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Kings @ Raps - other thoughts ...

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  • Kings @ Raps - other thoughts ...

    Watching Chris Bosh these days, I get the feeling sometimes that we’re seeing something more special than we even know. Like ... sometimes I think that years from now when we look back - both, in the crisp, clear HD video that will undoubtedly exist, and in our own minds (that only we - here and now - will actually remember) - will many of us understand ... or maybe, (it’s) appreciate just what it was we were actually seeing ‘back then’. Watching today’s game, CB4 just went up for an emPHATic slam ... and this thought occurred. You might have to give it twenty years before you know what I’m talking about. But ... you’ll see.

    I like our team. The plethora of trade ideas that are debated and argued over are fun for many (it’s plain to read), but I like our team as it is. In a perfect world (ok, mine), we’d get to see THIS group evolve and mature to whatever ‘best’ it is that they have in them ... culminating (ideally) with an NBA Championship. But ... I’m sure whatever version of the Raptors that we have when we win that first championship will be quite fine, as well. It’d be nice though, if it was this basic team. And really, who knows? Things can happen quickly.

    You know what was great about growing up in Montreal, a Montreal Canadiens fan? (answer) Watching teams that weren’t necessarily the absolute best in the league win championships. -> When I was quite young, I became aware for the first time during one particular season, how much the Habs meant to everybody. Every adult it seemed, that I came into regular contact with had been and continued to be deeply troubled (underlying, you understand, but I remember being quite aware, somehow) by how badly the team had been doing. When xmas day came around and the team was dead last in the standings, it just hung in the air everywhere I seemed to go. I was only six or seven, but even I knew that the Habs had been tragically disappointing up until then. Then ... shortly after xmas (and I recall it exactly as such, xmas being a benchmark day and all), they won two or three games in a row and suddenly ... everyone was smiling and a LOT more cheerful than they’d been. I started paying close attention to the results of each game, usually waking up the next morning, wanting to know how they had done the night before. And ... they kept winning. By the end of the season, ‘the Canadiens’ (we were English Quebecers) were in first place. You had to be there, but trust me, it was a deliriously happy time! Several weeks later, they won the Stanley Cup and the parade down Ste. Catherine’s Street was a joyous madhouse of celebration that imprinted deeply. Naturally, I was hooked and as I continued to grow up, they won many more championships, that is, Stanley Cups ... and each of them was as fun as the last. I tell of this, because when I hear the few brave souls out there who dare to speak of this Raptors team going further than most anyone who follows them - and likely anyone who might be reading this - expects (that they could possibly go past the first or even second round) ... well, it just doesn’t sound all that out-of-the-realm of sanity that it might (or does) to many others. ‘Cause I know that if they - the team - believe it ... it could happen. I’ve seen that very kind of thing with my own eyes.

    Speaking of championships ... the Saints just won the Super Bowl (and good for them - I was one of the many who had my fingers crossed for them) and I flicked channels after the end of the game, but came back for the presentations and then at the end when the announcer said goodbye, he made the standard and obligatory reference, congratulating the “world champion New Orleans Saints”. And ... it got me thinking for about the thousandth time (about that) ... so I’ll mention it, here. Is saying “World Champions” an American thing, more so than ... well, than from anywhere else in the world, other than the U.S. of A.? I have been forever (it seems) irked, in a tiny but consistently prickly way how any team who wins the Super Bowl ... or the NBA Championship ... or the World Series ... or the Stanley Cup, is instantly called (by some, almost always an American, but our announcers now will often follow that lead - what else is new?) the WORLD CHAMPIONS. Why can’t they just say the Super Bowl Champions? Or the NBA Champions? Or the Stanley Cup Champions? Or the World Series Champions? ... and leave it at that? We all know that there aren’t any other teams in the world playing NFL-rules football near that level, so in that instance, at least it’s reasonably accurate ... but even then, isn’t saying “world champions” a little overboard on the whole American egomania thing? And when they say that about hockey or basketball or baseball ... well, don’t get me started! It might be true that the particular championship team in question is likely to be the best in the world, but ... you don’t just get to SAY that this team or that team are the WORLD CHAMPIONS unless you’ve actually competed for the prize on the world stage! And none of those championship competitions do! I don’t know. But it gets me every time.

    Anyway, had some more about Bargnani flashing some attitude every now and then ... and just when it’s needed it seems ... and Antoine Wright’s shooting practice paying off in a big way these days, but ... that’s being talked about anyway. So I’ll leave this at that.

    No commercials to comment on, but ... my sister sent me this video this morning, so it must be making the rounds. But ... if you haven’t seen it, it’s kinda cool.

    the intro says ... A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

    This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen forward and backward without distraction. This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old and it won second place.

    When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it all the way to the end.



    Go Raptors.

  • #2
    That was awesome on so many levels ws511 .... Bravo!!!!

    If you keep this up, we might just have to give you your own column here.

    So, to sum up your post is it safe to say that patience is a virtue then?

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    • #3
      Cheers Doc.

      and also (added later) I know you’re kidding but ... as long as you don’t mind me blabbing away right here every now and again ... well, you know. and ... thanks.

      And ya (to your last point) ... something like that. (Lol.)
      Last edited by ws511; Mon Feb 8, 2010, 09:25 PM.

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