Media Day???

[Joey]

Agreed. But is Kobe's move a direct result of Hakeem's teachings?

I guess the point I'm trying to raise is that big men have been flocking to this exclusive camp for a while, costing a reported $10,000 per day, and there doesn't seem to be any noticeable improvement from any of his students.

Edit: Hakeem's camp is basically watching grainy YouTube videos from 1994, combined with peanut butter/jelly sandwiches.

2nd Edit: Oh, and you also get a parting gift.

I could go spend $1,000,000 training with Hakeem and not get anywhere close to being as good as him. I could learn how to do his move, but thats about it. Hakeem was such a rare combination of IQ, Athletisicm, Height etc. Being able to do a move the same as him will never get you to being as good as him.

That being said, I think its a little too soon to tell if his tutelage has had any benefits to someone like JV. Lay the groundwork, but unless JV works at it literally 1,000x a day like Hakeem did, then you're right, its worthless.

[caccia]

Interviews with twelve of the players:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/toronto-...4-15-campaign/

[mcHAPPY]

This year is going to be awesome!

Never had a team so deep and talented with potential to boot!

[Nilanka]

Hakeem had such a great fluidity to his game that is is hard for the average center to duplicate. They say that in order to change your shot you will need to do it the new way 10,000 times to make it part of muscle memory, how many of his students are putting in that effort to make it work?

I could go spend $1,000,000 training with Hakeem and not get anywhere close to being as good as him. I could learn how to do his move, but thats about it. Hakeem was such a rare combination of IQ, Athletisicm, Height etc. Being able to do a move the same as him will never get you to being as good as him.

That being said, I think its a little too soon to tell if his tutelage has had any benefits to someone like JV. Lay the groundwork, but unless JV works at it literally 1,000x a day like Hakeem did, then you're right, its worthless.

I agree with you guys. Nobody will ever duplicate Hakeem's fluidic dominance in the post. Most post players these days don't even have a counter-move, let alone a "go to" move. Hakeem had counter-moves for his counter-moves!

But I'm talking about any improvement from his students at all.

[MACK11]

[YoungGunRaptor]

maybe us young 'uns are crashing the server

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2014/...s-of-the-city/

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing it! It would be great to see more of Toronto's casual fans embrace the Raptors. I certainly hope that last season and the postseason that followed will help contribute to that for this coming season.

[Raptorsnz]

Interviews with twelve of the players:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/toronto-...4-15-campaign/

Do you know if any of these are particularly great to listen to? Apart from the usual "I wanna fit in, team effort, contract year won't affect me etc" stuff.

[MACK11]

Do you know if any of these are particularly great to listen to? Apart from the usual "I wanna fit in, team effort, contract year won't affect me etc" stuff.

Vasquez, Masai, Terrence, Lou, James J

[S.R.]

This year is going to be awesome!

Never had a team so deep and talented with potential to boot!

I envy your optimism. As a life-long Toronto sports fan, I have this ominous foreboding that something will go terribly wrong. Also, anytime I mention a T.O. sports team to my wife, she bursts out laughing. I have no sports self-esteem anymore.

[iblastoff]

i really hope the team doesnt randomly collapse like the knicks did. they basically had the exact same roster coming out of their 50 win season and then just became absolutely crap the next year with 37-45 record.

[caccia]

I really hope the team doesn't randomly collapse like the Knicks did.

Ah, but I thought they added that great Italian player, Andrea Bargnani?

[Letter N]

I envy your optimism. As a life-long Toronto sports fan, I have this ominous foreboding that something will go terribly wrong. Also, anytime I mention a T.O. sports team to my wife, she bursts out laughing. I have no sports self-esteem anymore.

Toronto fans are like the players stuck on losing teams for their whole career. After a while you just forget that winning is a possibility.

[MACK11]

Toronto fans are like the players stuck on losing teams for their whole career. After a while you just forget that winning is a possibility.

Spot on that's why I'm cautiously optimistic about this season

[Joey]

i really hope the team doesnt randomly collapse like the knicks did. they basically had the exact same roster coming out of their 50 win season and then just became absolutely crap the next year with 37-45 record.

They became pretty easy to gameplan for once they decided Carmelo would shoot it as much, and as often as he liked.

[planetmars]

This media day seems boring compared to previous years. It's weird not seeing many controversies. The word tank is most likely not coming up at all this year. We know who our starting PG is and even if gets injured and comes back that spot will be his. It doesn't appear there is any turmoil at all in the locker room.

It's really just a strange feeling.