ESPN's Stephen A. Smith apologizes to Canada for counting out Raptors | RAPTORS

What a difference it is to change from the the nhl game to the Raptors with 5 minutes left in their games. The noise and excitment just about scares you.

I guess Bismak's leaning on Lebron is having an effect.

Well, that and the Cavalier's complete sense of overconfidence in their infalability which, is now being proven to be nothing more than a marketing mirage.

Now all the Raptors have to do is steal one in the self professed, Rock and Roll Capital of the world and they're inboard.

Is there a smile any bigger, in any other sport than Bismack's Lebron looks like a giant on the floor until you put another giant on him.

They say Valanciunas is close to coming back, Casey has to start Bismack, let JV come in off the bench for at least one more game or as they say until there is no tomorrow.

Don't rock the boat.

Lebron wasn't thumping his chest or punching on his bicep after this block.

Who would have thought last fall that we might be seeing an OKC/Toronto NBA Championship.

When you say "...so I wouldn't have to go back to Canada" in an apology to Canadians, it isn't really an apology, is it? Asshole.

Something the NBA brass doesn't want to see.

Something the NBA brass doesn't want to see.

Wouldn't that be great payback for those thuds giving us Gary Bettman.

I've honestly tried my hardest to like basketball....so I could fit in and join the bandwagon. Plus I often get offered free Raptors tickets, which I've only accepted twice.

But I can't. I just can't. It's just the dumbest sport to watch.

I'm sorry, I really am.

Same here. I appreciate that other people are fans and why they like it. I just can't get into it myself. The sports I pay attention to are Hockey, Football (CFL & NFL), Soccer, Tennis, Curling, and Golf. Do not care about anything else.

That said, I wish the Raptors luck so that those who do cheer them on get something out of it. The loss tonight looked pretty bad.

Yeah, I hear that. Some time ago I was picking up a friend at Union Station. I got there a little early so decided to take a look inside the ACC to see what it looked like in person. Some big, dumb security guard blocks the entry into the arena proper and says, "I can't let you in without a ticket." I looked past him at an entirely empty arena and said, "For what?" He told me there was a basketball game that evening and that I needed a ticket to get past. I replied, "Dude, I just want to see what the place looks like. I could care less about the Raptors. I wouldn't watch a basketball game if you gave me a free ticket."

Also not a fan of a sport where as soon as you get an updated score it's already changed, twice!

But I have to disagree with your claim that it's the dumbest sport to watch. Without a doubt that dubious honour belongs to baseball. A sport so mind-numbing boring that it's referred to as Americas Favourite Past-time. If I'm suffering from insomnia it takes less than an inning of baseball to put me to sleep.

I went to the Raptors game twice (for free as I mentioned) because people kept saying "oh, go to a real game, you'll see it's fun!" So I went and it was boring. I went a second time when the opportunity came up again, just to be sure.

Bounce-bounce-dunk. Bounce-bounce-dunk. 90 to 100 times in the 60-minute game one team or the other made the ball go bounce-bounce-dunk. And 90 to 100 times the crowd cheered as if something unexpected and momentous had happened. That works out to a bounce-bounce-dunk and wild cheers every 1 minute and 40 seconds of play. Sometimes the ball went bounce-bounce-swish, which made the crowd even more ecstatic. I guess if you're a person who just likes to join the crowd, then you have lots of opportunity to do so, but I just felt like Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, although sadly there was no big strong Indian with a pillow to put me out of my misery.

It's actually helped me to understand that unlike most other sports, Basketball isn't really about the scoring, it's just a big game of keep-away, with the baskets there as a crude measure of how effective a team has been at holding on to the ball. So it's more about the clever passing, the stealing and the "nice moves" they pull off in order to keep/steal the ball. But there's only so much of that I can watch before I get bored and it all looks the same, and there's so much movement on such a crowded court that the 'nice move' has come and gone without you being able to get a good look and before you even realized what it was you saw.

My sentiments exactly, Iv'e always thought the game should be called 'basketcaseball'.