The AltRaps Blog

….I got it from my momma.
Shaquille O’Neal could be traded shortly.  Phoenix has seemingly dangled Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.
If true, you have to admire Bob Knight’s reason to retire. Seems he wanted to give his now-coach son and the returning players a 10 game head start on next year to get use to each [...]

After watching the Los Angeles Lakers turn themselves into a championship contender with the addition of Pau Gasol, a question about the Raptors begins to form.
What would move the Raptors into that upper echelon in the Eastern Conference, a group that contains Boston and Detroit with Orlando on the periphery?
The answer might be Andrea Bargnani.
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Afterwards I asked Calderon what Mitchell used to called him.
“I cannot say that for the media,” he said in his thick Spanish accent. “It was ‘beeeeep rook.’” He made a long beeping noise to emphasize the abundance of syllables.
“In the beginning it was tough, because, you know, we didn’t win many games,” Calderon said. “He [...]

"I saw [Garnett] try and deny [Bosh] the ball," Calderon said. "So I knew it was my opportunity to turn the corner, so I go all the way."
Count the basket. Count the clutch free throw, too. And count the Raptors’ first win in four tries — five if you count an exhibition-season loss in Rome [...]

….I still prefer my seats over the one on press row, but, man, what a day to play reporter!
Nice to see that humble old Altraps scooped a lot of the majors yesterday in outing the trash talkers. Chris didn’t want to talk about it much at practice today, but you have to think/know he was [...]

….this ain’t cold. You know, when I was a kid, you used to walk to school with icicles forming in your nostrils. You young kids don’t know from suffering.
The Bosh video continues to get applause and eyerolls. Have to agree with the negative. While this thing could have come off as a good laugh, I [...]

…hope you all had a memorable Christmas break and are looking forward to the Spurs being mauled by the Dinos tonight.
Nice to read and hear that Colangelo is looking to shake things up a bit. Wonder if Jackie Moon is available. He might actually stand up for one of his teammates getting beat down. Failing [...]

Maybe it’s a little early in the season to start a diet of crow, but the Celtics sucked so much spark out of me last night, I got a little bird hungry.
I was of the opinion, when the season started, and after the Raps played Boston so tight in the pre-season, and in the overtime [...]

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/276719Isiah Thomas, the original Raptors architect, might have an eye for talent, but he’s got a tin ear for tact and a bum’s eye for team building. His Knicks are the usual league-high-payroll wreck. And what’s it say about Glen Grunwald, Thomas’s successor as Raptors general manager, that he took a gig as Thomas’s assistant [...]

PRO BASKETBALL; Underclassmen Rule Atop N.B.A. Draft Board - New York Times
The expansion Toronto Raptors pulled off the surprise of the draft, drafting the diminutive guard Damon Stoudamire with the seventh pick. Raptors General Manager Isiah Thomas, one of the best little men to ever play the game, simply could not help himself from picking [...]