So the guy who went to school down the street from me and was the reason that Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute was mentioned inside my high school Danforth Tech and how good the basketball team and it turned out to be Jamaal Magloire. Now it turns out that Magloire finally heading back to Toronto after years of people asking what if Magloire was a Raptor and has spent his first 11 seasons playing for teams down south with his first and most productive spot was with the Charlotte Hornets and his career peaked in 2004 when he was named to the Eastern Conference for the all-star game as he averaged 13.6 points and 10.3 rebounds a game. Then he moved around a lot by going from Charlotte to Milwaukee, Portland, New Jersey, and Dallas before landing in Miami for the last three seasons which included only playing 18 games off the bench last season.
Magloire who has had given team Canada a chance over his NBA career by not even coming out for a single training camp and shooting down requests for years to come and play for Canada at an Olympic trails and now after he has tried every where else he is coming back to Canada to give himself one last kick at the can to play Basketball in the NBA. Maybe 5 or 6 seasons ago I would maybe give Magloire a chance with the Raptors but the 6'11 center is a shell of the kind of player he was in Charlotte and will most likely be a very deep bench player as he has to get in line behind the likes of Ed Davis, Reggie Evans, Andrea Bargnani, and the Johnson boys to just name a few.
So Magloire is saying all the right things but the words are so hollow as he is saying “I’m not going to let my country, and this team down” as he has already let down the country by not representing it in Olympic qualifying and along with his “I want to leave some kind of legacy behind” and “I am the one that is gritty, will work hard and do whatever it takes to get wins at the end of the day” quotes it comes down to little to nothing left in the task to contribute anything.
It diffidently would be nice if he could push the likes of Bargnani and the Johnsons to work harder for their minutes on the court but the reality is that it is simply a marketing tactic just like bring in Master P at the turn of the century and on this club that will be hard pressed to play tough defense night in, night out to win games I do nor know how many extra tickets a 2011-12 Magloire will bring in for the Raptors.
I really wished he had taken time out of his off seasons to try and better Team Canada and he just has to look at how Steve Nash made himself a more well rounded player during his time on Team Canada
Tom Mehegan
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