it is gonna be a win-win situation as thousands of their countrymen in TO will fill the ACC . I can just imagine moi watching a Raptors game live at Air Canada . Mr. Ahmad, to my right , cheering the team with his arms raised and Mr. Singh ,to my left, doing the same thing .....and yours truly desperately covering his nose !




Superfan : Hey , I don't smell . You can ask Ms. Carter here. She even smells my balls ! I mean , my basketballs .