Not only was this game the debut of Yao in North America, it was a return to basketball in Vancouver. Just over a year before, Michael Heisley, the devil incarnate, decided to rip the beloved Grizzlies from Vancouver’s loving arms and transport them to Memphis, where they would be placed in the “care” of mostly neglectful and uncaring fans.

Okay, maybe I’m still a little bitter a decade later.

The most ironic¹ thing about this game was that, for me, Yao Ming was the reason that Michael Heisley moved the Grizzlies when he did. In less than a year, Heisley went from singing the Canadian National Anthem to try and show his desire to make things work in Vancouver, to packing up the office and moving it to one of of the poorer major cities in the US and the most dangerous one. Why the quick change of heart? Well, because the next season, Yao Ming was going to enter the NBA draft.

Even before Yao played a minute in the NBA, he was a global marketing force. So much so, that I think Heisley knew that if the Grizzlies ended up with the number one pick in 2002, then there’s no way he could have reasonably argued to the NBA that he couldn’t afford to keep the team in Vancouver, a city with the second highest chinese population in North America. Yao Ming was going to open the doors of China to the NBA, and the league would never be the same.

Yao was not only a phenomenon off the court, with a documentary widely released about his journey from China to the NBA, but on the court, as well. The impact on the court was not immediate, however. Yao struggled to adjust to the NBA, at first, but eventually started to find his footing. After Charles Barkley famously declared that Yao would be a bust and would never score 19 points in a game, Yao scored 20 points, perfect from the field, against the Lakers.

The player my friend and I saw struggle against inferior competition in Vancouver was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the season. Yao narrowly missed out on winning the Rookie of the Year Award, to Amare Stoudemire and ended up starting in the All-Star game the next year.

While he only missed 2 games in his first three seasons, in his fourth season he started to break down. Toe surgery kept him out for nearly half the season, but he still managed to have a career year, only to better that the next season, averaging 25 ppg and 9 rpg. Yes, 25 and 9. Those are Hall of Fame numbers. I can only think of a handful of centers in the last 30 years that have come close to those numbers. Throw in 1.6 blocks, and you’ve got a possible MVP candidate. Unfortunately, Yao never got fully healthy again.

It was too bad that Yao never really was able to reach his prime, in the NBA, before injuries forced him to retire. And while you can definitely say Yao’s size was a major reason, it was not the only reason. Yao was not tall like Shawn Bradley or Manute Bol. Unlike those guys, Yao didn’t look like he was simply stretched. He LOOKED normal. Unless you stood next to him.

What probably had the most harmful effect on Yao’s career was his home country. Yao was a hero in China and his exploits on the National team put them on the international map. Unfortunately, it also never allowed him to take a break. And it took a toll on Yao’s body. Being that big, while being a professional athlete, is hard enough on your body, but not being allowed to rest it during the offseason, because there was no offseason for Yao, was the clincher.

The NBA is poorer for it.

1. Yao Ming not only was a symbol of screwing Vancouver basketball fans because the team would still be there if the Grizzlies had drafted him, but Yao was solely responsible for arch-enemy Steve Francis‘ All-Star appearance in 2004, when he averaged just 16 ppg, because of the flood of Chinese voters who voted for Francis simply because he was on the Houston Rockets. Francis never made the All-Star team again after being traded from Houston.

Jonas Valanciunas, the Raptors “controversial” 5th pick, also played and completely dominated the game. In just 25 minutes, he had 23 points, on 6 for 11 shooting from the field and 11 of 15 from the line (more on that in a moment), 11 rebounds and a block. And while they didn’t have it in the stats, I’m guessing the most positive +/- rating of anyone on the floor. The only time the Americans looked good was when he wasn’t on the floor, and when he came back out the US team looked lost again. There was no one that could handle Valanciunas and he was absolutely relentless. On offense, he showed a soft touch and decent footwork for a guy who’s supposed to be as raw as he is. The Lithuanians actually went to him on offense more than I was expecting, and although he’s no Olajuwon, he made a decent showing when posting up. He’s still got a lot of work to do, but the potential is definitely there.

He did have three turnovers and at least two of them came on post ups where defenders swarmed him and he simply coughed up the ball. It’s not all that surprising, though, considering his lack of experience scoring in the post.

On missed shots, whether his or a teammate’s, he constantly crashed the boards and wasn’t afraid of physical play. If he didn’t actually grab the rebound, he tried. He may get pushed around, at first, in the NBA, but he’s going to compete on the boards and work his ass off.

The fact that he took 15 free throws is an indication of just how active he was and how much he dominated the American front line. No one seemed to be able to keep him off the boards and the it seemed to frustrate the American team, which lead to a lot of the fouls.

On defense, while he didn’t block a lot of shots, he was extremely active and looked better than he has in some highlights. His length seemed to bother the Americans, although he also got scored on more than he should have, considering his size. One thing I noticed is that he tends to wait for the offensive player to come to him rather than go out and challenge him. It’s a habit he’s going to have to break. Thankfully, he’s young and it’s not something that should be too difficult to change, especially with his mentality.

Before the Raptors drafted Valanciunas, I had two concerns about him, mostly from watching just one full game of him. The first is his hands. In the first game I saw, he didn’t seem to have great hands and dropped a few too many balls for my liking. In this game, there was none of that. In fact, quite the opposite. There were a few difficult passes he caught without any trouble, and seemed to be able to grab most rebounds that he touched.

The other issue I had was his fouling. On his Euroleague team, he was fouling at a rate of one for every five minutes. At that rate, he’d be lucky to average 20 mpg, in the NBA, and in fact doesn’t even average that on his Euroleague team. Against the Americans, though, there didn’t seem to be much evidence of a guy who has trouble not hacking, and finished with 3 fouls in 25 minutes. Not great, but not bad, either. It’s obviously something he’ll need to work on, but he’s not going to be Rafael Araujo, it seems.

So it was a reassuring game that hopefully dispelled any of this nonsensical talk that Valanciunas is another soft European and Andrea Bargnani 2.0.

Edit: Yes, I’m aware I originally spelled “rout” incorrectly as “route”. In my defense, I caught it before anyone mentioned it.

Despite knowing that they would get two cookies if only they wait a bit, the vast majority of the kids ate the cookie sitting on the table. Why? Because most young kids live completely in the present and can’t comprehend a future that is not directly in front of them.

So what does this have to do with the Raptor’s draft pick, Jonas Valanciunas?

Well, I have to say I was shocked to hear about all the negative reaction involving the Raptors pick. While I was disappointed that Kanter failed to fall to 5, I was thrilled when David Stern called out Valanciunas’ name. Thrilled and relieved. Part of me, like last year, was afraid Colangelo would turn his nose up at the gift sitting in front of him and stay with his plan. Maybe I’m still stinging from when the Raptors had Andre Iguodala fall into their laps only to politely hand him to the 76ers and instead opt for Rafael Araujo.

So how the hell does this have to do with kids and cookies? I’m getting to that.

As I said, I was a little taken aback by the reaction of the fans. Overwhelmingly negative, or so it seemed. The comments ranged from disappointment that Colangelo didn’t take an NCAA star like Kemba Walker or Brandon Knight, to puzzlement that they didn’t draft someone who would help immediately, to blatant and extremely ignorant xenophobia.

The strangest comments revolved around the fact that the Raptors desperately needed a point guard and didn’t draft one. Sorry? While most people don’t see Jose Calderon or Jerryd Bayless as the point guard of the future for the Raptors, I fail to see how they need to be desperately replaced. Calderon is a far better point guard than many give him credit for, and has been good enough to help the team be one of the best scoring teams over the last 5 years. And Bayless certainly showed he deserves a chance to build on the success he showed at the end of this past season.

To me, center is probably the position most in need of upgrading. While I don’t buy the line that Andrea Bargnani has been playing out of position and is really a 4, no one can argue the Raptors don’t need a new center that isn’t going to hand opposing players rebounds and show the way to the hoop. It’s pretty obvious to me that the center position was the greatest need for the Raptors.

But that’s not why drafting Valanciunas was a good idea.

There were many that felt that Kemba Walker and Brandon Knight were simply better players, having had success in the NCAA. Of course, that is a view not held by the majority of scouts and paid NBA people who probably know a little more than the average Raptor fan. A lot of these fans were the same ones that booed when Ed O’Bannon wasn’t drafted by the Raptors. Unfortunately a lot of North American basketball fans don’t have a very wide perspective. Most Raptor fans only watch Raptor games or the NCAA Tournament, so really have little idea what goes on in most of the basketball world. How many of them would have booed if the Raptors had drafted Robert “Tractor” Traylor and then traded him for that German guy no one had ever heard of? Or if they’d taken Pau Gasol ahead of Shane Battier or even Eddy Curry?

Just because you LIKE a player better, doesn’t actually make him a better player. Both Walker and Knight have their issues that caused them to drop. No one knows if Walker can even play PG, which would be a problem, especially considering that he’s VERY similar to Jerryd Bayless when he came out. Compare the two and see.

And Walker, while a very successful college player, has neither the length nor shot to suggest he can be anywhere near the player he was in college. And I can’t get Damon Stoudamire out of my head. A very good college player who put up good stats as the best player on a bad team, but couldn’t find a role on a better team when he wasn’t allowed to dominate the ball like he was used to.

But the fact that Walker and Knight were questions themselves, questions that lead to them both dropping on draft night, is not what made drafting Valanciunas at 5 a good idea.

A common complaint about drafting Valanciunas is that he won’t help the team immediately. In fact, CBSSports gave the Raptors an F for that very reason (Of course, many of the grades the guy gave are incredibly perplexing. For instance he apparently thought Utah should have drafted Jimmer Fredette instead of Enes Kanter. Wow, just wow.). This would make sense if the Raptors weren’t in the position they are right now. The team won 22 games and, barring an unexpected free agent bounty, don’t have much of a chance to make the playoffs next year. Plus, there wasn’t a player available that would have changed that. Are people really getting worked up about the fact that the team might win 30 games instead of 35? Really?

How many rookies make much of a positive impact in their first year, anyway? John Wall didn’t, and he was the consensus #1 pick last year. You think Brandon Knight or Kemba Walker would have turned the Raptors into a playoff team next year?

Probably the most ignorant complaints I’ve heard about the Raptors drafting Valanciunas is that he’s European, like Bargnani, so he must be soft. My question: Have you watched the guy play before making that rather massive assumption? Obviously not, because he’s basically the complete opposite of Bargnani. Valanciunas is all defense and rebounding, at this point, with a strong motor and gets all his points around the rim. That doesn’t sound at all like Bargnani, does it?

I actually heard a lot of strange comparisons, like Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Pau Gasol and Chris Kaman. Peculiar, since none of those guys were known for their defense when they were drafted and had pretty advanced offensive skills. In fact, other than them being European and white, I fail to see the similarities.

The guy that Valanciunas actually reminds me of the most is Amir Johnson, and I’m actually surprised I haven’t heard this before.

While Valanciunas obviously has a lot more length than Amir, the two have strikingly similar games, at this point. Both are high energy, hustle players who rebound and defend well. Both are good, although not great, shotblockers. Both are better team defenders than man-to-man defenders, at this point, due to their slight builds. Both have (apparently) exceptionally good hands and are excellent pick and roll players. Both have a great touch around the basket, despite not being great offensive players, which results in a very high field goal percentage. Even their free throw percentages are similar, very good for big men.

Unfortunately, they even share the same penchant for fouling.

Now, before you start complaining that the Raptors drafted a taller version of a bench player, remember two things. The first is those few inches that Valanciunas is taller can’t be overstated. It’s the difference between Ed Davis and Dikembe Mutombo. It’s the difference between Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal.

If Amir Johnson were 3 inches taller, he’d probably be considered potentially a top 10 center, in the league. And probably be paid a lot more.

Secondly, and more importantly, Valanciunas is only 19 years old and about at the same stage that Amir was a year ago, at 23. I think that Amir comparison is starting to look better.

So am I ever going to get back to the cookies?

The problem is that a lot of Raptor fans seem to have a lot in common with the kids who took the cookie off the table. They don’t want to wait and can’t comprehend a future that isn’t directly in front of them. When Boston drafted Larry Bird (at 6th), they were coming off a 29 win season. And they did it knowing they would have to wait a year before he could play on the team. If they had decided to draft a player that would have helped immediately, then Reggie Theus might have been a good choice. He certainly had a decent career. Sure, Boston wouldn’t have had the decade they did, but at least they wouldn’t have had to wait that year.

San Antonio, after winning 28 games in 1987, won the lottery and had to choose between Armen Gilliam, an All American coming off a 23 and 9 season with UNLV, or David Robinson, who they’d have to wait two years for while he served his time in the Navy. Gilliam made the All-Rookie team and Phoenix, who drafted him, eventually went on to the Conference Finals twice, albeit only once with Gilliam, who was traded after two and a half years to New Jersey. Still, that’s not bad.

Now, obviously Valanciunas isn’t a Larry Bird or David Robinson, but the fact is that you need to look at the big picture when drafting a player. And most fans don’t do that. According to most people who make a living having to know this stuff, Valanciunas was the best player available, and selecting someone else, who is more well known and would have helped immediately, would have been more popular with the fans, it would have also short changed them.

So if you want your cookie right now, then Knight or Walker, or even Biyombo would have made more sense. But if you want two cookies, then Valanciunas, who just about everyone with knowledge of the situation says was the best player available, was the way to go.

Unless of course, you’re happy with this.

In Raptor news….well, there’s very little Raptor news and fans on some Raptor websites are busy with hypothetical arguments to keep busy. I am going to start posting a little more frequently as training camp nears with an Offseason Report Card, a series of Raptor previews, a look around the league and some predictions, as well.

While there’s little happening regarding the NBA, the World Championships do give us something to discuss. One of the newest Raptors, Linas Kleiza has been impressing many with his play in Turkey, averaging close to 20 ppg and 7 rpg while leading Lithuania to a 5-0 record, beating Spain and France along the way. He’s looked very good and is certainly a ray of hope for Raptor fans this year.

Another new Raptor addition, Barbosa, has also been playing well for Brazil, averaging more than 16 ppg while leading his country to a 3-2 record. If healthy, Barbosa has proven to be an excellent scorer off the bench, but with Brazil, he’s their leading scorer and main guy.

Even David Andersen has been playing well for Australia, averaging around 10 ppg and 7 rpg.

Obviously FIBA is not the NBA, but it’s nice to see the new players playing well on the international stage. Ironically, the only Raptors playing in the World Championships are new additions to the team. Calderon hurt his hamstring and is not playing for Spain. That’s obviously not good news for Raptor fans hoping to see a healthy Calderon this season. Personally, I was hoping Calderon would have a good year with the Raptors. It’s been two seasons since he signed his big contract and has certainly not lived up to it. He struggled with injuries during the first season of the contract, which many blamed on a tough summer of playing for Spain. He went overboard the next season trying to rest his body, showing up at training camp rusty and out of shape. It took him a while to get back into the groove and hurt himself again. Hamstring injuries have haunted some athletes for a couple of years before they finally fully recover. It appears Calderon will not be 100% for quite a while, unfortunately.

OUR TOP STORY…

So I understand RealGM.com has to go with something, but are they really this desperate?

RAPTORS STILL HAVE $14.5 M TRADE EXCEPTION

The Raptors still possess the $14.5 million trade exception they acquired when they completed a sign-and-trade with the Heat for Chris Bosh in July.

Toronto acquired center David Andersen from Houston earlier this offseason, but they used a smaller trade exception ($2.7 million) they received in the Hedo Turkoglu trade with Phoenix.

Great! News that the Raptors HAVEN’T done something. They haven’t used their exception. Of course neither has Cleveland, or Utah or Phoenix for that matter. I guess they have to save that news for another day.

DIONTE CHRISTMAS TO PLAY IN TURKEY

Dionte Christmas will play in Turkey this coming season.

Christmas played on Sacramento’s summer league team in Las Vegas.

He went undrafted out of Temple in 2009.

So a guy who has never played in the NBA will continue not to play in the NBA. Thanks for the heads up.

And in more ironic news…

FOYLE NAMED DIRECTOR OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT FOR MAGIC

The Orlando Magic have named Adonal Foyle as director of player development, President of Basketball Operations Otis Smith announced today. In his role, Foyle will provide support for the overall development of the players, act as a conduit between players and management, and give assistance to the basketball operations department.

Originally selected by Golden State in the first round (eighth overall) of the 1997 NBA Draft, Foyle appeared in 733 regular season games during his 13-year NBA career with Golden State and Orlando.

So a guy who had enough potential to be the 8th pick the year Tim Duncan was drafted, who averaged 24.4 ppg and 13.1 rpg his final year at college, yet never averaged 6 ppg game in the NBA and never developed into anything close to the player many hoped in his 12 seasons in the league, is in charge of developing players for the Magic. What’s that old saying? If you can’t do it, teach it?

The main ammunition for some Toronto fans when calling the owners cheap, is that they don’t spend like they are the 4th largest market in the league, which they technically are (behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). A few problems with that. The first is the exchange rate and corporate tax. The Raptors pay out mostly in American dollars, but get most of their money in Canadian. When the exchange rate is at par, it’s no problem, but for the 99.9999% of the time it isn’t, that means the Raptors are essentially paying more on the dollar than every other team. The high Canadian corporate tax rate also hurts the bottom line.

As for the population base, Toronto is technically the fourth largest market, but that’s only when the actual city population is looked at.  When looking at the metropolitan population, Toronto suddenly drops to 7th, behind Dallas, Philadelphia and Houston, and just ahead of Miami, Atlanta and Washington.

Of course, the writer wasn’t talking about economics or population bases.  He was talking about something else. And this is where I have the problem. See, the writer, I’m guessing, is American. And without getting into any American bashing, some Americans tend not to see the big picture a lot of times. The writer talks about how Bosh is less popular than Chris Paul and Ray Allen only because he plays for the Raptors. In Canada. Flawed logic, to say the least. Firstly, it’s debatable whether Ray Allen, who’s been in a Spike Lee movie, has a championship ring and played in way more playoff games than Bosh, is even more popular.

Only once, since Bosh became an All-Star, has Ray Allen gotten more votes than him, and that was the Celtics Championship season when they were the talk of the league. Yes, Allen sells more jerseys, but that also probably has to do with his Championship ring than where he plays. Boston is not a large market team, but they have a vaunted history behind them. The Raptors do not.

Chris Paul has been on the NBA 1st and 2nd team the last two years, and finished second in MVP voting two years ago. He’s a 6 foot-nothing point guard who is exciting to watch, partially because he is so small, yet rebounds and plays much bigger. He’s a better player than Bosh and had a huge playoffs during his best season, two seasons ago, when his team pushed San Antonio to the brink in the second round. Playoffs make a player, in the NBA. Ask Trevor Ariza.

Secondly, if Chris Bosh is less popular than the writer perceives he should be, it might have to do with Bosh himself. Yes, Bosh is friendly, accessible and tries to make himself as visible as possible through the internet, but his game, or image, is not typical of a popular player. He doesn’t have an edge and fire of an Iverson or Garnett. He isn’t a high flying skywalker like Dwight Howard, LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. And he does not have an exciting, small guy playing with the big boys, game like Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade or even Nate Robinson. Bosh is a relatively skinny, jumpshooting big man who, despite being quick and athletic, doesn’t play above the rim much. Plus, he’s not an overly emotional player on the court, which fans love to see. Even Raptors fans have talked about how boring the guy is. If even your own team’s fans aren’t thrilled about watching a player, why would other team’s fans be?

The problem here, however, is that the writer of the article is looking through his very narrow American view of things.  The Raptors and Chris Bosh are not popular in the US, so they are not popular. Many Americans might be surprised that an entire world goes on outside of the US. Colangelo, despite being an American, has figured this out. He’s figured out that Americans, in general, don’t particularly like anything that’s not American, and have trouble seeing outside of their borders, so he has taken a global view. Will it make the Raptors more popular in the US? No. And no one should really care. When the Raptors make the playoffs this year, as they will hopefully and should do, it’s a good bet the Raptors popularity in Europe will skyrocket. Already, Bargnani jerseys are apparently the 10th best selling jersey in Europe. The Raptors are currently `Canada’s team’, and are soon to be `Europe’s team’, too. I wouldn’t particularly call that small market.

All that doesn’t necessarily mean that writers like Austin Burton will get his head out of his ass long enough to realize the world doesn’t end at the US border, but since he’s a writer in another country, I guess I shouldn’t care.