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by Mike Ball
--raptors.commentator
December 7, 2004

(TORONTO) -- After reality TV made its big run these past years, drama television is seeing a renaissance across North America. So it’s really no surprise really that drama has been a big theme across the NBA this season on the court and off.

On the tube, we’ve got desperate housewives doing desperate things on Monday night football (and everywhere else from what I’ve heard), I now know how crime scene investigations are conducted in every major metropolitan area across the US, I know the OC is a place where brooding, underprivileged lads get in fist fights daily and I’ve learned that a “scrub” isn’t just a term of endearment for a guy at the end of the bench.

Few would question that Rafer Alston has been the Raptors most consistent performer this season. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

So with all this drama on TV, the NBA is seeing a lot of early-season drama as well and although it isn’t always the brand of drama coaches, players or even fans want to see, it makes for an entertaining product on the court when compelling storylines complement the games.

It started before the season as Shaq and Kobe quibbled back and forth, 5,000 miles apart through the media, stars requested trades from every team not picked to win the championship and countless more situations involving the law that we don’t need to delve into here.

The stories and drama have been widespread, however often times the “drama” is in the media and much ado about nothing, but when losses mount, so to do the questions.

Of course in Toronto, the story over the weekend was Rafer Alston and his hint at retirement after a tough loss in Boston and a disciplinary run-in with his head coach.

If you ask anyone’s take, they’ll tell you that the same thing responsible for Alston’s diatribe is what makes him a great player to watch and root for in the first place – his emotion. And emotion really, is what makes the game great.

Alston has always been the type of player and person to run through a wall for teammates like family and a guy that plays with a smile because he knows there’s nothing he’d rather be doing that running inside those lines with a basketball in his hands.

Alston’s thoughts after the loss in Boston shouldn’t concern Skip to m’ Lou’s fans in Toronto too much. It’s the same passion he displays on the floor that caused him to react the way he did to his confrontation with Sam Mitchell and consequent seat on the bench in Boston. The next night in Cleveland, Alston was ready to go back to work.

"Rob and Sam came to me before the game and said they weren't going to allow anybody any time off, that we're all in this together, we're going to work hard and we're going to turn this thing around," Alston told the Toronto Star.

"Now, there's nothing left to do but work hard and find a way."

Sounds a lot more like the Rafer Alston we all know.

It’s no secret that everything going on with the Raptors right now has the trade rumours in the background and rumours can’t help harmony in the locker room.

But it can only be seen as a positive that the team has stuck together and the only griping has been directed at the coach which is exactly how Sam Mitchell would want it. If players aren’t upset about playing time, then there’s a problem.

The Raptors are playing through a tough stretch right now as they await decisions from on high, but if they can weather the storm and regroup, this team and the values coach Mitchell is instilling with his tough-love approach will be a whole lot better off.

Of course drama in sports is a big part of why we keep watching. Whether it’s the excitement of a last-second shot or the compelling nature of watching a competitor dejected in defeat, the emotion is what keeps us watching.

If there were robots playing, despite what the folks over a Battlebots might tell you, no one would watch.

Emotional players are what makes the game great and I’ll still take the Clippers vs. the Warriors over a bunch of desperate housewives any day.