Tim Bontemps is saying things on the internet again. He says Ja Morant will not be a member of the Miami Heat and he will not be a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. It is a very specific type of certainty (the kind you get when you are sure where a car is not parked but still have no idea where you left your keys).
I wonder if Ja Morant knows this yet. The league is full of places where people are not (and I suppose that is logically sound). Most of us are not in Miami or Milwaukee right now. We are here, looking at our phones, wondering if the wind off Lake Ontario is personally offended by our existence.
The Architect and the All-Stars
Bobby Webster has been the General Manager for almost ten years. That is a long time to do anything, especially a job that involves listening to trade calls and eating expensive salads. People are starting to say we should hold him accountable for the roster (instead of just blaming the owners or Masai Ujiri).
It is a strange thing to be a General Manager. You make a choice and then three years later someone at a bus stop in Etobicoke decides they hate you for it. Bobby is the head of basketball operations, and the operations have been... occurring. It is his kitchen, even if we are the ones who have to eat the soup.
Speaking of things we are consuming, the All-Star voting results are out. Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram are sitting at 10th and 11th. It is like being the person who almost won a free blender at a raffle. You were there, you had a ticket, but you are still just going home to a kitchen that lacks a blender.
The Klaw Returns (Briefly)
Kawhi Leonard is hosting a youth basketball clinic and says he wants to give back to Toronto. This is nice, I think. It is like when an ex-boyfriend offers to help you move a heavy couch (even though he moved to California six years ago and has a whole new life).
He gave us a championship once. Now he is giving clinics. The progression feels natural, or at least as natural as anything else in this sport. Basketball is just a series of events that happen until the buzzer sounds and we all go back to wondering why we care so much about a rubber ball.
Maybe Scottie will move up to 9th. Maybe Ja Morant will end up in a city that starts with a different letter. My uncle always said that if you wait long enough, everything eventually becomes a memory or a trade exception. He was usually talking about his 2007 Honda Civic, but it applies to the Raptors too.