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Good read from Dave Feschuk. Here's a blurb, but click the link below to read the entire article.
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If only Toronto’s sporting culture could have emerged from Wednesday with a minor ding to its paint. Instead, with the news that Chris Bosh was Miami-bound — with the knowledge that the Heat don’t offer redeeming riches even if the Raptors wrangle a still-possible sign-and-trade deal to extract a few last drops of value from Bosh’s seven-year tenure in Toronto — the local NBA team was gutted by the loss of the latest in a long line of all-stars. And the junkyard that is Toronto’s sports marketplace got even junkier.
Yes, the 26-year-old Bosh came off as child-like in his attention-starved exit, frustrating the Raptors by being as uncommunicative as he was indecisive, and the instinct is to say good riddance. Just as a free agent named Mats Sundin denied the Leafs a jumpstart to rebuilding by refusing to waive a no-trade clause in his swan song a few years back, Bosh did Toronto zero favours after promising to work together with Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors GM.
Still, it’s Colangelo — he of the three playoff wins in four seasons here — who failed to build a contender around Bosh. Granted, Bosh simply stopped playing hard during a crucial stretch of his final season here, and he infamously said the Raptors’ win-loss record was no reflection on him. But as a reasonable facsimile of a star player, he had been the lone specimen in a city that lost its best working athlete in recent memory, Roy Halladay, to a December trade.
As of Wednesday, if you wanted to buy a sports-loving kid the replica jersey of a local hero, you weren’t exactly spoiled for choice. The only Maple Leaf who made the most recent NHL all-star team, Tomas Kaberle, is on the trading block. Ditto the best remaining player on the Raptors, Hedo Turkoglu, if only he commanded value. Meanwhile, the top Blue Jay, Vernon Wells, is having an all-star-worthy season. Alas, there are garbage men who do their jobs with less woe-be-me resignation.
Yes, the 26-year-old Bosh came off as child-like in his attention-starved exit, frustrating the Raptors by being as uncommunicative as he was indecisive, and the instinct is to say good riddance. Just as a free agent named Mats Sundin denied the Leafs a jumpstart to rebuilding by refusing to waive a no-trade clause in his swan song a few years back, Bosh did Toronto zero favours after promising to work together with Bryan Colangelo, the Raptors GM.
Still, it’s Colangelo — he of the three playoff wins in four seasons here — who failed to build a contender around Bosh. Granted, Bosh simply stopped playing hard during a crucial stretch of his final season here, and he infamously said the Raptors’ win-loss record was no reflection on him. But as a reasonable facsimile of a star player, he had been the lone specimen in a city that lost its best working athlete in recent memory, Roy Halladay, to a December trade.
As of Wednesday, if you wanted to buy a sports-loving kid the replica jersey of a local hero, you weren’t exactly spoiled for choice. The only Maple Leaf who made the most recent NHL all-star team, Tomas Kaberle, is on the trading block. Ditto the best remaining player on the Raptors, Hedo Turkoglu, if only he commanded value. Meanwhile, the top Blue Jay, Vernon Wells, is having an all-star-worthy season. Alas, there are garbage men who do their jobs with less woe-be-me resignation.
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