June 29, 2005

Charlie Brown

Tonight I went to the Raptors Draft Party. Kenric and I went last year and it was a fairly sparse crowd compared to this year. I think word got around about the free food and booze. The news of free booze travels fast :)

This year we went with a few others, I'm not sure who's friends they were. Anyway, we had a fairly good time. Miller Genuine Draft is pretty good. We lined up for chicken drums that were massive. I mean MASSIVE. They were bigger than the wings from Local Heroes in Ottawa.

Raptors went into the draft looking for a big man and a point guard. They went about it in a round-about way, but ended up with what they wanted.

Tonight confirmed in my mind that the average Raptor fan doesn't have a clue. There were people there who hadn't even heard of Charlie Villanueva, and many fans appeared to want Gerald Green. In fact I'm willing to wager that if we had picked *anyone* other than Green at either of the picks, the fans would have booed the pick.

I won't lie, I wanted Gerald Green too. I don't think he'll be a *great* player, but he'd sell tickets and Raptors need that too. However, a winning team will sell tickets more than a dunker, in the long run. I would have prefered SF Danny Granger though.

There was excessive booing of all sorts when we picked up PF Charlie Villanueva. I'll agree that we took him earlier than expected, however if you look at the way the draft was going, he wouldn't have been available at 16. Teams were drafting big. Anyone who has played fantasy football knows that you don't want to be on the tail end of an RB run.

Btw, I learned that CV has a disease (not rare) which explains his odd look.. the pale skin and no eyebrows, etc.

I'm tired now but will comment further when I get a chance.

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