Wayne Parrish, Steve Nash and Rowan Barrett: all smiles at the end of the announcement
NBA: Team Canada’s Men: General Manager Steve Nash, Vice-President Rowan Barrett and new Head Coach Jay Triano were excited by the response of the Men’s National Basketball team’s first training camp in late August. Former Olympians, coaches and Canadians playing in the NBA as well as future elite players of high school and college age were all of the same mind – preparing a team that will compete at the World Championships in 2014 and the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Compete is the key word – show that Canadians can play basketball and can win. Thirty players participated in the five-day camp. Canada’s senior men did not qualify for the 2004, 2008 or 2012 Olympics and were winless at the 2010 World Championships. Coach Triano said that the commitment is high – players are enthusiastic and the fact that they are also talented is a bonus. Team Canada has to prepare to qualify for the 2014 Worlds being held in Spain next summer and all agree lots of work needs to be done. As for the 2016 Olympics, only 12 countries can qualify and the new crop of players along with the coaching and administration staff believe that with hard work and determination that goal will be reached.
Telecommunication giants Rogers and Bell have completed their purchase of 75% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The CRTC cleared the last remaining hurdle August 15th when they signed off on the $1.32 billion deal. Rogers with Bell holds 75% of the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey team, Toronto Raptors NB team, Toronto Marlies (Junior hockey), Toronto FC (Soccer) as well as real estate and TV properties – Leafs TV, NBA TV Canada, GOL TV and Services – Mainstream Sports and Live Music Channel. MLSE Chairman Larry Tannenbaum holds the remaining 25%.
Games: CBC/Radio-Canada is on a roll. Jeffrey Orridge, Head of CBC Sports said of the recent winning bid for the 2015 Pan American Games – “the deal positions us well for a revenue-positive outcome”. CBC/Radio-Canada also has media rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Boxing: Boxer/Barber (sort of) Denton Daley is a cruiserweight boxer. He also has a degree in Business and operates two barbershops in Brampton. He opened the shops and staffed them with several high school buddies who can do what he can’t and that is cut hair. “I don’t have those skills,” he says. Boxing is a different matter – with a professional record of 7-0 (his latest victory was a TKO against Jason Douglas on September 8th), he boxes because he loves the sport and the competition. Growing up in the tough Regent Park area of Toronto, he credits his Mom for providing all the necessities after his father died at an early age. He now lives in Cambridge, Ontario close to his Kitchener trainer Syd Vanderpool. Admittedly he began his career late at age 25 (he’s now 30) and he turned pro only three years ago but he hopes to get more matches that will further his boxing career.
Men Will Be Boys – For charity: Two doctors, Dr. Mark Miller, Chief of Family Practice and Dr. Paul Medve, Chief of ER were attending a Christmas party at their place of employment – Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe, Ontario. While conversing, their talk escalated to hyperbolic fight talk – who could beat the other, etc. etc. They agreed to take it to the boxing ring for the final decision of who’s the toughest. And that’s what they did in July at an event dubbed “the World Physician Heavyweight Boxing Championship held at Green and Renton Golf Course. Because Miller is Black from Alberta and Medve is White from Pennsylvania, they fuelled the match further by adding “jokingly” Black/White, Canadian/American. Finally after weeks of hype and non-stop trash talk, the two overweight (Miller 262 pounds, Medve 226 pounds) 50-year olds stepped into the ring to blaring rock music and huffed and puffed their way through three 2-minute rounds until the final bell. The winner “Mayhem Miller” who said he thought his technique was better. He preened around the ring showing off his new Heavyweight belt, which displayed the Rod of Asciepius, the universal Greek symbol associated with healing the sick through medicine – but he waved off the challenge for a rematch from “Mad Dog” Medve saying he didn’t want to come that close to death again. As for “Mad Dog” he returned to work Monday morning nursing a fractured ego along with some sore muscles and said, “I can make all the excuses I want but I just didn’t do it”. The event was expected to raise about $2,000 for the hospital.
