Friday, June 28, 2013

Raptors Decline 2013-14 Option on John Lucas' Contract


The Raptors announced today that the option on John Lucas' contract for the upcoming season would not be picked up, making the Point Guard an Unrestricted Free Agent when the clocks strike midnight on July 1, the first day of the new NBA fiscal year.

All the best to JLIII in the new chaper of the NBA career. My camera will definitely miss him but if the first photo below is anything to go by (at Wizards on Feb.19, 2013), he will not be missing my camera! ;)



More photos after the jump

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Bryan Colangelo, President of Team and Business Operations, steps down




Bryan Colangelo
Bryan Colangelo

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Raptors Name Webster VP, Basketball Management & Strategy

As per Raptors' twitter account:
Here's a photo of Bobby Webster speaing at Raptors' Town Hall Season Seat Holder event last night, with Masai Ujiri looking on.

 Bobby Webster
Bobby Webster

Season Seat Holder Event: Town Hall with Masai Ujiri and Tim Leiweke

Entering my 2nd year as a Raptors Season Seat Holder, I've attended quite a few SSH-only events and yesterday's Town Hall meeting with Masai Ujiri and Tim Leiweke held at the Adidas Practice Court was by far my favourite.

You can say or think what you want, but MLSE sure knows how to make the fans feel involved and appreciated. As always, we're treated to excellent food (those Real Sports' Southern BBQ sliders!) and upscale drink choices. Two elements of your your typical SSH event as I've been critical of in the past, were nowhere to be seen this time around!

First, nothing felt rushed. There was an ample amount of time to dine, followed by photo/autograph sessions with four Raptors' players in attendance (Rudy Gay, Terrance Ross, Jonas Valanciunas and Quincy Acy) who stayed as long as it was needed without getting yanked out of the party and leaving some disappointed fans behind. Second, the aforementioned presence of Rudy. It's great to see the teams' star player not getting shielded from fan fan interaction anymore.

The 2nd hour of the event consisted of a Q&A session with MLSE CEO Tim Leiweke and Raptors new GM & President of Basketball Operations, Masai Ujiri. Details of what was said should probably remain in that gym but let me just tell you the tone of the conversation was rather light-hearted and might or might have not included not so subtle jabs at former Raptors (one in particular #caughboshcaugh) and not exactly ringing endorsements for current ones (#caughbargnanicaugh). Also, it seems like the phrase "Sleeping Giant" is the new "Pound the "Rock" as far as frequency of mentions per conversation/interview is concerned, followed closely by "outworking everyone", "not going to be easy" and "patience".

Here are a few photos from the event. More after the jump.

Tim Leiweke, MLSE CEO
Tim Leiweke, CEO, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
Masai Ujiri, Toronto Raptors
Masai Ujiri, Raptors' GM and President of Basketball Operations


Monday, June 3, 2013

Off-season in Toronto

The Raptors' off season might be in full swing, complete with various front office changes (welcome back, Masai Ujiri), but still it's very easy to come across various Raptor references around the Air Canada Centre.

New season needs to hurry up and get here already!



Toronto Life's "Reasons to Love Toronto Now". Number 16: Rudy Gay!

Toronto Life has unveiled it's annual list of "Reasons to Love Toronto Now" in the June issue of the magazine. In a rather (un)surprising turn of events, the city's Mayor, Rob Ford, is nowhere near the top of the countdown. In fact, he's not there at all.

BUT, for all we care, Rudy Gay is listed at the high #16 and has an entire page dedicated to him. It's always good to see the Raptors get some press, especially when the press happens to be positive.

Here's a little teaser. To read the full article, get your hands on the June 2013 issue of Toronto Life.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

Programming Note: Summer is for the Weak

When I posted the "Wake me up when September ends" blog entry, the plan was to have it sitting on top of the page until the Pre-season 2013-2014 gets here. But when you're a die-hard Raptors fan, that's easier said than done!

To make the off-season somewhat bearable, I decided to start an instagram page and share 1-2 photos every day in effort to try to get you, and myself, through this Raptor-less part of the year.

Also, just walking around the city, couldn't help but notice Raptor references. Naturally, many of them have turned into photos that I'll be posting at least once a week so keep checking the blog on a regular basis!