Most folks who follow my blog (and thank you; your payment is in the mail) know me as a travel guy. But I’ve only been a full-time travel writer for 12 years. Before that I did long stints as a municipal politics writer for the Toronto Star and also a dozen years or so in the sports department.
In addition to covering the Blue Jays from 1992 to 1998, I covered six Olympic Games for the Star, put out their golf magazine for several years and was a part-time basketball reporter. One of my assignments was covering the the NBA’s expansion into Canada. There were three groups in the running; a consortium run by John Bitove Jr. and Allan Slaight, a group led by Larry Tanenbaum, who’s now the top guy for the Raptors and Leafs. The third bid was led by Bill Ballard and Michael Cohl, who had Magic Johnson as part of their group. Ballard’s team had the sizzle, but it was pretty obvious that the main contenders were the Tanenbaum and Bitove groups.
The NBA had an expansion committee to look at the various bids, and it was led by then Phoenix Suns chief Jerry Colangelo, who I quite liked. Of course, as the decision got close I was in contact with Colangelo (his son, Bryan would later become the Raptors’ general manager) on a regular basis.
Nobody could’ve predicted the kind of madness we’ve seen for the Raptors the last couple years. JIM BYERS PHOTO
A day or two before the announcement was to be made as to which group would run the team, I gave Colangelo a call. I knew he wouldn’t reveal much, but I had to ask what he thought.
As I recall, he said something like, “You know I can’t tell you anything. But here’s a thought, What would YOU do?””
I was taken aback but responded after a few seconds.
“Hmmmm,” I said. “If you want solid and reliable but maybe not as big an upside (what did I know) you might choose Tanenbaum’s group. They’d be quite good. The Bitove group could have problems, but I think they might have a higher up side. So, I guess it depends on whether the NBA wants to gamble.”
Colangelo paused for a minute and then replied, “Commissioner Stern has been known to gamble on occasion.”
Those being the days when one needed more than a single source to say something that sounded like a decision but perhaps wasn’t, and there being no social media at the time, I don’t think I went too hard with a “Look for Bitove to win the bid” story. I think I hinted at it, but I haven’t been able to find the actual story the Star ran the next day.
I did, however, find a story I wrote shortly after Bitove’s group won the bid. Here’s the start of that story.
So young. So influential. So popular.
With the stroke of a pen, 33-year-old Toronto businessman John Bitove Jr. on Thursday rocketed to the rarest of heights when he became the 28th member of the exclusive club known as National Basketball Association owners.
Corny as it sounds, it was the culmination of a lifelong desire to join up with big-time sports. Within minutes of being formally awarded Canada’s first NBA team, Bitove was hustled to the Manhattan offices of Sports Illustrated for an interview. Sports Illustrated? Bitove has carefully stored away every copy of the magazine since he was 8.
His three brothers still tease him about the time he closeted himself in the family basement and secretly drew up plans for a combined stadium-arena complex. Now he’s working with architects on a $100 million arena that will be real bricks and mortar instead of lines and angles on a blueprint.
As a kid who used to practice jumpers on the family driveway while pretending to be Jerry West and as a graduate of basketball-crazy Indiana University, Bitove has long carried on a love affair with roundball. That’s all nice, but it’s his substantial business and political experience that have made Bitove an NBA owner instead of just another hoops nut madly scratching out office pool entries for NCAA Final Four tournaments.
Here are a few other stories from my time covering the team.
COVERING VINCE CARTER’S WEDDING
I’m not terribly proud of this. But I’ll admit to it. Vince Carter was, of course, a huge celebrity in Toronto, and around the world. When it came time for his wedding in July of 2004 the Star wanted me to cover it. I couldn’t get into the church, of course but the Star’s sports editor reasoned that I could see Carter enter his reception at the posh Breakers Hotel if I booked a room. I think it was $400 a night at the time, and that was a lot of dough. But the Star was still relatively flush with cash at the time, so off I went. The Star hired a former staff photographer who had moved to Florida to shoot photos outside the church in Palm Beach (a great guy named Mike Slaughter), so I didn’t have to worry about pics. Mike and I couldn’t get too close so we actually hid in some shrubs across the street from the church and watched the groom and bride and their guests arrive. I felt like an idiot. When the ceremony was over, I drove my rental car to the hotel, where I had checked in earlier. I didn’t get terribly close, but because I was a hotel guest I was able to roam the lobby (with my camera held at a casual angle so I didn’t look like paparazzi) and watch Carter and his new bride, Ellen, saunter into the hotel and walk to the reception. I snapped a few photos as quietly as I could and got the heck out of there before anyone could see what I was up to. I’m not a great photographer, but the photo came out okay.
KOBE’S 81-POINT GAME: MY LUCKY DAY IN LA
I didn’t cover a lot of games but Doug Smith usually carved up the schedule so I could handle the odd road game for the Raptors. He knew I grew up in California so he would try to give me some west coast games to cover. And so it was that I was in Los Angeles for the magical Kobe Bryant 81-point game in January of 2006. And courtside, to boot, as in those days print reporters got to sit iin the front row. Bryant started pretty well. By halftime, he had 26 points. Very impressive, but not quite “Oh. my lord” territory. That changed pretty quickly. By the end of the third quarter Bryant had sliced and diced the bewildered Raps for 53 points. He was on fire. I remember looking up at the scoreboard and thinking, “Wow, he might get 70.” My fingers were flying as the points kept coming. I looked over at one of my fellow reporters, possibly Frank Zicarelli from the Toronto Sun or maybe The Sun’s Mike Ganter, and said, “Holy shit. We’re looking at history here.” Kobe fired in another 28 points in the final quarter to reach 81; the second highest scoring total in NBA history (behind Wilt Chamberlain’s insane 100). Someone told me there’s a photo of Kobe somewhere near the visiting reporters seats, and that you can see me with my head down, banging away furiously on my laptop. If it’s true, I haven’t been able to find it. I’ve told him this before, but I’ve always felt badly about Smitty missing that game. He’s the top basketball reporter in the country, and he should have been there, not me.
DEALING WITH SAM MITCHELL
I covered the Raptors on a part-time basis for several years, but I admit I never understood all the X’s and O’s. I knew the basics about screens and post-ups and the general rules, but I was way behind guys like Doug Smith and Michael Grange; both good friends and excellent reporters. One day I was talking with Sam Mitchell, who was hands-down the most entertaining coach I ever met during my sports days, and made the mistake of saying that, as far as I could tell, the refs could call a foul on every play that takes place in the NBA. “That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said,” Mitchell replied, shaking his head and (probably) dropping a few mild expletives in my general direction. Fast forward to the 2018 season. I pick up the Toronto Star sports section and read a quote from an NBA coach. “You could call a foul on every play in this league,” he said. Take that, Sam. Mitchell was a good coach. He’s an even better broadcaster, if you ask me. I love watching him when he really gets fired up. But I miss those daily scrums with him giving the needle to the media hordes.
