With about two weeks left in the regular season, perhaps it's time to think about all the awards that will be handed out; some deserved, some not...  Here's who I think should get the various awards:

MVP:  Lebron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

I must admit I am hardly the biggest Lebron James fan, but It is very hard to dismiss the Cavs' record this season, and the impact Lebron has had on it.  The guy does almost everything it takes for his team to win, and it has shown with the best record in the NBA.  Dwyane Wade might make the contest a bit more interesting, but I think Lebron should walk away with the prize.

Rookie of the Year:  Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls

Point guard is not a very easy position to play in the NBA, especially for a rookie, but Derrick Rose has really grown into the role and will very easily be considered one of the best PG's for years to come in the league.  Chicago's success this season eliminates OJ Mayo from this contest.

Defensive Player of the Year:  Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic

Leading the league in rebounds and blocks is the main reason for this.  Kevin Garnett won last mostly for the effect he had on the team defense, but this year will be more about numbers.

Sixth Man of the Year:  Jason Terry, Dallas Mavericks

This is a bit tougher with the way Nate Robinson plays off the bench in New York, but Terry getting 20 pts a night off bench is a big factor in this choice.  How many teams' entire bench's get 20 points?

Most Improved:  Andrea Bargnani, Toronto Raptors

Maybe Shaquille O'neal's renaissance in Phoenix may make this award a bit harder to get for Bargnani, but he deserves at least some consideration.  Over the last 30 or 40 games, we've seen Bargnani's points and rebounds steadily increasing to career numbers, and over that time, he's been one of the most effective centers in the league.  He's also the best shot-blocker on the Raptors.  I get to watch him play on a regular basis, and he is a completely different player now than he was at the beginning of the season.

Coach of the Year:  Nate MacMillan, Portland Trailblazers

Taking this young team to the elite of the Western Conference is a tough task, but Nate MAcMillan has done,  He's managed his talent very well, and kept his players in check through injuries and adversity.

Executive of the Year:  Danny Ferry, Cleveland Cavaliers

There was a lot of speculation at the beginning of the season about how the Cav's would do this year, and in many ways. they have surpassed expectations.  I didn't they would be in the running for the best record this season.  Getting Mo Williams was an excellent move and it really seemed to make this team whole.  I might consider Micahel Jordan for this award if Charlotte makes the playoffs (bringing in Larry Brown, Boris Diaw, Raja Bell, Vladimir Radmanovic, Desaga Diop, DJ Augustin, re-signing Emeka Okafor, an expanded role for Gerald Wallace by trading Jason Richardson...)

That's my list.  Any thoughts?

Although not the first one to report here on Foxsports about the big Toronto Raptors news of the day, I'd like to think I can offer a more insightful report into the siuation.

In a not-so-surprising surprising move, Sam Mitchell has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Toronto Raptors.  This comes following an abysmal loss to the Denver Nuggets, and is perhaps indicative of the way the season has gone to this point.  Not so surprising that Mitchell was fired; surprising at the timing of the firing.

Despite a moderate 8-9 record, the writing was on the wall.  It has happened far too often in this early part of the season that the Raptors have blown many double digit leads against the good and the bad teams in the NBA.  This has happened against Boston, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, New Jersey, and so on (do I need to mention the blowout by the Nuggets?).  Perhaps the most embarrassing of the games was against New Jersey, when Vince Carter was allowed to end the game with a too-easy slam dunk, which was probably one of the last nails in the coffin.

They've been lacking that killer instinct late in games, and many of them have turned into some very stressful situations.  It just happened too often in such a short span, that something had to be changed.  They had a poor finish to last season, two poor playoff appearances, and have been have just been missing the energy lately that has seemed to make them so exciting.

The easiest change to make is with the coach.  It didn't seem like Sam was able to get the team motivated anymore, and just pretty much let things happen the way they have happened.  Is this a problem with the coach, or with the players?  Did Sam command the respect of his players anymore?

It didn't seem like Sam Mitchell was really GM Bryan Colangelo's man for the job.  Sam was in the last year of his contract when Bryan started his first full season with the Raptors, so it looked like Bryan was going to let the season run it's course, then start the search for the teams new coach.  But, things went good.  The Raptors became Atlantic Division Champions, and Sam was named Coach of the Year.  This hand-cuffed Bryan.  How can you not offer the "Coach of the Year!!!" a contract extension?!  It was a tough position, and ultimately Sam got a four-year extension.  Some would consider last season a disappointment, and it led up to the events of today.  And here we are now.

Well, anyway, the Raptors have replaced Sam with assistant Jay Triano as Interim Head-Coach, who sports a perfect NBA coaching record of 1-0.  All accounts are that Jay has that respect from the players.  Perhaps he will be able to get the team going in the right direction again.  Maybe this change in the coaching staff will be spark that the team needs.

There is a bit of special significance here, since this will make Jay Triano the first official Canadian head-coach in the NBA, and for the only Canadian team.  Jay does not come in without any experience.  He has coached internationally for the Canadian Olympic men's basketball team, and has had the most success at the Olympics.  No medals, but his teams have at least threatened to be medal-contenders with his most notable players on that team being former Philly big-man Todd Mcullough (sp?) and, of course, Steve Nash.

Hopefully he can get his players now to perform at a higher level, and be the team that many have expected them to be.  I wish the best of luck to Jay Triano and the Raptors, and will be watching as many games as I can this season no matter which direction the team takes.

On a persnal note, I liked Sam Mitchell as a coach in Toronto.  I loved his energy and enthusiasm for the game, but I think his downfall was that he had such a strong personality (assuming that the players gave up on  him).  I have no doubt that Sam would do anything to protect his players, and jump take a bullet for them, or jump on a grenade for them.  I hope he will find more coaching opportunites in NBA very soon, and wish him much success.

Greetings Everyone!

   After many months of blogging and commenting here on FoxSports, it has become evident to me that perhaps the most polarizing NBA player in the league is Kobe Bryant.  People either love him, or hate him, with very little in-between.  I am one of those few "in-betweeners."

   While Kobe is not my favourite player, I am not so blind as to not recognize that he is a phenomenal basketball player.  He is the best in the world, in my opinion, but that doesn't mean he has to be my favourite.  That's all I have to say in that regard.

   Now, on to the experiment:

   Basically, I want to see if I can get a lot of traffic to this blog by simply including Kobe's name in my title.  Being the unabashed shameless self-promoting opportunist that I am, I like some attention, so this is part of my attempt to gather more (attention... for myself).

   That's it...  That's all the experiment is...

   It was fully my intention to waste 2 minutes of your time...  It's all part of the "Sinister Master Plan B"... "Sinister Master Plan A" was a complete failure, so don't ask...  Don't ask about "B" either...  I haven't quite finished it yet.

   Looking forward to the results.

   Cheers!

   The other day, I was playing baseball.  It had been a while for me since I had last played the game competitively.  Almost 12 to 13 years...  not since my old school days...

   I was kind of worried about how I would be able to play after so much time away.  I had pulled my dusty old baseball glove that I hadn't used since those years, grabbed a ball and first, tried to regain the feel of a glove on my hand, and a ball landing in it.  Would it be like when I was first trying to learn how to catch?  I remember the exhiliration I felt when finally, for the first time, when that ball was coming to me, I put my glove out and I felt the object land there.  I squeezed my hand to close the glove, and lo and behold, the ball was there.  It hadn't fallen out, it didn't bounce off the top or edges of my glove, it had landed cleanly in the mesh, and I made it stay there by perfectly timing the catch.

   I put the glove on, and the feel came back instantly, like it had never been lost.  I thought to myself, "I can do this!"  And I went to that game ready to rip my opposition apart.  12 to 13 years was nothing.  50 or 60 years would have been nothing.  I was back!

   The game was hardly a defensive gem, I must admit.  The final score 14-12 in favor of my opposition.  I was disappointed with the loss, but not with my play.  I was stationed in the infield, and made some spectacular plays.  A sweet off-balance throw to beat the runner to first base.  Twice tagging out the runner going home, thus preventing two runs from crossing the plate.  Setting up double plays.  And the biggest play of all, I came to bat in the top half of the final inning, my team down 10-9, and two runners on base.  I held off from swinging at two deceptive pitches, and fouled one off.  But I knew... I just knew that my pitch was coming.  I stared down the pitcher, and the ball was released.  And that was it.  I swung with all my might, crushing that ball into outer-space.  A three run homerun, and we were up 12-10 going into the bottom half of the final inning.  But unfortunately, the opposition rallied back with a big homerun of their own, and the game was over...  It was as well-played as expected in such a high scroing game, but was a great game for me.  The way I played earned me team MVP honors.

   Driving home from that game, I started thinking to myself, "What if I had tried to pursue baseball professionally?"  My name could be added to the short list of great Canadian players in the Majors...  Larry Walker, Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, Rich Harden, Paul Quantrill, Matt Stairs... goTO (I'm not quite ready to use my real name yet... lol).  I was pretty good when I played regularly.  I had a good bat, and could play any position asked of me...  Maybe I could have been a Major League baseball player.  You know what?  I would have been a Major League baseball player, possibly the greatest to ever play the game.  You know, I could probably walk into any MLB teams head office and say,"Give me a contract," and I would be playing the very next day!

   Then...

   The next day came and reality sunk in.  I could barely walk.  I had used muscles that I hadn't used in 12 to 13 years, and I felt it.  Four years of working a desk job seems to have advanced the effects of gravity on my body, thus making it a little less simple for me to just jump in and do anything.  My pain also forced me to look realisitically at the circumstances of the game:

• The game was organized by the company I work for as a team building/morale boosting exercise for employees and their families/spouses/etc.
• We were playing slow-pitch softball, with a softer-than-a-typical-softball softball
• The age range of the players in the game was about 10 to 60 years old
• The players were both male and female; like I said, some were employees, and others were the children of employees
• Not very many of the players were really athletically gifted
• I was pitching 6 out of 7 innings and was the pitcher of record for around 12 of the runs scored against us; hence my saying that "I played in the infield..."
• some of the people I was playing against were my boss(es) (I know... prime time to orchestrate an "accident...")
• I had one good hit, the other times I went to bat resulted in embarrassingly weak pop-outs
• The game was followed up with beer, wings, and nachos at a local restaurant

   I had a decent outing considering the circumstances, the competition and everything else.  But now I realize I am not quite ready to go to bat against Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay's pitching, run the bases against Carl Crawford or Alfonso Soriano, snare a hot-shot at third base off the bat of Albert Pujols or Josh Hamilton, or strike-out Derek Jeter or Kevin Youkilis.  I would probably just end up leaving the field crying after being totally schooled by these real baseball players.

   So for now, I will just be happy to play recreationally.  I'll play in more company softball games, hopefully we can have games against some of our other offices (show that our office has the best team).  If they want to go bowling, or play basketball, or soccer, I'm in.  It's great to play the games and keep them a part of my life, but I'm not about to turn pro anytime soon.  I know we all want to keep everything dear to us nice and close, and that includes our favourite sports.

   Here's hoping championship blogging one day becomes a professional sport.

   Cheers!

   I've been quiet for a little while, but now I'm back with vengeance... or maybe just a mild case of hiccups...  either way, I'm writing again.

   It's no secret that Canada is very much devoted to its hockey, and that Toronto is the hockey capital of the world (although some fans in Montreal would happily argue that they deserve that title... but Montreal smells, so it's disqualified).  It's all well and good, I like hockey, was happy when the Canadian Olympic team finally won a gold medal in Salt Lake City in 2002, I support our world junior team (they've won the last 4 tournaments) and pretty soon will be looking forward to the annual let-down by the Toronto Maple Leafs.  For 40 years Leafs fans have been clinging to the hope that maybe this year is THE year...  And this upcoming season will be the same.   Nothing wrong with a little tradition, eh?

   However, there is a team that seems to be forgotten in Toronto, and if they are remembered, people ask "Oh, do they still play?"  They are the Toronto Raptors.  Canada's team.  The team in Toronto with the best future.  The most exciting team to watch in Toronto.  The team that plays for its fans, and is loved by its fans.

   And yet, with as bright a future that they have, they get no respect from Toronto's so-called "sports" media.  Let's be realistic and call it what it is, Toronto's Hockey Media, with a few other sports mixed in as filler material.  The top sports story in Toronto for the last couple months has been whether Mats Sundin will return to play another season with the Leafs, sign with another team, or retire.  This just in, he hasn't decided yet...  let's talk to this expert and see what he thinks... he tells us "Mats could either retire, re-sign with the Leafs, or sign with another team..."  It's been like this for months.  "In other news, the Raptors traded TJ Ford and Rasho Nesterovic for Jermaine O'Neal, but now back to the Mats Sundin story..."  "Chris Bosh won gold with the US team... now, more important, has Mats Sundin made a decision yet?"  And so on...  I get more info about the Raptors here on Foxsports than I do from my local sports news TV and radio .

   There was a recent story about about the top (U.S.) cities that have let down their fans and one of these sports talk radio hosts wondered where Toronto would rank among them and basically asked "does anyone care about the Raptors?"  As a Raptors fan, I was quite ticked off.  I think most of us at least know that the raptors have been making a bit of noise in the NBA lately.  Let's see where Toronto's other, more "important" teams rank:

• NHL:  I've already talked about the Maple Leafs...  I'll be long gone by the time the Leafs win their next Stanley Cup, and I'm only 27...
• MLB:  The Blue Jays are in Year 8 or 9 of GM J.P. Ricciardi's "5-Year Plan..."  We'll never know what the players think because they are not allowed to talk to the media...
• CFL (Canadian Football League):  The Argonauts are struggling to make .500 with the leagues' MVP at quarterback, and are 0-2 against the team that is currently 2-6...  let's see if they can make it 0-3 on Monday...
• MLS:  The Toronto FC has finally scored a few goals...

   To lump the Raptors in with this group, and claim Raptors fans are being let down by the team is ridiculous.  A Raptors game is one of the most exciting atmospheres I've ever seen.  To hear the crowds reaction after Chris Bosh or Jamario Moon put down a huge alley-oop pass from Jose Calderon, or a big 3-pointer by Jason Kapono or Anthony Parker is exhilirating.  The fans show their support, wearing Raptors jerseys, dressing in red and white, and being as loud as possible.  They have good attendance records, but chances are, most of the Raptors fans in the city are at the game.

   Now let's look at Leafs fans.  I've never seen such well-dressed people, with all their neatly pressed suit and sharp ties, and nice haircuts.  Sittling with their legs crossed, and hands folded genlty in their laps;  if things were to get more exciting, a funeral might break out.  I recall watching many games on TV, when the cameras would go to a close-up of the Leafs coach yelling at his players, and there, about two or three rows back in the crowd, was always the same nicely dressed blonde business-woman in her grey suit... pant-skirt-suit-thingy... whatever it's called... with the vacant stare, clapping politely when a goal was scored... never smiling, never reacting to anything, but never failing to miss a game...  A symbol of everything that is wrong within the Leafs organization, and contrasting everything that is right in the Raptors organization.  The Leafs are a corporation, the Raptors are a team.

   It's annoying when people in your own city don't take the team seriously.  Here's hoping they will prove all the doubters wrong, and turn them into believers. 

   The Raptors are taking big steps in the NBA.  After years of mediocrity, and false superstars, there is finally hope.  Basketball fans know the Raptors are legit, just some small tweaks here and there and they are threats to win the NBA championship.  Heck, we may just be able to pull it off this season, and I will be more than happy to rub it in the faces of my American friends here in the blogging community... lol.  But seriously, an NBA championship will mean more to me as a fan of the Raptors than a championship in any other sport.  We're the small guys in town, and have the most to prove, and have the most to lose.  Fingers crossed.

   Cheers!