Posted by djsunyc:

Posted by bishop:

Maybe being from Toronto might allow me to give you guys some insight on the sports situation here even though a few of you know more about the raptors than me.

Why are they harsh with Colangelo? Other than the fact he inherited Bosh and Calderon the Raptors have a horribe GM history. GM's have left raptor fans DEFLATED time and time again.

Rob Babcock! hated, drafted Arajuo with the 8th pick, traded VC for pennies, and just totally sucked.

Glen Grenwuld signed Jerome Williams to a 7 year contract, Antonio Davis to a 7 year 60 million contract, and Alvin Williams to a contract that was atleast longer than 4 years if i remember correctly. Oh and he did it all in the same summer from what i remember. TMac left for free. Brought in Olajuwan at 65years of age and Kevin Willis at 543 years of age.

Isiah Thomas in Toronto: Enough said.

They haven't had a GM that has been consistently good since they joined the league.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY there is urgency by in my opinion in a way not related to basketball at all. I mean you guys have the Knicks, but then you also have your second teams in the Giants/Jets, Yanks/Mets, Rangers/Devils/Islanders. Here's the situation in toronto. Toronto is the third biggest market in North America after New York and L.A. and the 4th biggest city(6 million people) between the U.S. and Canada after NY,LA,and Chicago.

The Toronto Maple Leafs (THe New York Knicks under Scott Layden) SUCK and are old, slow, overpaid, and going nowhere in the biggest hockey market in north america)yet the team is the most profitable franchise year in and year out in the NHL like the Knicks.

The Toronto Blue Jays are perennial celler dwellers in a division that hosts the Yanks and Sox.

The Toronto FC (MLS Soccer: who cares!?) suck.

TORONTO has not seen a team go deep into the playoffs in something like 6 years and have won nothing as a city since they Blue Jays won the world series in 92.

THe Canadian Football League!? PLEASE. The owners of the Raptors, Leafs, Jays are all trying to move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto.

People in TOronto simply want to see a team make the playoffs and get past the first round and the only team qualifying for playoffs these days are the Raptors.

cool...thanks for the local insight. it would certainly explain their impatience.

Posted by bishop:

Posted by playa2:

What the fans wanted I believe is every position filled that matters.

Guards are fine, front court sucks out side of bosh what brotha wants to play in Toronto.

Remember Davis wanted out of Toronto because of his kids growing up there.

Hard for toronto to find an american PF that wants to play in toronto seems to be the problem.

Coach Mitchell wants a bruising half court team by colangelo went for the softer euro friendly barganni and this is where the problem between them agreeing on a cxertain style began.

I doubt the cheap toronto franchise would fire coach Mitchell with 2 yrs left on his contract.

[Edited by - playa2 on 29-04-2008 16:24]

Exactly right on the first point you made. The position has been empty for many years and thats what pisses off raptors fan. The best big defensive players they have had in this decade were Antonio Davis and Keon Clark.

I think your point on people not wanting to play in Toronto is somewhat right. It weird because alot of the players have misconceptions about Toronto and Canada in general and dont want to play here because its a different country. Once again its the 4th biggest city in N.A. with great diversity and a night life better that probably 25 other nba cities. Vince loved it here, T-Mac also liked it but wanted to be the star and play close to his home town. MoPete loved it so much that he gave a local teacher herpes lol. JYD called it a smaller cleaner NYC for whatever thats worth lol. But then again its Canada, its slightly colder than NY, we say "hoser"(by the way DJ i've never heard anyone in the GTA ever say hoser, but we do say "Eh!"(no joke), wear touques and live in igloos haha.

As for Antonio Davis and his kids. Its not that he didnt like Toronto but rather he didnt want his kids to grow up with canadian schooling. Atleast in Ontario, schools barely scratch American history, rather they teach canada-quebec history, you have to take french until grade 9,we teach about a british parliamentary governance, have the metric system, etc. Plus there were issues with him wanting the raptors to have his wife work for RaptorsTV or something.

But you're totally right that the defensive forward/center position has been empty forever, every offseason most raptors fans want a big defender or wing defender and never get it. They blame Colangelo because this is his system with running and gunning. Its his vision of a team thats failing. Also Bargnani in my own personal opinion wasnt simply drafted to sell tickets, while true to an extent it was moreso that Colangelo wanted to run and gun with the next "Dirk."

Last thing, you start to hate the raptors when they are all you here about every damn day from your friends, newspapers,tv,etc. Most fans and media think the team is much better than it really is which is annoying. Not one Raptor fan i know thought Orlando might be even slightly better than the Raps. It was Raps in 5 or 6.