Deep Thoughts
The 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the curse of Toronto sports teams
A few random thoughts for National Learn About Butterflies Day. Which sounds rather serene and peaceful right about now ...
The Toronto Curse
The Toronto Arenas won the Stanley Cup in 1918. The Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1993. The Toronto Raptors won the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2019.
In 1919, the Stanley Cup wasn’t awarded because of a flu outbreak. In 1994, the World Series wasn’t played because of the players’ strike. Now there’s a good chance there will be no NBA champion this spring.
Next time a Toronto team wins anything, lay everything you have on a prop bet in Vegas that the next season will be cancelled. Works every time.
Not good
They’ve postponed the Masters? OK, this stuff just got serious.
A little good
On the flip side, it’s good the Boston Marathon has been delayed until September.
Which gives those of us non-runners more time to prepare.
You could try
The Around the Bay Road Race has also been put off or perhaps cancelled. Meaning every person reading this can claim nobody ran it faster than them this year. So there’s that.
Lighten up
A whole lot of people are taking shots at Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert for jokingly touching reporters’ microphones after an interview about coronavirus.
People, relax. He didn’t know he had it and had no reason to think he had it. It’s not like he was wracked with tuberculosis and went to a developing country where he intentionally coughed in peoples’ faces. He made a joke and by some cosmic fluke, happened to be the one guy in the entire league who couldn’t afford to do so.
The only people who should be slinging verbal arrows at him are the folks who’ve never done or said anything that at the time was done with innocent intent but later caused some second thoughts.
Your Question
Apropos of nothing, who was the shortest man ever to play in the NBA? Answer below.
Not ideal
At 10 a.m. on Friday — about 18 hours after the OHL season was postponed — the Hamilton Bulldogs fired off a Game Day tweet announcing they were “hitting the ice in Kingston tonight.” This would be the social media equivalent of taking an unnecessary tripping penalty in the offensive zone with a minute left in a tie playoff game.
Brilliant
That clearly doesn’t win tweet of the week. So what does?
The one saying it was tapped into a live feed of all TSN and Sportsnet channels. Attached to a GIF of one of those 24hour-a-day Christmas burning Yule log channels.
The best other 19s
In honour of COVID-19 (though honour might be the wrong word), who are the greatest athletes ever to wear No. 19?
1. Johnny Unitas
2. Willis Reed
3. Steve Yzerman
4. Tony Gwynn
5. Robin Yount
Great example
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love says he’ll be giving $100,000 to staff at the team’s arena so the workers who now have no work can get by. While some organizations — including Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment — have said they’ll pay their arena workers while games are mothballed, Love’s move is far-more impressive. Wouldn’t this be a perfect time for all millionaire athletes in every highly paid league to step up and show their humanity and demonstrate in an obvious way that they understand and appreciate their good fortune comes from the public and the people who do the grunt work to support them.
Good for Love. Now waiting for the rest.
Helping you out
Now that there are no sports on TV — save for the inevitable tsunami of poker, darts and best-play countdowns that’s about to fill our screens — it’s time to turn to Netflix, where there are enough sports-related movies and shows to get you through the weekend, at least.
The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, Munich and Icarus will all make you smarter. All three are great flicks based on real life.
The Blind Side will make you feel good.
Moneyball will make you wonder if baseball wasn’t better before it was completely overtaken by analytics. And The Natural is just one of the great baseball movies ever.
And if you need some local content, check out The Carter Effect by Hamilton’s Sean Menard. Terrific look at the impact Vince Carter had on basketball in Canada.
A local sidebar
If you watch Munich, pay particular attention to the opening scene. The four men who unwittingly help the Palestinian terrorists over the fence and into the Olympic compound were Canadians who thought the men were other athletes trying to get back to their dorm rooms.
Two off the four were Hamiltonians. David Hart was one and Robert Thompson — son of Jimmy Thompson for whom the local pool is named — was the other.
One more
One more recommendation. If you subscribe to Crave, try The Peanut Butter Falcon. It’s quirky for sure. But it is sort of a sports movie. And it is fun.
Your Answer
The shortest man ever to appear in the NBA was Muggsy Bogues who was 5foot-3.