the boy who cried wolf...

There was a Shepherd Boy who tended his sheep at the foot of a mountain near a dark forest. It was lonely for him, so he devised a plan to get a little company. He rushed down towards the village calling out "Wolf, Wolf," and the villagers came out to meet him. This pleased the boy so much that a few days after he tried the same trick, and again the villagers came to his help. Shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out from the forest. The boy cried out "Wolf, Wolf," still louder than before. But this time the villagers, who had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was again lying, and nobody came to his aid. So the Wolf made a good meal off the boy's flock.

moral: A liar will not be believed, even when telling the truth.

i went to last night's game at the acc to watch the raptors take on the spurs. what an extremely BORING game. poor shooting, numerous turnovers, questionable refereeing and way too much milt pilacio and lamond murray. the raptors were actually leading the game heading into the 4th quarter, even managing without chris bosh who injured his ankle in the first half. then vince gets injured and, right then, ebrian and i knew that somehow the spurs were gonna pull this one out. of course, we were proven right!

when vince went down, it was truly an amazing sight. he had just taken a 3-pointer and then landed on someone's foot. he was rolling around, holding on to his ankle and probably screaming in pain. the play was still going on and everyone in the crowd (including the coach) was just yelling, "vince! get up!" finally, a timeout was called so the trainer could attend to vince. funny thing was all the other raptors just went back to the huddle. everyone's back was turned to him and kevin o'neill (the head coach) didn't even glance back. at the end of the timeout, jalen rose suddenly turns around and has this look of "oh yeah, vince is still there! maybe i should go see if he's ok." after 5-10 minutes, it was jerome 'bench warmer' moiso who helped vince to the dressing room. it was just as incredible to witness everyone's reaction in the arena. there was no buzz of concern, no gasp from the crowd. just silence. me and ebrian just looked at each other and chuckled…

now i have no doubt that when vince twists an ankle or pulls a quad, he's actually really in pain. and as we all found out today, vince was obviously not faking--he's probably out 2-4 weeks with a severely sprained ankle. however, i think everyone--the fans, the media, the refs, other players--is just tired of vince's act. plus, when he questions as to whether or not bruce bowen had purposely tried to hurt him, it’s comments like those that make him lose even more credibility as a ‘superstar’. even if there is some truth to what he said (‘cause bowen was actually playing him pretty rough), saying stuff like that only makes him look like a whiner. he exaggerates way too much and makes it look a lot worse than it is. if he actually played aggressively, stopped complaining, and played through some pain, he would earn the respect and, eventually, the calls. every time he takes a bump, he acts like he's been shot. every time he goes to the basket and gets hacked, he pleads with the refs for a foul (while the other team is scoring an easy bucket, of course!) every time he gets called out, he just says he wants to be one of the guys. the fact is: he's NOT. vince has these incredible skills and talent, the ability to out-jump anyone, and the knack to score in the clutch. however, his lack of leadership and toughness is causing everyone to start questioning whether or not he really is the 'franchise'.

don't get me wrong, i'm still a huge vince carter fan, but he'd better smarten up soon. otherwise, he's gonna get run out of town. toronto's basketball fans are pretty smart and knowledgeable (well, some of them, at least)--people are starting to see through the 'flash'. i hope KO's tough love act will have an effect on him. he needs to realize that he can't just rely on his God-given talents anymore. if vince truly believes that he can be as good as michael jordan, as he's once said, he's gotta work for it...

and so i digress...