Pete Marasmitch: I enjoyed your hair-raising piece, a.k.a. Bryan Colangelo’s Personal Vendetta. How goes the faux-hawk? Are you sporting the fedora, 24-7?

Eric Koreen: The faux-hawk lives. (Although I’m writing this a few days before the season starts. I could have evened it out by the time this is published.) I have worn a hat just once, and am now pretty comfortable with it. I don’t like it, but I’ve made my peace. Amir Johnson told me he did me a favour, while Sherman Hamilton told me about three weeks after the cut that the hair was at the ideal length. (Although, perhaps I should not be putting too much stock into Sherm’s thoughts on hair.) And if I do cut my hair soon, it will be legitimate: Johnson cut his hair a week before the season started, although he did apologize to me for leaving me hanging.

PM: In your behind-the-scenes view of the Raptors, what are some things about the players, coaches, management, etc., that might surprise the average fan? (Feel free to counter-attack B.C. and Amir Johnson.)

EK: There’s not much I can share here that’s particularly interesting, but I will say that Johnson, derided for his work ethic in the past, has stayed late almost every day of the pre-season. Maurizio Gherardini likes his dark humour, and is kind of the feet-on-the-ground yang to Colangelo’s always-hopeful yin. There is also far less defiant nudity in a basketball locker room than in a hockey or soccer locker room, and I’m fine with that.

PM: Please share a funny anecdote from your time as a beat writer.

EK: Jose Calderon has a reputation as a mundane quote, and that’s fair. Players don’t owe us anything, and I certainly don’t hold this against a player like Calderon, especially considering English is not his first language. But that doesn’t mean he’s devoid of personality. Two seasons ago, during the winter that featured unrelenting snow, Calderon was late for a game. When he arrived, he went on a two-minute rant about how drivers in this city over-react to snow, driving cautiously well past the point of necessity. He was not mean-spirited; I’ve never seen him be a jerk. But he was certainly enthused by our inability to cope with the conditions as a city, and it was damned entertaining.

PM: Do you regret missing the Sam Mitchell years? What nickname would he have given you?

EK: I didn’t miss all of the Mitchell years. I became full time in January 2008, so I got 11 months of Smitch — minus the summer, of course. It wasn’t quite enough time for us to form much of a coach-reporter relationship as he had with Doug Smith or Michael Grange, but I think he called me Goldilocks a few times. He was half-right. 

PM: Who are your sleepers from this edition of the Raptors, and why?

EK: With the nature of the Raptors’, errr, fervent fanbase, and the amount of money Colangelo tossed around this summer, I’m not sure anybody on this roster can be considered a sleeper. But my favourite thing the Raptors did this summer was sign Jarrett Jack. Their second unit was just brutal last year, and Jack is poised, and up to this point in his career, he has been productive.

One of my biggest problems with this team, as constituted, is the lack of offensive punch off the bench. I think they hope Marco Belinelli would fill that role, but I was not impressed with his pre-season body of work, and remain unsold. They’ll need someone to contribute offensively off the bench, other than Jack. I like Antoine Wright’s demeanour, but I’m not sure that’s him.

PM: What were the events that led you to become a beat writer for the National Post? Did you ever seriously consider a different career?

EK: To answer the second question first, ever since I about 16 or 17, I had tunnel vision toward sports reporting. As somebody who grew up in Toronto when the Raptors were just starting, as far as beat reporting goes, this is as good as it gets for me. I’m not sure I want to be in sports for 20 more years, but there are more good days than bad days on this job, and I think that’s better than most people can say.

As for how I got here, I started as an editorial assistant as The Canadian Press when I was 18, the summer after my first year at university (Ryerson, journalism). I did that for a year and a half’s worth of weekends (nothing good happens on weekends in university, right?), and then quit, had a miniature life crisis, then got a job at the Post sports section, doing a little bit of everything. I hung around there for a while, long enough for them to gain some trust in me, and I spent six weeks in the winter of 2007  interning there, which meant far more chances to write, including some Raptors stuff.

After I finished school (not to mention an appendicitis scare; I started the Toronto sports year of appendicitis in which Andrea Bargnani and Roy Halladay also suffered from the same ailment) I interned for the Post for the summer. I stayed on in a freelance role, and Matthew Sekeres, who was briefly the Raptors reporter, left the Post in around November to go be the Globe’s sports guy in Vancouver. I got the job at that point. (Matt recommended me, so I owe him a thank you.)

PM: Who are you most excited about in your Raptors FANtasy team lineup, and why?

EK: Durant! I co-run a keeper fantasy league with some friends, and I drafted Durant in the fourth round of his rookie season. He has been on my team for the last two years, and he is the only player in the league I can no longer write objectively about. (I’m joking about that. Kind of.)

Elsewhere, I thought getting Caron Butler in the third round was good, and Troy Murphy in the fourth round was absurd value. It’s easy not to like his game, but he was a points-rebounds double-double last year, with 45% three-point shooting. That last number will probably go down, but still, I was very pleased with that pick. I keep waiting for Al Horford to blow up, and that could happen this year. I was excited to get Allen Iverson as low as I got him. It’s a risky pick, but so is anything in the 10th round. If one of D.J. Augustin and Mike Conley has a good year, I think I have a chance, although I’m not sure I have the requisite hustle stats. That’s always my blind spot.

PM: You talk a lot about TV in your personal blog (A Snack and an Ego Stroke) and on Twitter (@ekoreen). What are your favourite shows? How do you feel about the final season of Lost?

EK: Oh, how you’re going to regret asking me that question. My two favourite shows on television are Friday Night Lights (inside every cynical sportswriter is a beating heart that is dying to feel good about athletes and coaches; FNL feeds that, and gives interesting portrayals of small-town life, too) and Chuck (as far as I know, it’s the only comedy-action-romance-straight-up-drama hybrid with unremitting ’80s pop culture references on television.) Yes, I suppose I’m doomed to love poorly rated shows. I also enjoy new comedies Community and Modern Family. I liked a pair of little-seen comedies from last year, Better Off Ted and Party Down, as well as stalwarts How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock. If we’re talking all-time (or at least this decade), I loved both Veronica Mars (Buffy with a little more heart and more propulsive serialization) and like everyone else, The Wire. The latter has kind of ruined cable shows for me. The Wire is great, but so much effort was required for it to really kick in that I’m just too lazy to give Mad Men or Breaking Bad a chance. I know they’ll be great, but I feel like I need to clear my schedule for a month to give them a shot.

As for Lost, I’m a fan, although not a huge one. The only season I can say I really loved was the fourth. They changed up the formula just enough, but were still telling compelling character stories that year. I like my cult television, but the sci-fi-ness of Season 5 sort of lost me. And I stand by the notion that Seasons 2 and 3 were kind of a waste of time.

I think Lost is more plot-driven at this point than character-driven, and that’s perhaps why I can’t embrace it as much as people seem to think I should. (And I don’t think many of the characters are that compelling; the only two I really care about are Desmond and Penny. Sun and Jin used to be in that group, but they’ve been too de-emphasized lately. I also think Ben is one of the more overrated characters in TV history; he’s more of a plot device than a character, but that’s a whole different conversation.)

Despite all of that, I’m hopeful for this season. I’m positive they’ve left themselves with too little time to address all the questions they’ve asked. But there should be enough time to resolve the major questions as well as give resolutions for the main characters. As long as they have the guts not to end with an abrupt fade to black, I’ll be good.

PM: Thanks, Eric. Looking forward to our Week 2 fantasy matchup. Go, Channing Frye!

Don’t forget to check out A Snack and an Ego Stroke, @ekoreen, and Eric’s work at the National Post.

First Scott Carefoot wondered, and now Doug Smith chimes in on the Curious Case of Roko Ukic. Both make some good points.

The former:

I’m not saying that Ukic is a future All-Star, but he is a compelling prospect and it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Calderon has several significant flaws that he’ll probably never overcome. Plus, Ukic is just plain fun to watch — and if the Raptors are going to lose anyway, I’d at least like to have something enjoyable to watch and write about as the team’s death spiral continues. [...]

This isn’t about tanking — well, not entirely. Jose has a sore hammy so I don’t see the point in continuing to give him so many minutes when there is absolutely no chance of this team making the playoffs. Ideally, the Raptors would just have Calderon sit out the rest of the season. If that’s not going to happen, then Ukic should at least be splitting minutes with him over the remaining 18 games. Let’s see if his amazing performance against the Spurs last month was a fluke.

And the latter:

Finding out whether Ukic can play – and I think he’ll eventually be a solid rotation contributor – was one of the keys to this season and finding him a consistent 12-15 minutes a night was going to do that. [...]

Yes, Anthony Parker has done a good job as the backup point guard most games and it’s a role he might play next season. But that’s only if he comes back and that’s not a certainty. I don’t know how much they’ll want to pay him, I have no idea if some European team might throw enough money at him to send him back over there but the simple fact is Ukic is under contract next year and Parker isn’t.

And as Eric Koreen noted:

After Bosh and Bargnani, the most reliable fourth-quarter performer on this team might be Roko Ukic, the backup point guard.

That probably speaks to the Raptors’ lack of depth as much as it does Roko’s skillset. Nevertheless, isn’t this another compelling reason to give Roko more minutes?

***************

Now, looking at the future:

Sami Asad wants to see Steve Nash in Toronto. Who doesn’t, eh? But with Jose, Roko and Marcus Banks already under contract, how would this work?

Robert Seagal says, Move Banks to the two-guard slot:

Between Ukic and Banks you have a speedy, defensively sound back court which truly [complements] each other. At 6?5, Ukic is a point guard in a shooting guard’s body, while at 6?2 Banks is a shooting guard in the body of a point guard.

By taking the ball out of Banks’ hands on offense and giving it to either Anthony Parker or Roko Ukic, the Raptors could turn Banks’ career around much like Colangelo and D’Antoni did for Boris Diaw in Phoenix.

Sure, that sounds great. However, as mentioned in Banks’ Ultimate Scouting Report, he’s been through this before with the Phoenix Suns. It’s not so much position, but desire – he ain’t got none.

***************

And now for something completely different.

Another nickname – now over a dozen! – for Roko:

Horseface Killa (via Raptors Republic via Hoop Heads North)

And courtesy of PH, another nickname for Roko:

“Hot Cocoa.”

I hope that Jeff is usual with a more or less regularly. The truth is that it is a real pleasure to have a point of view from North America.

This present brings a smile and good spirits … an amusing figure from Copy-You.com. Each one of them is a personalized three dimensional caricature with exaggerated facial features as well as a typified figure and accessories. The unique product will be individually hand-made within a few days of the photograph being uploaded.

Whether for a car driver or a motorcycle rider, or related to various professions or sports [Pete's note: including b-ball]: there are over 500 figure designs available from all walks of everyday life, the most fitting of which can be simply selected.

[...]

As an option, many of the figures are also available with so called “bobble heads” or with a personal message on the base.

To show my acceptance of his apology/acknowledgement, I am signing my posts for this season as Jeffrey Manuel Wong. Have a productive, healthy year, fellow middle-Manuel.

Speaking of Raptor point guards, there’s a new King in the NBA: Will “King” Solomon. I’ll be happy enough if he’s simply the new AP.