Did not get to see last night’s game as I’m on the road on another assignment, but as wins go I guess you could call it necessary, right?
You’re playing a team missing two starters and playing the second night of a back-to-back and you don’t win and you have some serious issues. That they allowed Detroit to come back in the fourth quarter and pull within a point has to be a concern, as the fact that they’ve allowed an average of 107.5 points a games and rank 29th in defensive efficiency. On a positive note the Raptors are now third in the NBA in offensive efficiency, so take the wins where you can.
Anyway, I also missed the Oak love-in. I’m all for celebrating 15 years of Raptors history, but it’s kind of slim pickings, isn’t it? As quotable as Oak was, his grumpiness was misplaced, given that the worst three full seasons of his career were in a Raptors uniform. In his last season he shot 39.9 per cent from the floor, yet he had bamboozled the Raptors into paying him $21-million over his three years in Toronto beginning at age 35. And people think Colangelo might have overpaid for Jarrett Jack? I always thought Oak should have been laughing all the way to the bank. Maybe he was.
Anyway, I got a call yesterday from Oak’s business manager Billy Diamond who wanted to tell me a pretty funny story about how Oak almost didn’t become a Raptor.
Seems Oak wasn’t very happy about coming to Canada. The Raptors were the NBA’s version of Siberia and coming off that epic 16-66 season, he was probably right. As the exiled toast of New York, Oak was sincerely grumpy when he pulled up to the border crossing on his way to training camp, driving up from his home in Cleveland. He’s rolling in a black BMW with tinted windows, stuffed to the gills with whatever belongings he might need to make the Royal York Hotel feel like home away from home.
The border guards are curious maybe even suspicious and Oak gets questioned. He tells them he’s on his way to play for the Raptors, but that doesn’t quite cut it. They want to see his work papers and documentation etc., but Oak doesn’t have it. They search the BMW. Tens of thousands of dollars of suits only Oak and the Ohio Players could wear are being rifled through, and who knows what else.
He’s mad. He calls his agent. “This is bull***, call (then Raptors GM) Glen Grunwald, F*** this! I’m not coming up there, I’m turning around right now.”
Diamond calls Grunwald, who in turn gets pumping on trying to find out how to get a very angry, very big, power forward admitted to Canada. On a Sunday.
Diamond calls Oak and asks him to sit tight, be patient, it will get sorted out in an hour or so.
Oak: “F*** that, I’m going back to Cleveland.”
Diamond convinces Oak to sit tight, but Oak decides he wants to use the time wisely. He wants to work out.
“He says find me a gym, otherwise I’m turning around and going back to Cleveland.”
Diamond remembers he knows a college player at the University of Buffalo and calls him up on a Sunday afternoon. “Can you find a place for Charles Oakley to work out?”
“Serious?
“Yeah.”
The kid gets the key to the gym and the University of Buffalo and off Oak goes.
Two hours past, no word from Oak, meanwhile Grunwald has sorted out the issue at the border.
Where’s Oak?
“Long story short,” says Diamond. “Oak lifted for an hour, shot for an hour and then took the kid, Rassan Young, out to eat, He finally calls back, he’s all happy [for Oak] and everything is good to go.
"Typical Charles.”
International incident averted, Oak heads to Toronto, and a unique era in Canadian basketball history begins.
