Tsunami Disaster in SE Asia

I am deeply saddened and horrified at the disaster in SE Asia. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Entire villages and towns have been destroyed. Very tragic indeed! It makes one realize how fortunate we are to have what we have and to be able to live as safely and prosperously as we do here in the West. On a personal note, I've visited some of those areas that have now been completely devastated and am in disbelief at the massive destruction and loss of life. An area that was once truly like heaven on earth is now gone and littered with mud, rotting corpses and disintegrated bungalows. Who knows, I could have easily been one of those swept away. Some of the most beautiful places on earth have been destroyed and the thousands of people who live or were vacationing there are lost. Please do whatever you can to make a donation to one of the aid organizations to help out the devasted people of SE Asia (especially Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand)

The Red Cross, UNICEF, World Vision, Doctors Without Borders etc. are all accepting donations online and at your local offices.

Have a peaceful New Year.

More insanity around Vinsanity

Now that all the VC haters here in T.dot have finally gotten their wish, reports come out from the Sonics bench that he may have sabotaged the Raptors. Arrrrgghhh!
While there is no real proof that he said what he did, one can imagine any player saying something like that to show some bravado (as in, "watch this play ... i'm gonna show you how its done!") Players yack and trash talk all the time. I suspect this might have just been a case of misguided trash talk. I seriously doubt that Vince would intentionally sabotage his team. It was probably just a stupid thing to say at the wrong time.

I will have to take back some of what i wrote in July since shortly after i wrote what i did, Vince publicly declared his desire for a trade. Fine, Vince wanted out. Whoever his handlers and PR people are (Mrs. Carter???) are just dumb. They should have told him to keep his damn mouth shut because that only diminishes his value. As big as any NBA player's ego may be its never bigger than those who call the shots. There are so many examples. Kobe-Shaq. Shaq may have got what he wanted but as a business, the Lakers are better off keeping Kobe since he is younger. Shaq is still the most dominant player in the entire league but you might only get another 3 years or so out of him. With Kobe, you can still get another 7 or 8 years. Shaq can call his own shots because there is only one Shaq. He knows it, everyone knows it. With Vince, as much as i like the guy, there are tons of 2-3 guard-forwards in the league. He's not bigger than the game, no matter what mommy tells ya!

It really bugs me how much the "fans" in Toronto have turned on Vince. I think he has been treated totally unfairly by the media and by the fans. Vince is still one of the best players in the league and gave us 3 incredible years. He single-handledly packed the ACC and was the happy face of our Raptors. Unfortunately, things went all crazy and downhill not only for VInce but for the Raptors as well.

So where does that leave us, Vince is gone. I will miss him and I hope he does well in Jersey. I choose to remember all the good things and the excitement that he brought here. I choose not to dwell on all the negative stuff. Patience is the key for the next few years. One win against a severly depleted Nets isnt much to get too excited over. A win is a win and I'm glad for it but the Raptors still have a long way to go. Lets not forget that the Williams are coming from a team that wasnt much better than we are. Good on Babcock to get 2 draft picks. Rebuild for the future and lets not get all silly thinking that we can have a championship caliber team by letting Vince go.

Let's go Raptors!