Basketball

The challenge for the Celtics is to become truly great

In sport, it’s said that the greatest challenge is not to become a champion, but to remain a champion. Anyone can win something once, but to do it all over again proves to any doubters that the initial success was fully deserved and did not come about by chance or any other mitigating factor. Right […]

Other Sports

Around the Horn with Jim Van Horne

Jim Van Horne has long been synonymous with both radio and television broadcasting. Most prominently known for delivering sports from behind the desk as a TSN original, Van Horne is still going strong. Growing up listening to CHUM AM, Van Horne’s childhood dream was to be a DJ. He realized that dream in 1971 when […]

Baseball

How to build the 2008 World Series champion

It’s likely impossible to locate a person who predicted a Tampa Bay-Philadelphia World Series matchup. Coming into the year, Tampa Bay was an improving club with some intriguing potential, but anybody who tells you that they were an actual threat is undoubtedly joking. As for Philadelphia, they were known to have talent, but with no […]

Basketball

The come up: A look at the 2003 McDonald’s All-Americans

To the untrained eye, the annual McDonald’s All-American game is just another in the long list of high school all-star games, but to the rest of us it’s a preview; a glimpse at the future of professional basketball, and perhaps no class has been more indicative of this foresight than the class of 2003. Numbers […]

Hall of Fame

How Ticketmaster ruined professional sports

Let’s be blunt, Ticketmaster.com now charges as much as 60% of face value ticket price in sporting event convenience fees alone. Before you spend another cent, stop and think about that for as long as it takes it to sink in. Never mind the fact that the price you ended up paying for two tickets […]

Basketball

Madison Square Garden’s European makeover

New York Knicks general manager Donnie Walsh has long been a fan of Mike D’Antoni. When Walsh was GM of the Indiana Pacers, he wanted to add D’Antoni to the team’s coaching staff, only for then-Pacers’ head coach Isaiah Thomas to block the move. It took eight years and a move to New York City, […]

Baseball

The mystery that is Rocco Baldelli

In life there are some problems that can’t be fixed, some questions that can’t be answered and some puzzles that can’t be solved. To find all of these, just look at the Tampa Bay Rays’ biggest question mark, Rocco Baldelli. The Rays drafted Baldelli out of high school with the sixth overall pick in the […]

Other Sports

Re-evaluating boxing’s stars

The present era of boxing, more than any other, is one that lacks any semblance of personality in its fighters. The present big draw of the sport is still Oscar De La Hoya, who has devolved from an exciting fighter who would take on anybody, to a promoter now appearing only to boost the profile […]

Basketball

The man and the monument: How George Gervin became champion of the people

George Gervin deserves your respect. Not because he did for Michael Jordan what Michael Jordan did for Richard Hamilton in 2001. Heck, not for representing the San Antonio Spurs in nine straight All-Star games from 1977 to 1985 either. George Gervin deserves your respect because the tragically underrated, 1996-elected, Basketball Hall of Famer has never […]

Football

Pinball Clemons bleeds the double blue

As I walk around field level of the SkyDome, excuse me, Rogers Centre, I start taking in the fact that just 10 yards away is the gridiron where such Canadian Football League greats as Doug Flutie, Damon Allen, Joe Theismann and Michael “Pinball” Clemons have all donned the Argo blue and won Grey Cup after […]