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Wade meant no disrespect, ‘It’s going to be small ball’ now, ECF schedule, and more practice notes

The Great Canadian War begins.

The Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat practiced Sunday, and naturally, a lot of the talk centered around the teams’ respective losses at the center position. We covered off Jonas Valanciunas being ruled out for the series here, and Hassan Whiteisde spraining his MCL here. There’s not much analysis in what follows, because we went deep in those posts, particularly the Valanciunas one.

We start the notes and quotes from practice with the reaction to those injuries (I’m going to zoom through this on account of Mother’s Day obligations, and shout out to all the mamas out there).

It’s small ball now

Here are some reaction tweets, the most surprising of which is that Whiteside, called day-to-day, is listed as questionable. As covered earlier, MCL sprains, especially without knowing the grade, are hard to put a timeline on, so, shrug.

Dwyane Wade hates you, the Raptors, Canada, NAFTA, beavers, Drake, Wayne Gretzky, and bat flips

The biggest non-injury talking point out of Game 3 was the outrage over Dwyane Wade shooting during the Canadian national anthem. The NBA rules state that this is not allowed, and it’s possible Wade should have received a technical foul for doing so. Here’s the letter of the law:
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Now, there are some extenuating circumstances here. The Heat gameops seemed very scattered, and both teams seem very surprised when the anthem starts, and there may have even been a Raptors shot fired off after the opening notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWIhq65KKdQ
This, however, is not an extenuating circumstance that justifies the additional heaves:


Wade had this to say, which really doesn’t make things any better:


Here’s Wade’s full quote, courtesy Jason Lieser:

You’re always sensitive to anything throughout the world. I’m not thinking about nothing like that. I’m thinking about what I need to do before every game that I prepare for and have been doing my whole career. I understand whatever’s said from that standpoint, but I’m not a disrespectful person. If anybody thinks I’m being disrespectful to their country, then they have no idea who Dwyane Wade is.

No disrespect from myself or Amar’e (Stoudemire) or anybody. If anybody feels like it was, please don’t fill up my timeline with disrespectful comments, because that’s not this guy right here. Find somebody else with that.

I understand people being put off by this, for sure, but I’m not sure what the response from the league should be. Other than Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf being suspended indefinitely in 1996 for refusing to stand for the American anthem, a suspension that was subsequently lifted two days later when he agreed to stand, there is no precedent for league discipline on this matter. What I can safely say is that what follows is an overreaction:
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Anyway, let’s bury this story, please. Don’t let something like this happen:

Last Two Minute Report

Per the NBA’s official Last Two Minute Report, Wade should have been sent beyond the wall with no rations for his affront to the North. Also, he got away with a travel with 14.7 seconds remaining, the only incorrect call or non-call on the report.

Assorted


(As I wrote earlier on this one: Yes.)
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