The AltRaps Blog

 
“This is a nice group and I’ve been with some good teams and some good players,” O’Neal said. “We know what (the media) and the city expects of the Raptors. We have to develop that swagger, to believe we are the better team. I know this is a hockey town, but we’d like to make [...]

 
“On paper, in terms of just pure talent, I would say, yes, this is the best team we’ve had,” the Raptor president and general manager said Monday afternoon.
“We’re excited about the possibility of what we can be,” said coach Sam Mitchell. “Obviously, we have to get to camp, start playing, get guys gelling, get guys [...]

 
“Me, Chris Bosh and Jose (Calderon) sat down after the scrimmage (last week) and it was like, ‘Man, we have a real shot here,’ ” newcomer Jermaine O’Neal said. “We’ve got a real shot.
“Obviously, we have the talent on paper and if we mentally believe that and bring that swagger every day, that we’re the [...]

 
Amazing how when coaches are faced with the impossible task of winning a championship with an under-talented team, the things they will do to distract fans from the standings. Now I’m well aware that Bryan Colangelohas done a nice, tidy job in rebuilding the Raps, but honestly, besides comic relief, who gives a damn about [...]

 
In a never-ending quest for self-improvement, Sam Mitchell swears that he will swear no more and points to two months of profanity-free living as proof.
Those, however, were two summer months with spent mainly with his wife and four daughters; a much sterner test of his willpower comes with the onset of the NBA season and [...]

 
Devlin, the new voice of the Raptors, is nothing like Chuck Swirsky, Toronto’s former play-by-play man. While the two announcers are friends with complete respect for what the other does, they couldn’t be more different behind the microphone.
If Swirsky is all pomp and pageantry, then Devlin is meat and potatoes and he makes no apologies [...]

 
Okay, here’s more Moon, although it was also explained over in the comments section yesterday.
I was told by a very senior, disappointed member of the basketball braintrust that he wasn’t in town to work out due to unspecified “passport problems” which I’m sure is true but probably something that could have been worked out earlier.
No [...]

 
We know that most of the players show up early and work the kinks out before training camp officially begins.
The coaches? Well, they do, too. And then they retreat.
I’m told the whole enlarged staff headed off to the Niagara area on the weekend for a couple of days of fun and frivolity and, yes, some [...]

 
Meanwhile Jose Calderon is a guy with more cash in his pocket. But along with that comes some added pressure and responsibilty. The first job for Jose will be to mentor the Raptors new back-up at his position. Roko Ukic will need to learn all he can from Calderon so he can make a quick [...]

 
The Idaho Stampede announce they will be hosting open player tryouts for the upcoming season.  The camp will be held in Toronto , Canada on October 5-6 at Humber College .  Tryouts start promptly at 6 p.m. on the 5th.
“This is such an invaluable opportunity for our team and a great way to fill [...]