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Friday October 3 - 1:08pm Eastern

Here’s the latest news from Carleton:

Joey Graham did not practice again today.  Right hamstring.  Day to day. 

Nathan Jawai was scheduled to see a cardiac specialist. 

Sam Mitchell is giving the guys the day off tonight – after putting them through two-a-days for the past 3 days. 

As you know, the Raptors will play an intra-squad game at Carleton tomorrow at 1pm.  The event is sold out – about 1500 tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes. After the game the Raps will head back to Toronto. 

Early word is Mitchell will give the guys the day off on Sunday.  They’ll be back in the gym on Monday, before flying to Cleveland for their first pre-season game on Tuesday.

JOSE ON D

I chatted with Jose Calderon today about how important it’s going to be for him to step it up on the defensive end this season.  He admitted that he has to be better.  He knows that it’s going to be different - facing the TOP point guards around the league each and every night.

Calderon said he worked on his D this summer, but he’ll still continue on the Raps being a strong defensive TEAM; so he can rely on his teammates too.  And, of course, communication and trust can make a difference on D as well … according to Jose.

Finally, the Spanish guard hinted that he thinks we could see the Raps throw out the odd zone D from time to time as well.

RAPTORS BACK ON THE FAN?

Yes, Jonesy and I will be back for all 82 during the regular season - and hopefully a long playoff run as well!  But the pre-season is a different story.  The FAN is the rights holder for Major League Baseball playoff games … so there are a ton of conflicts in October (nights where the Raptors play … and there’s a baseball playoff game scheduled as well).  So we’re at the mercy of the balls and strikes.

However, I just got word that we could have the Knicks and Raptors on the FAN next Wednesday, October 8, unless the White Sox and Rays go to Game 5.  If either team wins in 3 or 4, we’ll have New York and Toronto live at 7:00pm

SAMPSON’S JOURNEY

Even in the NBA, sometimes things happen last-minute. 

And that was surely the case with Jamal Sampson.

The big man told me today that he got a call from his agent last Saturday night … saying … “I need you in Toronto tomorrow morning”.  So, he woke up, hopped on a plane, and suddenly became a Raptor.

Sampson snapped his fingers and said the deal went down “like that” (basically, quickly … out of nowhere).  He hadn’t been in negotiations with Toronto; he didn’t know they were interested.

In fact, Sampson told me he was close to joining the Clippers … mulling a training camp invite from LA before getting the contract from the Raps.

E. Smith

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.