TIMING OF NASH INDUCTION WAS TWO YEARS TOO LATE
Can you imagine the Hockey Hall of Fame not electing Crosby at his first eligibility?
One of the greatest athletes in Canadian history — and you can argue maybe the greatest — was elected to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame the other day, two years after he first became eligible.
It barely made a headline that Steve Nash, two-time MVP in the NBA, is part of the Hall of Fame class of 2020 that includes Willie O’ree, Sheldon Kennedy and Diane Jones Konihowski — just as it barely made a headline he was passed over the first two years he was eligible.
That may say more about the relative obscurity of the Canadian Hall and little about the career brilliance of Nash, who would be on a very short and special list with Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Ferguson Jenkins, Donovan Bailey, Lennox Lewis, Lionel Conacher and Christine Sinclair as the best ever in this country.
The absence of Nash in each of the past two years didn’t raise a ripple of noise or argument because, frankly, nobody seemed to notice. Can you imagine the Hockey Hall of Fame not electing Sidney Crosby on his first time of eligibility?
The rather odd reason Nash was elected now was apparently he’s available to appear at their next event, which is scheduled for 2021. And he wasn’t available the past two years?
Nash is the right addition to the Hall, just at the wrong time.
Should have happened two years ago.
It wasn’t easy to build a relationship with Roy Halladay. He wasn’t welcoming. He wasn’t necessarily friendly or trusting. He was tightly wound and in fact, at times, he intimidated the younger pitchers on his own team when he was with the Blue Jays.
I watched the E60 Halladay documentary and have read portions of the book, Doc, recently written by Todd Zolecki.
All I felt afterwards was sadness and understanding.
We may think we know the athletes we write about and every once in a while we do — but for the most part it’s largely superficial. We don’t really know who they are, we don’t know what’s inside of them, we don’t know how they get through their days and what their lives are like.
We know how they perform. We know their statistics. And we can bring you that story with all kinds of interpretations.
In the Halladay documentary, with so much honesty and pain from his widow, Brandy, it was easy to understand the brilliance of the pitcher, the challenges he had with daily life and the complications of the circumstances that took over his life and led to his death. It was difficult to watch and impossible to miss.
I wish they had interviewed
Pat Hentgen and Chris Carpenter. I wanted to hear from them.
Every year, the question surrounds Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen. How many games should he play to be properly rested for the playoffs? Well, guess what? He’ll be properly rested now. Assuming NHL playoffs resume in August, Andersen will have had more than four months off between starts of significance. Plenty of rest, I say . ... This is a quality contract: The Blue Jackets have Seth Jones, an elite defenceman, under contract for two more years at US$5.4 million a year — just a touch more than the Leafs pay Morgan Rielly. Both players become free agents at the end of the 2022 season. If he was a free agent now, Jones would be paid $8 million or more a year.
... I don’t care where the NHL games will be played. I don’t care which cities are hub cities. This gets way too much conversation. I want to see games. I’m fine with playoff hockey on August nights and maybe afternoons, no matter what the format is, no matter what city they play in . ... It should have been easy for the NBA.
Top 8 should make the playoffs in each conference and no one else. Except the NBA wants Zion Williamson and Damian Lillard playing. At least for a while. They should start up with 1st vs. 8th, which is usually not much of a battle to begin with. But they’ll extend, mostly to get Williamson some games.
And to think, all Colin Kaepernick did was take a knee . ... In university, I wrote a political science paper making the case for the merger of Canada and the United States, taking out the borders, having one currency and one set of laws. Looking back, I drank and smoked way too much in university . ... The world has made me sad and confused in recent weeks. In recent days I have no words of consolation for what has become of North America. In 2020 aren’t we supposed to be better than this ? ... As always, impressive: the words of Dwane Casey, Tony Dungy, Brian Flores, black men in America, significant men of professional sports, speaking out at a time when significant men need to be heard.
I made a statement. I am next for the title. To beat the former champion the way I did, I just showed up.