Thanks to Lord Bettman’s stubborn ways basketball takes center stage in Toronto, although there’s no hope in hell they’re changing the name of their condos from Maple Leaf to Raptors Square.  And in true Maple Leaf fashion, the Raps imploded down the stretch losing their home opener to Indiana 90-88.  Toronto couldn’t buy a bucket for over four minutes, while soon to be filthy rich DeMar DeRozan missed an easy layup with 22 seconds to go.

       I still don’t have a good sense of what to expect from this year’s crop of dinosaurs.  Some so called experts say the team will finish as high as sixth in the east.  Some say they’ll be lucky to win 10 games.  There are seven new guys on the club.  Three new starters.  And a green horn rookie at center in Jonas Valanciunas.  How long it’ll take them to gel as a team and buy into Dwayne Casey’s defensive strategy is anybody’s guess.

       In the meantime, if you are a diehard Leaf fan why don’t you give hoops a try?  They’ll still gouge you 12 bucks for a beer and 30 bucks to park.  It’s just like going to see your hockey heroes, right down to the way they lose.