The Extinction of the Raptors . . .

Canada's lone NBA team is one sports-related topic that I've yet to comment on in this blog. I feel as though it's time to share some thoughts on our floundering Dino-buddies, late on this Friday afternoon and in the wake of a just-completed Raptor's trade.

This afternoon interim Raptors GM Wayne Embry finally completed the much-needed trade of Jalen Rose to the New York Knicks in exchange for the expiring contract (not to mention the expiring skills) of Antonio Davis. After reading some of the comments on TSN.ca's "It's Your Call" I'm convinced that sports fans in TO have to be the biggest group of simpleton's this side of the nuthouse. I mean, if this was NBA Basketball for Playstation 2 then I'd say no way would you trade Rose for AD. But this is reality folks and there's a lot more to consider when making a trade then just what the talent levels are.

This is a GREAT trade for the Raptors! This is not the debacle that last season's Vince Carter trade was.

When assessing this trade you can't base it's success or failure on name value. Sure Jalen Rose is a bigger "name" player than Antonio Davis. Sure Jalen Rose has a higher skill-set than Antonio Davis. Sure Jalen Rose was more media-friendly and Canada-friendly than Antonio Davis. BUT, the acquisition of Antonio Davis ='s the resigning of Chris Bosh to a long-term deal + the resigning of point guard Mike James + money left over to FINALLY go after a proven big body.

Davis' contract comes off the books after this season. Rose was on the hook for a cool $17 mil next year. There's no money to keep the highly underrated James or to lock in Bosh to the type of long-term deal he deserves (we're talking maximum $'s for the Bosh-man here people).

Sure the Raptors may have downgraded skill-wise for this year but SO WHAT? They weren't going anywhere with Rose this season or next. Having him on the books was only going to keep the franchise in the Eastern conference basement for this year and next. There was no room for improvement as long as Jalen Rose was eating up so much of the payroll.

Are Raptor's fans dillusional? Do they not realize that this season is already over?The best thing the Raps can do now is to start putting themselves in a position to build the type of roster for next year that will get them back to a competitive level again.

Chris Bosh is the centrepiece. No doubt about it. This is a special player and the Raps have got to start building around this kid. This trade signifies that they see that and that they are doing what needs to be done to put players around him that will help him- both on and off the court (like Mike James).

Raptors fans are also griping about the fact that Embry added a 1st round draft pick into the mix as well. So what? In exchange for that draft pick the Raptors have cleared every cent of Rose's bloated contract off their books and the Knicks salary woes only escalated. Do you think that first round pick is going to help the Knicks be better next year? No way. That team is full of Jalen Rose-type players- mid-level skills with elite player salaries who no one will want to trade for. The Knicks' payroll gets larger while their skill level stays at a B or C level.

The 1st round pick belongs to the Denver Nuggets, a team most likely to make the playoffs this year, which means that the pick will be a low first rounder. It's already well known that this year's draft is nothing special. Add to the fact that the Raptor's have enough young talent on this team with Bosh, Villanueva, Calderon, Pape Sow and Joey Graham (I won't put Araujo in this list because I said young "talent"), and it's clear to see that the Raptor's really don't need to add two more young players to the mix. They'll keep their one first rounder and get (hopefully) a nice pick somewhere in the top 10 and that'll be enough for now.

Giving up the extra first rounder in exchange for the Knicks eating all of Rose's salary is a no-brainer in my books.

This is an all-win situation for the Raptors provided they follow this deal up with other smart moves over the course of the next 6-8 months. The foundation has definitely been laid and the early indicator's suggest that we won't hear the next Raptors GM suggest that the team will be worse than they were the year before. Poor Rob Babcock- what were you thinking?

Raptors fans need to take a moment to step back and look at this trade from all angles and realize that winning basketball games in real life takes a lot more smarts than winning basketball games on Playstation 2.

24 update

Well, it's starting to be that Monday's can't come fast enough. I'm turning into the anti-Garfield where I now find myself eagerly anticipating Monday's arrival (at least Monday evening's arrival).

I will say again that "24" is far and away the best show on TV. This past week's episode was another fast paced roller coaster that saw the weasel, Walt Cummings, brought down and a new twist in the terrorist plot unfold. Nothing like the threat of having your eyes cut out to make you sing like a canary.

I think that Jack is going to save President Logan's bacon and in exchange will somehow figure out a way to get his life back without having to go into hiding to avoid facing the Chinese government (if you remember back to last season). While my good friend Laura thinks I'm crazy to root for Jack and Audrey to finally be together, I'd still like to see that happen and think that either it will this season, or Audrey will somehow be killed.

I also think there's something fishy with Jack's other lady friend, Diane. I didn't like her character when she was on Spin City with Michael J. Fox and I'm not a big fan of her now. I still think there's more to this woman than we know right now. If Audrey is to be killed off in a later episode (and we all know that on this show, ANYTHING is possible), then I think it'll be Diane who does the deed. Maybe a little too close to the Nina story line from the first couple seasons but who knows?

In the next few weeks I think we'll see the reemergence of the Wayne Palmer character, President Palmer's brother, and eventually Tony Almeida needs to reappear. Pretty soon we'll also need to be introduced in a little more detail to the blond haired dude running the show. What's his deal?

Anyways, lots of story yet to unfold. The best hour of television looks to only be getting better.

Survivor 1076 kicks off on Thursday night. "Exile Island" looks really interesting to me. I hate to say this but I've yet to miss a Survivor as it's still the best of the reality shows (aside from Amazing Race- as long as they promise to never do another horrid "Family Edition"). I will be tuning in on Thursday night, and probably every Thursday night after that until the next "ultimate Survivor" is crowned.

Missionsfest Vancouver

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Vancouver to represent the school at Vancouver Missionsfest.

This is one of the best events of the year for us to get out and connect with alumni and prospective students. Missionsfest is held at Canada Place in Vancouver, right down on the water at the beautiful Pan Pacific hotel.

I'll start with a short commentary on Vancouver. First off, after 10 years living in Saskatchewan I've now officially been totally ruralized. I hate the city. H-A-T-E HATE. Vancouver is a large-scale Hamilton really. So many one way streets that make driving an absolute nightmare. I used to be able to handle that, and even still I do okay, but now it just stresses me out. Thankfully our hotel was about a 5 minute walk from the venu so we had to do very little driving.

Secondly, Vancouver sucks. I'm sorry to any loyal Vancouverites out there in blog land but it really does. I arrived in Abbotsford on Thursday afternoon and left Monday morning and in between that time I saw nothing but gray skies and constant rain. After 4 days of that miserable weather I was ready to take a deep swim into the big ocean. They've had this weather steady for over a month now. I couldn't handle rain all the time like that. Say what you want about the flatlands of Saskatchewan, at least we get to see this thing called sunshine on pretty much a daily basis.

As for the Missionsfest event itself, it was a good time. Briercrest is coming up on its 75th anniversary (2010) and it's always amazing to me when I go to these events and meet alumni who went to the school back in the 40's and 50's. This weekend I met a lady who was an alumnus of 1951 and she still had vivid memories of her time at Briercrest.

These types of weekends always serve as a reminder to me of the value of what we do here. We're providing opportunities for young people (and old ones too if they so desire) to come and study in an environment that encourages them to make God the centre of everything they do. We invite them to come and learn in an environment that will help equip them for a lifetime of service to Jesus Christ.

So many of the people I met this weekend have had profound influences on so many other lives and their time spent at Briercrest helped them build the foundation from which they now serve God and others. I was reminded of the value of what we do here, of what I do here, and it served to blow some much needed wind into my tired sails.

Vancouver has a lot of rough spots but our time spent at Missionsfest definitely made for a diamond in the rough experience.