After the Lakers were the latest NBA team to dismantle the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night, a story moved on the wire and in the Toronto media that LAL head coach Phil Jackson praised Chris Bosh and seemed rather high on the Raptors young star.
A story just moved on the wire today that the Raptors are up in arms that Jackson would have the gaul to suggest what he did.
As quoted in the Canadian Press/Toronto Star story that moved on the wire:
‘‘Well ... the players that were franchise-changing players you know re-signed up or re-upped with their organizations,’’ Jackson said. ‘‘There are some that will be available in the year following that you obviously have to take a look at, and this kid here is one of them. Chris Bosh, obviously everybody’s going to be interested in and we think he’s become quite a talent.’’
And the Raptors rebuttal?
‘‘If someone asks our coach about a guy and he says, ‘He’s a great player,’ that’s fine. But if he says, ‘He’s a great player and he’d look great in a Toronto uniform,’ that’s tampering,’’ the official said.
Jackson didn’t say he wanted to lure Bosh to Los Angeles. But he did freely mention his name as someone his team — and others — might covet.
Could the Toronto Raptors look anymore bush league than they already do? My word, someone from glitzy, glammed-up L.A. makes the slightest mention of one of their players and the media hoards come flocking. Then, uptight Raptor front office types come battling back against the big, bad media celeb machine that is the Los Angeles Lakers, shaking their fists and offering up "you better watch it, Bucko" type retorts. It carries all the merit and threat of the 98-pound weakling challenging the school bully to a tussle at lunch hour.
Listen, you're already the laughingstock of the NBA, not only for your record but for the band of incompentents you have working in your front office, and for the Raptors to even have the nerve to make this into an issue is laughable and embarassing.
Advice for the Raptors? Just stay quiet and wait for someone to call on you. Just as in that lunch-hour mismatch, the Raptors should know their place and slink back into their spot in the corner as the worst franchise in the L and leave the heavy lifting to the real franchises.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Zen tampering
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2 comments:
And you get upset at me for defending the Yankees? For shame, DL.
You may be right in suggesting that this is a case of the weakling and the bully, but in this case, the weakling is absolutely correct. Coach Jackson all but said that Chris Bosh will be wearing a Laker's uniform once the opportunity arises because, like the Yankees, they have the money to get their man and there's not a damn thing a mom 'n pop outfit like the Raptors can do about it. Extolling the virtues of the player? Fine. It's called that ridiculously overused and disingenous word in sports lingo: respect. Respect for an opponent and the product they have (no matter how bad the sum of the parts is). But this? This is at worst, a threat. At best, it is an honest mistake by the coach. He covets Bosh, as do other teams. No harm there. But just don't publicly laugh in a (financially) weaker opponent's face and tell him that you'll be calling (along with other clubs) to pry him away when the time comes. That's just wrong and classless (another overused, disingenous sports term).
I guess for teams like the Lakers and, yes, my beloved Yankees, that's what's called "heavy lifting".
You really have to be kidding right now. What part of Jackson's quote said "hey we have the money, we're going after him." He just said that teams in the league respect Bosh as a top-line guy, which he is.
He didn't even — in that quote at least — utter anything remotely close to "we're going after him."
And let's not compare the Yanks and Lakers again please. The NBA actually has a cap and it allows teams of all markets to at least be competitive in those ranks. We all know that big market teams in MLB have an advantage. NBA vs MLB in that regard is apple's to oranges.
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