Thought #1

As I hear the back and forth between Toronto Raptors' GM Bryan Colangelo and Chris Bosh over whether or not Bosh quit on the team last year, I've got to ask one question; why do we even have a team in Canada?

Seriously, name one Raptors fan you know. What? No one? Ok, try this, name one person you know who owns a Raptors t-shirt. Exactly, nobody over the age of 5 is rocking a shirt with a pink dinosaur on it.

Now granted fanfare isn't what it's all about, but it does effect how good a team is. Think about it, if you were a NBA player would you want to go play in a cold city, with a different currency, and a lukewarm, at best, fan base? No way!

Listen, we gave it a solid effort, we really tried to embrace it, and we even let Vince Carter hang there for a bit, but it just ain't working. If this whole Chris Bosh debacle has done anything it has clearly illustrated what a player does when shipped to a team like Toronto. He plays his tail off, gets his stock up, and then sits on the bench and waits till his train comes in and he can slide out of town.

Is keeping a team like that around even worth it?

Thought #2

Albert Haynesworth failed his conditioning test for the second time Friday morning and unlike Thursday, an extended potty break was not to blame. Which, by the way, is exactly why your parents told you to double check before road trips. Apparently Albert did not heed this advice and it cost him Thursday, while Friday he just flat out didn't make the time.

Now I'm not saying that the tests are a cake walk, though if cake was involved I dare say Albert's time would drastically decrease, but Albert had to know this was coming when he stood up Mike Shanahan and his teammates by skipped off season workouts and minicamps. He had to know, when you challenge the authority of your parents, especially in front of your friends, they are going to make you cry and then send you to your room. That's why when ever you started down that rode, your mom could just give you that look, and you immediately pulled a 180.

Albert should have seen that look he got from the coach during minicamps, changed his tone, showed up, and then he would probably be out there practicing with his buddies rather than being sent to his room to run on a treadmill. Oh and I doubt he's getting dessert at camp these days either.

Thought #3

So apparently the punishment for assaulting someone with projectile vomit is 3 months in jail and 50 hours of community service. That's what Matthew Clemens will serve as the consequence for going Flounder on a young girl at a Phillies' game earlier this year.

There are some crimes that I really can't get a handle on what the appropriate punishment for them should be and this is definitely one of them. I mean what is the rightful punishment for a person who pukes on a little girl? Just think about that for a second. Now granted there will no doubt be plenty of natural consequences for this crime; shame, lack of being able to date a reasonably sane girl for at least a decade, and hopefully being taunted daily by children as "puke-boy" or "captain vomit."

Outside of that though, what do you think would be an appropriate punishment for such an awful act?