Now in her fourth season with Raptors NBA TV, Norma Wick hosts roundtable discussion show, “Full Court Press” and a weekly basketball wrap-up titled “Floor Level”. You can always find Norma reporting on the sidelines of an NBA court near you.

by Norma Wick
--raptors.commentator
March 21, 2005

(TORONTO) -- With well under 20 games left on the schedule and Toronto hovering consistently at 10 games under .500, the Raptors will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs. The only thing they can do is compete; for each other, for self-respect, for the love of the game. That’s about all they have left with a rapidly approaching end to their NBA season.

Credit to the players for managing to do just that – without dissolving into a bunch of individuals, padding their respective numbers. The Raptors have been in most games, which only makes the missed opportunities a little more galling, but every team in the NBA can lay claim to a number of “would’ve, could’ve” ones that got away.

That’s what separates the teams headed for the post-season from the ones that aren’t.

When the Raptors stick together, they're a tough bunch to beat. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

Talent aside, successful teams demonstrate a common drive for consistency and discipline – for 48 minutes, 82 games a year. Like so many other teams, the Raptors aren’t there yet.

In his attempts to build a winner over the past year, Orlando GM John Weisbrod articulated the difference:

"If you’re a team that wins or loses based on emotion, you aren’t going to be a successful playoff team. We win the games we do based on emotion and fight and that’s a great thing, but we rarely win games because we out-execute teams or because we have good, disciplined habits. I say all the time that the teams that win … are the ones with the better habits and are conditioned to do things the right way whether they are on an emotional high or low. We’re struggling to develop those habits, especially defensively, so it puts us at the mercy of our emotions.”

The Raptors are one of those teams. They’re also a team which lives and dies at the mercy of their jump shot. A lot of that is owed to the roster -- the Raptors don’t have a lot of options inside -- but part of where they are is habit, particularly on the defensive end.

When the Raptors have played with emotion and intensity, they have played well. Rarely have they given up a game that they fought for from the start. Like Vince Lombardi used to say, “The harder you work for something, that harder it is to give it up.”

When they were committed to hard work, good habits and good decision making, they could overcome their problems, or at least provide more for the opposition.

Trouble is, they seem to be a team that likes to “try a game on” first, before deciding whether they will get emotionally involved. It provides another needless challenge, considering their already problematic dearth of size and interior toughness and the additional lack of a defensive stopper on the perimeter.

It also provided for a mixed bag of results and another season nearing on to the close in mid-April.

It's all about team, baby. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)

Still, they have managed to be entertaining, particularly at home where they have already posted their best result in a few seasons. They have a lot to address in terms of talent and the continuing evolution of a “winning culture” in the locker room, but it’s been an enjoyable group to watch – for the most part. But “for the most part” doesn’t get it done in the NBA, or any competitive venture for that matter.

It reminds me of the conversations I had with some of the Raptors at the start of the year, talking about what drove them as youngsters to achieve their dreams. I sometimes wonder how much more they could accomplish if they wanted success now as badly as they did then.

Donyell Marshall talked about his desire to make it out of the Redding, PA project known as Glenside.

“It’s funny when people tell stories and say they were playing basketball in the rain, or the snow and the average person is like, ‘Yeah, he’s just saying that for the camera’, but I know people who have actually done it. I remember it being a snowstorm and there was snow on the court at 10, 11 o’clock at night and knowing we weren’t going to have to go to school next day I asked my mom, ‘Could I got out to play basketball?’ and she just looked at me like I was nuts, but she let me go out and play. I remember things like that, going out to play basketball (in the snow) because you wanted the dream.”

Jalen Rose talked about 6th Mile and Greenlawn, the rough-and-tumble west side of Detroit where there were few choices for survival.

“You end up doing things to try and help your family eat when you don’t have money. I know about syrup sandwiches. I know about sugared water. I know about boiling water to wash up. I know about kerosene heaters. I know about sleeping with skull caps and gloves on to stay warm. I know what it’s like not to have and because of that I understood that if I did make it, I wanted it to be forever. I didn’t want it to be just for today, or for the short term.”

Mo Peterson had a relatively middle-class upbringing in Flint, Michigan but, “I hated to lose. I used to compete with my sisters in everything. We’d be in the car and one sister would be in the back and I’d be in the front and we’d try to see who could roll up the windows the fastest, or we’d get home and see who’d get in the house the fastest….see who could drink their water the fastest….just everything. I had that competitiveness about me when I was young. I hated to lose. When I lost, I started to cry…I mean, I would be on the ground – it was crazy. My mom used to tell me how bad it was.”

I hope the Raptors get that bad – then maybe, they can get better.