The traveling road show continues in the California capital and right now the Toronto Raptors might be feeling like the Washington Generals. It was ugly Friday night in Denver, no other way to put it. The Nuggets ran the Raptors off the court and it was down-right embarrassing at some points in the game.
Remember the pasting Toronto handed Denver last season at the Air Canada Centre? Well the Nuggets did, and according to Marcus Camby and J.R. Smith, it was all the talk at shoot-around Friday morning in Denver before the Nuggets went out and hammered the Raptors.
OK call me crazy because basketball is treated like Cinderella, before the ball, in Canada, but Raptor fans are becoming like New York Yankee fans. I know the dudes that sit in offices and base everything on ratings numbers (which I don’t believe are accurate… but that’s a discussion for another day) don’t see this but Raptor fans are popping up all over. We see it on the road all the time and on this western sojourn we have seen ardent Raptor fans wearing jerseys in every city.
There were students from Brock University’s Sports management program who were at the Pepsi Centre in Denver as part of a practicum of sort. These lucky students were here to work at the NCAA tournament. Another family drove 14 hours from Regina to see the game and it provided a thrill for eight-year-old Troy Shields who met team members and thanks to Raptors Director of Media Relations, Jim LaBumbard, had a chance to have his Chris Bosh jersey signed by Bosh himself.
I had a chance to talk to National NBA broadcaster Stephen A. Smith of ESPN Friday in Denver and add him to the list of Americans who considers Toronto one of his favourite stops on the NBA circuit. He’s calling the Lakers and Pistons to meet in the finals and you can hear the entire interview on the pre-game show from Sacramento Sunday night.
It was good to see Bosh shooting again in the pregame at Golden State and he even participated in some of the morning shoot in Denver and did some running in the pre-game before the Nuggets beat up on the Raptors. He was in uniform at practice Saturday morning in Sacramento and according to my broadcast partner Eric Smith, who spoke to him after practice, he is expecting to be back on Wednesday. If you want to hear the entire chat with CB4, you guessed it, you’ll have to listen to the pre-game show from Sacramento. Hey c’mon we’re not just sitting around out here, we’re working. Look at all the great stuff you have to look forward to if you tune in to the pre-game.
The last word on the injury front comes from Jorge Garbajosa. Everyone is being tight-lipped regarding the situation before the courts as the Raptors are suing the Spanish Basketball Federation for non-payment of insurance proceeds related to Garbajosa's injury. Garbo didn’t have much to say about it but did say it is excruciating watching the team because he can’t help. He is working hard to get back in shape and doing low-impact rehab on the floor as he is slowly staring to put the ball on the floor and get some shots up at the hoop.
Garbo would like to come back and play this year – do you think they could use his toughness? – but it remains to be seen if it will actually happen. You can hear my interview with him, yes sir, you guessed right again, on the pre-game show Monday night from Utah.
