A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

This past Saturday was the company Golf Tournament and Family Fun Day. The event was out at the Rosthern, Saskatchewan Valley Regional Park. The format was a Texas Scramble (best ball) with around ten foursomes in the tournament. The weather was looking fairly questionable since Saskatoon and area was hit by a massive thunderstorm the night before. Even though Saturday looked quite gloomy as well, the rain did hold off allowing the day to be enjoyed by all.

My team ended up finishing at four over par which was good enough to claim second place. This got me a ten dollar gift certificate to SportChek. I could have used that in the morning since I had just bought some golf balls at that very store prior to the tournament. I was also about ten feet away from winning the “closest to the pin” contest on the ninth hole - I blame the wind for this.

Following the tournament was dinner and a Bocce tournamnet (which I didn’t participate in). Steak, chicken, hot dogs, corn, and veggies were grilled to perfection and everyone stuffed themselves silly. The steak was incredible. Following dinner, Jeffrey, Rachel, Ryan (Cey), and I went to the park where we were extremely excited to go down this big, fifty foot tube slide. There was a faint smell of urine in the slide, but that didn’t hold us back. When we got down and our backsides were slightly wet, our poor decision was fully realized.

I took some pictures with my little point-and-shoot, and you can see them here and here.

I’ve managed to get the video of my call into the Hoops show that aired on Raptors NBA TV and The Fan 590 on Thursday, April 19, 2007. I had to be a little creative in getting it. I just recorded the segment with my digital camera during a rebroadcast since I don’t actually have a VCR or PVR hooked up to my entertainment system. Not the most high-tech solution, but it got the job done.

You can also listen to the audio broadcast of the entire show here.

Hoops is a weekly talk show that is broadcast on Raptors NBA TV and on the Fan 590, a sports radio station in south-western Ontario. It’s hosted by Eric Smith, “The Coach” Jack Armstrong, Paul Jones, and Sherman Hamilton.

Whether it’s on the court or off the court … HOOPS has all the stories covered regarding the Toronto Raptors, the NBA, and basketball in general.

With the Toronto Raptors set to face the New Jersey Nets in the opening round of the playoffs, excitement among fans is reaching explosive levels. You could see the enthusiasm amongst the Hoops hosts as well as the fans calling in. About halfway through the show, there was a call from Edmonton and Eric asked him if he was getting a sense of excitement amongst Edmontonians, and out west in general. Not surprisingly the caller said that if it wasn’t for satellite TV, he wouldn’t know anything going on with the Raptors.

Being a big Raptors basketball fan living in Saskatchewan, I knew where he was coming from. Eric then pointed out that there was a lot of calls coming in from all across Canada, and wanted to try and hear from all provinces. So with that, I decided to call in and continue the conversation of the popularity of Raptors and basketball in general across Canada.

It took a while to get past the busy signal, but I finally got through to the screener. He asked for my name, where I was from, and what my question was. After realizing that I was extremely intelligent, and probably incredibly handsome, he told me that he would put me on next.

“We have Hemant from Saskatoon. Hi you’re on Hoops.”

Eric may have pronounced my name properly, but the graphic on the TV sure had the spelling somewhere out in left field.

On the Phone
Hemond from Saskatoon

Oh well, I guess it’s better than Herman T. So since I was live on national television and radio, I put on my game-face and got down to business. I told the guys that I wanted to continue the discussion they started with the caller from Edmonton earlier. I explained that when the Vancouver Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors joined the league in 1995, it sparked an interest with me in the NBA. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that it was very difficult to actually see any coverage of the games since so few of them were actually broadcast in this part of the country.

My interest in the league continued, but I wasn’t very dedicated or involved. Then when I moved to Guelph, just outside of Toronto, all of the Raptor games were broadcast giving me what I needed to really feed my interest. The six years I was there was awesome for getting my fill of Raptors basketball. Then when I moved back to Saskatoon last year, I explained that I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to follow the team as easily.

As the guy from Edmonton stated earlier, I reiterated that with the help of today’s cable providers, one can get coverage of the Raptors for the entire season. I did emphasize however, that there are still some hoops (no pun intended) that need to be jumped through in order to achieve this, such as pay a premium fee to subscribe to Raptors NBA TV.

The question I fielded was why does the Raptors organization tout themselves as Canada’s team, but for areas outside of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) they are generally ignored by the sports media, and the sports networks make it so difficult to watch the team?

Out of everything the panel had to say in response to the question, Eric had the most intriguing statement. Actually, he started it off with a question to me.

In Saskatoon and area, do people tend to follow the Toronto Blue Jays, and get excited about the Major League Baseball season.

He already knew the answer, but he wanted me to answer it anyway. I responded with something along the lines of the following.

Yeah, I know a lot of people who follow the Toronto Blue Jays pretty religiously, and yeah, I think people tend to get excited about the baseball season.

Eric then when on to say that it took almost thirty years for that to happen. After ten years, the Blue Jays were ignored just as the Raptors are now outside of the GTA. He really feels that the same type of thing will happen with the Raptors - he just hopes (and me too) that it doesn’t take as long. I then asked the guys what sparked that interest in the Blue Jays to spread across the country, and the panel all agreed that it started to happen when the team began winning consistently, finding themselves at the top of the American League.

The call ended and I sat back to think about the conversation I just had. Even though it seems grim right now for interest in the Raptors to catch on in this part of the country, the guys over at Hoops seemed to have pointed out a little light at the end of the tunnel. And if their theory is correct, and the Raptors continue on this winning path that they have been following, the end of that tunnel may be closer than one thinks.

It’s been five years. Five long years. Almost an eternity since the Toronto Raptors qualified for the NBA post season. It was 2002 the last time the Raptors played in a playoffs and every season since then has been disappointing, depressing, frustrating, and maddening. But this year under a new president and general manager, Bryan Colangelo almost completely rebuilt the team resulting in nine new players. Despite the overhaul, analysts were still dismissing the team. The organization however knew they had something special, and the team set their own goals despite what the rest of the league were saying.

1. Qualify for the playoffs
2. Win the Atlantic Division
3. Get home-court advantage in playoffs

On Sunday, April 1st the Raptors defeated the Charlotte Bobcats to clinch a playoff berth. A few days later, Friday, April 6th, they seal the deal on winning the Atlantic Division for the first time in franchise history by defeating the Philadelphia 76ers. Then on Sunday, April 15 their third goal was met by taking down the New York Knicks - home-court advantage in the first round of the post season. Not bad for a team that wasn’t expected to make much noise this year.

And now the Toronto Raptors have been called one of the most dangerous teams in the east, many (including analysts Reggie Miller and Charles Barkley) expecting them to reach the Eastern Conference finals in a battle with the solid Detroit Pistons. Raptors coach Sam Mitchell who was called the worst coach in the league just last year is the favourite for this year’s Coach of the Year award. Bryan Colangelo is a guarantee for the Executive of the Year honours, and rookie Andrea Bargnani is at the top of the list for Rookie of the Year (although his emergency appendectomy a month ago resulted in him missing the last fourteen games, and likely his chances of winning the award). I mean winning twenty-plus games more than last season cannot go unnoticed.

We’re not sure who we’re going to see in the first round since the season is not quite over, but it’s currently a toss-up between the Washington Wizards and the New Jersey Nets, and will be decided in the final regular season game on Wednesday. Getting the Wiz would be the best scenario since they’ve just been hit by an injury bug, losing two key players in Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler. The Nets are a scary team with the “three-headed monster” in Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, and Vince Carter. Even though they’ll be finishing in either the sixth or seventh seed, they can do some serious damage. Despite this one cannot help finding a Raptors - Nets match up quite intriguing, getting a chance to see Vince Carter go up against his old team in the Raptors. It would be an intense battle, and the fans at the Air Canada Centre would be ruthless. This would definitely be a more high-profile series.

I’m torn on who I want to see in the first round. I want the Wiz so we get an easier opening series, but I want the Nets and VC for what will be an unforgettable and insane piece of entertainment. Either way, I’m just happy that the Raptors have made it to the post season and have an excellent chance of going deep. What does suck is that while I was living out there the team was terrible for most of the time. Then when I move away they get things straightened out and have the strongest team they’ve ever had. I can just imagine the atmosphere out there right now, especially since the Leafs suck and are done for the year.

The main reason for this post is to make a calling for those out there who don’t usually watch NBA ball, for whatever reason. I just ask that you tune into a Raptors playoff game this year - I guarantee that you’ll have a great time. They play an exciting and fast paced, team oriented style of ball that will keep you on the edge of your seat, plus they are Canada’s team. Or if that doesn’t convince you, the Raptors Dance Pak may be what is needed to lure you in.

If you were disappointed by March Madness this year (and I can’t imagine how you weren’t), come cheer on the Raps. Their first game will be either this Saturday or Sunday and will be televised across the nation. Check your local listings or raptors.com for scheduling.

Note: my playoff beard starts on their first game of the post season - I’m not sure what to expect.

Once again I took part in the Farmers’ Days competitive co-ed volleyball tournament this past weekend in Wilkie. The tournament has been going on for about a decade and a half, and I’ve been competing in it for about the last ten years. It is definitely getting harder on my body as the years pass by. I remember being part of one of the youngest teams in the tournament. As the years went by, the older teams started to drop off. I never really thought about it until this year, and it suddenly dawned on me that all of the other teams were getting younger and younger. And all of a sudden, I was on one of those older teams. Geeze. Time sure flies by. Note: three of the ladies on our team were under 24 and helped keep the average age of our team WAY down.

Anyway, this was the first year that we didn’t have to scramble for team members. Our team was assembled early, and consisted of Jason “Mr. Fundamental” Fenrich, Travis “The Drunken Master” Weber, Cheryl “Little Engine” Fenrich, Domini “The Dominator” Zeigler, and “The Shepherd Connection” - Laura and Sarah Shepherd. Oh yeah, and there was me, Hemant “The Wall” Naidu. Our team name was The Toronto Raptors, in homage to the basketball team’s great play this season (can you guess who organized the team’s entry this year?). You can watch a video demonstrating some fundamental volleyball below.

As always, the schedule was fierce and without mercy. We played 6 matches (2 game total point) on Saturday. The top six teams were seeded for Sunday’s playoffs, based on their Saturday record. We were pretty sure we didn’t make the playoffs, and we (or at least I) were pretty content with that. I was extremely stiff and could barely walk. It really is not a good idea to play volleyball only once a year, especially in a competitive tournament. It hurts too much.

Not being in the playoffs would be somewhat of a relief because Farmers’ Days is also known for its great cabaret at the town civic centre. To everyone’s delight Wilkie’s legendary band, Danny and the Dusters, was playing. After dinner and getting cleaned up, our posse rolled into the hall with our regular swagger. It didn’t take long to run into the volleyball tournament organizer who was happy to inform us that we squeaked into the sixth and final spot of the playoffs. Gee. Great. Our game was at 10 am.

The dance was fun as usual, and Danny and the Dusters played their rendition of Authority Song to perfection, disappointing no one. I took it easy that night, considering I was pretty wiped from the days activities, plus I didn’t want to be a total puddle on the court in the morning. I was home and in bed by 3 am, but I do know that some members of our team were up until around 6 am.

I made sure I was at the gym nice and early to get stretched out, since I was still having trouble walking. The rest of my team showed up and once we started warming up, I loosened up pretty quickly. Our playoff game was against the tournament organizer’s team, and we were fairly evenly matched. The game was extremely close, but we ended up losing, and being eliminated from the tournament.

This ended up being our most successful run in the Farmers’ Days Volleyball Tournament. We usually are completely terrible, but this year we had a fairly decent team. Another good thing was that this year’s teams were somewhat evenly matched. There were two or three teams that were incredible (that’s what happens when you have Husky players on teams), but they knew when to take it easy.

So until next year’s tournament, take a moment to check out some pictures. I put my cameras in the trusty hands of Curtis and Nikki to take some action shots during some of our games. You can see them here.

NBA All-Star Weekend hits Sin City this year, and as if the glamour and excitement wasn’t enough already, the NBA is taking this year’s festivities to the next level. The All-Star Saturday Night and All-Star game which are slated for this Saturday, February 17th and Sunday, February 18th, respectively will be breaking technological boundaries as it will be the first live sports events to be broadcast in High Definition 3D. Yeah, you heard me right - 3D.

Now before you get too excited, the broadcast is only going to be available to special guests of the NBA at Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Hotel since the NBA is saying it is an “experiment”. Either way, it’s a pretty cool concept and may be the first step in delivering this service to regular Joes around the world. Here’s an excerpt from Variety.com explaining the process.

Technology company Pace has designed five 3-D HD camera systems that will cover all of the action at the Thomas and Mack Center. The Pace blueprint calls for two HD cameras to be built in to each of the five systems, working together to transmit the 3-D images. Invitees will need glasses to get the full 3-D effect.

A special director will take charge of the 3-D coverage, said Steve Hellmuth, senior VP of operations and technology for NBA Entertainment, “but the widescreen depth of field is so immersive that there’ll be far fewer cuts than in the standard-definition version, and the cameras won’t have to move as much.”

Hellmuth bills the experience as “about as close as you can get to having courtside seats.”

This technology might be exactly what I need to get back the feeling of watching a Raptors game at the Air Canada Centre that I miss so much….without having to pay $8 for a hot-dog.

You can read the full article at Variety.com here. Engadget also covered the story here.

Here’s another crazy Toronto Raptors conspiracy theory that I have concocted. On Tuesday, November 28th, the Raps played the New Orleans Hornets and blasted them 94 - 77. It was quite a win. Since I wasn’t able to watch the game I was looking forward to seeing the highlights. While having breakfast the following morning and watching CBC News : Morning, Colleen Jones got into her sports coverage. As usual the hockey scores were at the top of the bill, followed by some NFL highlights. Within a few minutes the sports portion came to an end with no basketball scores. It didn’t really surprise me. Nothing fishy yet.

Later that chilly November night the Raps faced the Mavericks in Dallas. Despite a decent effort, the dinos fell to this western powerhouse. The following morning as I went through my usual routine and watched CBC New : Morning before heading to work, Colleen Jones got into her sports highlights once again. She made her way through hockey scores and to my surprise she got into the Raptor / Mavs highlights from the night before. “Isn’t that odd”, I thought to myself. They didn’t show highlights from the Raps game they won a couple nights ago, but covered the loss from last night.

For those who follow the NBA, you probably know that Toronto got off to a slow start, but really started to heat up as the season progressed. Actually they weren’t that far off of first place in the Atlantic division. The team had a big weekend coming up. Friday and Saturday night the team would face two weak teams in the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks respectively. If they could win both games, they would find themselves in second place. First place would be theirs alone if the New Jersey Nets happened to lose.

The stars were almost completely aligned. The Raps managed to win both games, propelling them to second place. The Nets also happened to win, so they remained in the top-spot. Despite this, no one could take anything away from the turn-around the Raptors had made. Monday morning rolled around and I found myself sitting on the couch, eating breakfast and watching CBC News : Morning once again. Surely Colleen Jones would be highlighting the roll the dinos were on. Hockey highlights. Swimming highlights (yeah, swimming highlights). NFL highlights. Then to the weather. What?

Once again following a Raptors win (actually two) the CBC skipped over the story. Could it be that they only cover the team when they lose? Is their a hidden agenda? Is the CBC trying to make sports fans think that the Raptors are continuing down the horrific path of terribleness that has plagued them the last few years? Is it possible that the CBC, home of Hockey Night in Canada, is hoping to take credibility away from Canada’s only professional basketball team? You decide.

Even though The Team Dream Golf Getaway 2006 wrapped up about six months ago, I have yet to make a post about it. For those of you not familiar with this event, it is a weekend golf getaway which a group of friends make each year in the Spring. The guys trek out to Elk Ridge, near Wascesiu National Park, Saskatchewan for a couple rounds of golf, some great food, and a lot of ’spirits’. I guess it doesn’t take too much of an imagination to figure out that this weekend is filled with juvenile shenanigans that only a group of men can accomplish. I believe this was the fifth annual Team Dream, but it was the first I had the privilege of attending since I no longer live on the other side of the country.

Without getting into too the gory details, I’ll just say that the weekend was very eventful. The weather wasn’t terrible, but it definitely wasn’t the greatest. We got a little bit of rain and it was a little chilly at times, but nothing crazy like the previous years had to endure. The course also wasn’t in the greatest shape since a lot of rain had passed through, so that took away a little of the enjoyment, but really, we were there to hang out and just have a good time - which we did.

Even though we were there to chum around, there is always a competitive aspect to the weekend. The twelve of us were split into two team and took part in a match-play style of game, similar to the Ryder Cup. The teams were as follows:

Fringe Benefits

• Marshal Herzog
• Adam Revitt
• Ryan Shuya
• Jason Fenrich
• Drayton Goodall
• Hemant J. Naidu

The Cleveland Steamers

• Bob Johnston
• Mitch Herzog
• Todd Weber
• Clint Keller
• Kipp Lucas
• Travis Weber

Even though the teams were more-or-less evenly divided, The Cleveland Steamers managed to steam-roll Fringe Benefits by a score of 6 - 2 (I believe - someone correct me if I’m wrong), claiming the grand prize - The Garden Gnome. Perhaps I will be able to share in this glory next year.

I managed to take quite a few pictures during the festivities and I have posted the better ones here. I wish I was able to take more shots of everyone playing golf, but it was difficult to get any unless you were in my group or in the group ahead or behind. I was able to get a lot shots during the festivites off of the course, so sit back and enjoy.

Before I make my Raptors conspiracy theory public, I just want to make clear that there is no evidence to substantiate what I am about to say. In fact, once you read this you will probably have a strong sense that I suffer from Paranoid Schizophrenia. But based on the recent behavior of Raptors management, there is clearly no other viable explanation for what we have seen. I believe that there is a massive conspiracy between the NBA and Maple Leaf Sports and Enterainment to sabotage the Toronto Raptors basketball club as to get them out of Canada and into the United States.

You may be thinking this is crazy, but let’s take a look what has happened in the last few years.

1) Rob Babcock is hired as Raptors General Manager despite major objections by team superstar, Vince ‘Air Canada’ Carter. This may not seem like a huge deal, but keeping a team superstar happy is a big priority. I mean if they are not happy, they are not going to stick around. Not only did they hire someone VC objected to, they really stuck it to him by not even interviewing his first choice - Julius Erving.

2) Rob Babcock drafts Rafael Araujo 8th overall in the 2004-2005 NBA draft. Anyone who knew anything about basketball knew this was an insane draft. Araujo wasn’t expected to go before 17 and there is no logical reason for this pick. As a centre, ‘Hoffa’ has averaged 0.70 points per game and 0 blocks per game. In short - a waste of a good draft opportunity.

3) Rob Babcock trades Vince Carter to the New Jersey Nets for Eric William, Aaron Williams, Alonzo Mourning, and 2 first round draft picks. This may sound like a lot, but VC is in his prime, and the 3 guys the Raps got are on their way out. And to top things off, Mourning was thrown in with the intention that he would never play for the Raps. Well, trading the one good reason anyone watched the Raptors was definitely not going to help the team. Even though the Raps were losing, the Air Canada Centre still filled just to see what VC may do. I don’t think people are going to show to watch the two guys we got for him sit on the bench (which they do).

4) Rob Babcock says that Alonzo Mourning is in no health to play for the Raptors and buys his contract out for $10 million. Mourning signs with the Miami Heat, the team he had been wanting to finish his career with and possibly win a title since Shaq was now there. Mourning is far from being of bad health as he plays a major role in getting the Heat to the western semi-finals.

5) Rob Babcock let’s Donyell Marshall’s contract expire without making a trade, even though his worth had increased big time due to his recent play. Marshall made it clear he was not going to re-sign with the Raps, yet no trade is made. Instead he is kept for the entire season and a good trade opportunity is lost.

6) I believe Babcock thought he was sabotaging the Raptors’ 7th pick in the 2005-2006 NBA draft by picking Charlie Villanueava, a ‘potential cancer’ as many analysts were calling him. Again the Raptors’ choice was not supposed to go until around 15. However, Babcock’s pick may backfire since Villanueva’s performance has been impressive. We’ll have to wait for the season to progress a little more before we make a call on this one. Note - I personally didn’t mind this pick and was looking forward to CV on the Raps.

That’s my six top reasons for my conspiracy theory. Many of you may just think this is the work of a really bad General Manager. I don’t claim this to be impossible. But you have to ask yourself this question - if everyone in the known universe can see how bad Rob Babcock is doing, why does he continue to work for the organization. The reason my friends is that the NBA wants out of Canada. With their experiment failing miserably on the Canadian west coast, and the inability to keep or attract any stars to Canada’s biggest city, I think the NBA brass has cut some sort of deal with MLSE to get the Raptors re-located ASAP. So Babcock may actually not be as atrocious as he looks - he may just be the NBA’s patsy.

As I sit here watching the Toronto Raptors get completely demolished by the Detroit Pistons, I’m tempted to get back to what I have spent the entire day doing. I bit the bullet last night and decided to watch ‘Revenge of the Sith’. There was a couple reasons really; first, neither my parents had seen it and I thought it would be nice to experience it with them; second, I haven’t seen it since at least June, and quite frankly was having withdrawal. Seeing it six times in the theatre clearly can be classified as an addiction.

I woke up this morning excited to get to the bonus features of the ‘Sith’ DVD. The disk is packed full of documentaries, deleted scenes, and other great stuff. I thought I would watch a couple features today and slowly work through the disk during the coming week. Well, lets just say that isn’t going to happen. As I watched the deleted scenes I found myself completely hooked. As I finished of the cut scenes, I moved onto the first documentary, then the next, then the next, and so on. Everything on this disk is completely fabulous.

The deleted scenes have been completed just for the DVD as if they were left in the movie. The side story that was cut of Padme, Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma conspiring to start the Rebel Alliance would have been cool to see in the final film, but I do understand Lucas’s reasons to leaving them out.

The highlight of the disc is the full-length documentary ‘Within a Minute’ that follows the complete production of 49 seconds of the final battle between Vader and Obi-Wan including everything from the catering team providing food to the crew to the guys at ILM putting together the digital shots. Something like 70,000 man-hours was put into this 49 second clip and you really get a sense of the scale of this movie.

Once I made my way through the rest of the bonus features, I decided I couldn’t stop there. I threw the first disk back in and watched the movie again with the audio commentary by George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, and Roger Guyett. I love the audio commentaries on DVDs that are done properly. Sometimes you get a bunch of fluff and nonsense, not getting any real information or insight into the movie. ‘Sith’ definitely delivers giving you some great information including everything from backstory to pointing out a kitchen sink flying into a space cruiser.

Now that I have completely exhausted everything on this fine DVD I am now left feeling anxious to view everything on my home theatre system. Seeing the movie again definitely was sweet, but it just doesn’t do it justice when watching it on such a small screen with weak sound. This movie is big and is meant to be experienced in a big way. Since my abode isn’t going to be set up for another three weeks I guess I can look forward to watching my Raptors this NBA season. And as they are currently down by 31 points with just a few seconds left, I can definitely say that watching the Raps is not going to be as enjoyable as watching ‘Star Wars’. Hey, what can I say? Sith happens.