Raptors game 7 series win

On Sunday May 15th the Toronto Raptors defeated the Miami Heat. It took 7 games to win the Conference Final. This is the first time in history that the Raptors made it to the Eastern Conference Final. Raptors are set to play the Cleveland Cavaliers who has yet to lose a game in the playoffs. Despite the Raptors beating the Cavs in the season series, the playoffs are a new start. Anything could happen in the Playoffs.

The Raps top players haven't played well yet, so the Raps are hoping that they have a break out series and play like they have shown they can. Also the Raptors big centre is still questionable to play game one on May 17th. The Cavs on paper are the better team but the Raps determination and no give up attitude might make a difference in this series. Also Cavs have home court advantage so that might play a part in this series. This Eastern Conference finals is shaping up to be a really good series and being a Raps fan I am excited to watch how it pans out.

As it often does, offense leads to defense and vice versa. When shots started to fall, when crashing the glass bore fruit, and when dives to the rim went rewarded, the Raptors became more engaged defensively. Biyombo switched out and did a much better job of containing the Heat's guards than he did on Friday. The Heat need paint points to win, and they didn't get enough in Game 7.

Toronto Blue Jays Early Season Slump

Although Blue Jays starting pitching has been above average, the fielding and the batting has not been up to par. Toronto has started the year with a record of 12-15. The Jays hitting has been a huge disappointment early on this season despite last years break out season. The Blue Jays hit a combined .269 with 232 long bombs. This year they are batting .229 with 31 homers. Clearly the hitting really needs to step up also the Jays are notorious for leaving runners on base. Something that the Jays have struggled with is getting runs in the late innings of the game. The Blue Jays always strike early. Then they could never score again in late innings.

In my opinion I think it is still early. The Jays have a lot of time to turn around there hitting and there season. It only takes one person to catch fire then the rest of the team will feed off of his hitting. Also last year they started the season slow, at the all-star break they were one game under 500 and then the second half of the season they started to get it going and started to come up to the top of the standings.

Dallas Stars Playoff push

The Dallas Stars entered the Stanley Cup playoffs as the first seed in Western Conference. Playing the second wild card team Minnesota Wild. Stars took the first 2 games easily but the third game the wild took game 3 at home. With the series heading back to Dallas, the stars looking for a win on home ice and they got it.  The Stars ended up winning the series 4-2 with a 5-4 win on Sunday.

The Stars winning this series despite having top forward and top points getter Tyler Seguin. Tyler Seguin is listed day-day with a deep cut on the ankle. As the Stars wait for the finale of the St. Louis Blue's vs Chicago Blackhawks series to end to see who they will play.

In my opinion I think the Stars have a realistic chance of the winning the Stanley Cup. Stars finished second place in the whole NHL in regular season. Therefore they have shown they can beat the best of the best so that's why I think they can win the Stanley cup.

  

Toronto Blue Jays upcoming season

Toronto Blue Jays will try to regain last seasons momentum onto this year as they kicked off the season opener yesterday with a 5-3 win against the Rays. This is a great start to what hopes to be a winning season. This is the year jays have to go for the jugular and win it all because some top players on the jays are unrestricted free agents and as you can see from last year head of baseball operations did not dish out the money to sign big name pitcher David Price. Big names that will be UFA's are Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnasion.

A lot of questions have been floating around saying if the Jays starting pitching rotation will be good enough to pitch against these great hitters. We defiantly know that Jays have the offense to compete but a lot relays on the starting rotation and the bullpen to win them games. This season should be interesting to see if jays can use there fan base and put them on there backs to big the world series north of the border.

In my opinion I think jays will make the playoffs but a lot relays on the bullpen and starting pitching. Also what goes unheard of is making deals and trades. The jays need to get pitching so they can have depth to there rotation. Head office has to come up big and pick up these players if they want to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Tiger Woods past catching up to him

Tiger Woods was considered one of the best golfer to ever play the game. Following his outstanding amateur and two-year college career, he soon turned pro at age 20 in 1996. April 1997 he won his first major, the 1997 Masters. He first reached number 1 position in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as World Number One. Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record eleven times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any player. Also 79 PGA Tour events. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity, but he and his wife Elin Nordegren eventually divorced. His many extramarital indiscretions were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011.He ended a career-high winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011.

From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity, but he and his wife Elin Nordegren eventually divorced. This incident struck a total downhill slide from his golf game. Woods was all over the media, rumours were floating around, he started to get older which did not help his golf game. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011. He had a career-high winless streak of 107 weeks. April 2014 Woods would undergo back disc surgery and has struggled since to regain his dominant form. By March 29, 2015, Woods had fallen to #104, outside of the top 100 for the first time since the week prior to his first Tour title win in 1996.

People would say and facts back it up, when Woods was in his prime he was the most dominate golfer to ever play the game. But in my opinion his life outside of golf is what hurt him. If he could of stayed the golfer he was and kept a clean rep he wouldn't be recognized as a washed up has been with a bad rep. Woods had potential to be named the best golfer to ever play the game but he messed that up with his personal life.

My own worst enemy

Allen Iverson became his own worst enemy by being cocky in front of the media. To add on to that he was also young and he had done nothing yet and he was already starting to have an ego. Allen was in high school and he was already one of the top basketball prospects in America. Allen Iverson went to Bethel High school in Hampton Virginia and was a duel sport athlete. He earned the Associated Press High School Player of the Year award in both football and basketball, and won the Division AAA Virginia state championship in both sports. After high school Iverson attended Georgetown University for two years. He set a school record for average points per game (22.9) and the Big East Defensive player of the year award, both years. Following two successful years at Georgetown, Iverson declared eligibility for the 1996 NBA draft, and was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the first overall pick. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season.

Not taking anything away from Allen Iverson. But he made some choices in his young career that made himself his own worst enemy. Iverson has been in and out of jail. When he was a teen he was sentenced to 10 months in prison for a bowling alley fight. Some would say he was in the fight and others would say he wasn't, but all in all he was sentenced to jail time. Iverson has spent time behind bars 2 other times as well. This is not only why he was his worst enemy. When he was young he was an amazing athlete, this is why he was starting to build an ego like he was the best in the business. Don't get me wrong he was but the way he conducted himself in press conferences and media scrums was not gentleman like.

This is why I think Allen Iverson was his worst enemy. If he didn't have such a big ego and he was humble to the media he would have been much more well respected. I truly think Iverson was the top 5 best basketball players of all time but the things he did off the court made him not respected. This is why every second matters and if you mess up your respect from others will plummet. You can truly be your worst enemy like Allen Iverson was.

NHL trade "dead"line

This years NHL trade deadline was not one to remember. In prior years the deadline had big names like Brad Richards, Marian Hossa and Marian Gaborik. But now a days teams are scared to trade away the big name players and receive big name players because of cap space. With big name trades it makes the NHL more interesting and enjoying to follow. But now with no big name trades the trade deadline is not interesting anymore.
 

In my opinion there are two types of teams. The buyers and the sellers. The buyers are willing to take in players with high salary because of there financial situation. Then there is the sellers, the sellers are willing to sell big name and high salary players because they are trying to get rid of cap space. Or maybe they are on a rebuild and they want the big name big salary players to go to a better team so that they can get there prospects up to play in the NHL. Therefore that's why I think the NHL trade deadline would be more interesting if teams weren't scared to trade top players to other teams in exchange for prospects and additional players.  

NBA All-star Game

NBA All-star Game

Sunday February 14th the city of Toronto hosted the NBA all-star game. Not only was it the first NBA all-star game hosted outside of the USA, it was the first all-star game Toronto hosted. There was a major hype about all-star weekend prior to the event but when it finally came, Toronto lived up to all of it's hype. This weekend was huge for all the NBA players but one in specific this was his final all-star game of his career. Kobe Bryant made his 18th and final All-Star appearance after getting the fan vote to start, and the night catered to him. He was the last player introduced, received the loudest and longest applause at Air Canada Centre, and received a send-off from Magic Johnson before the game as a Kobe video tribute played. Both squads gave him a standing ovation. Bryant finished with 10 points, after a few playful one-on-one contests with James. The most meaningful line from Kobe is that he played the most minutes on the West. He received a standing ovation when he left the game with 1:06 left. When Kobe left the game he got a warm round of applause from the Toronto faithful. In other news Paul George dropped 41 points, one point shy of Wilt Chamberlain's single game all-star game record of 42 points. The West ended up winning over the East by the score of 196-173. Russell Westbrook won the MVP award for the second straight season, becoming the first player to do so.

 

This All-star game was huge for the city of Toronto in my opinion because it shows that the city is capable to host a huge event. Also they didn't just host it they hosted it with a great fan base and a lot of celebrities. I don't think the players minded coming to Toronto for the All-star game, I think they had a great time. There was a lot of question if Toronto was the right city to host it, but I they hit the ball out of the park. With guest host Drake being there when the players got introduced and being court side for the game and many other celebrities being there really put the cherry on top of the whole weekend.

 

Dion Phaneuf

Dion Phaneuf Trade

 

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a 9 player trade with Ottawa which includes Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf. The Leafs captain along with Cody Donaghey, Casey Bailey, Matt Frattin and Ryan Rupert are shipping off to Ottawa for exchange for Milan Michalek, Colin Greening, Tobias Lindberg, Jared Cowen and a second-round draft pick in 2017. Dion’s 49 million dollar contact many thought would scare away teams because of cap space. Greening, 29, has spent all of this season in the AHL. But has 256 NHL appearances for the Ottawa Senators. Cowen, 25, has 4 assists in 37 games this season with the Senators. Lindburg, 20, playing in the AHL, was the Senators 4^th round pick in 2013. Michalek, who has six goals and four assists in 32 games this season. The 31-year-old former first-round pick for San Jose.

Personally, I think leafs won this trade. They cleared up cap space so they can make room for Steven Stamkos. Having Dion being the captain this sets the stage for the Laefs to give Steven a blank cheque and the captaincy. With Leafs being on a rebuild I think Lou Lameriello made the right decision moving Dion to acquire a second round pick in 2017 and some young prospects. This means Leafs won’t be a strong team for the rest of this season so they will have a good chance of having one of the top three picks in the draft. Which means they can land top prospects like Austin Mathews, Patric Laine and Jesse Puljujärvi. With moving Dion from the backend the young defenseman have to step up and log heavy minutes like Dion did. These young players on the Leafs will have to step up and show Mike Babcock that they deserve a spot on the team next year.

Overall I think this trade will impact the Leafs in a positive way because they are on a tear down and rebuild. So this trade is a step forward for the Leafs. I think upper management knows what they are doing. Brendan Shanahan and Lou Lameriello have a lot of knowledge and background on the game of hockey so I think Leaf fans should have some trust on what they are doing. A rebuild does not happen overnight, it takes about 2-4 years. Therefore Leaf a fans need to have some patience because they will be losing more than they are winning.