- Jermaine is accompanied by his wife, Bryan Colangelo and Sam Mitchell.
Colangelo:
- exciting day
- young player, 6 time all star
- season bodes very well
- this was definitely the best deal
- did scans 7 days ago on Jermaine’s knee, got full green light
- thanks Chuck Swirsky for his years of work
Mitchell:
- more leadership
- veteran
- can score and rebound
- we needed it badly
- feels fortunate to coach him
- good group of young men and very talented
- thinks Bosh and O’Neal could liken to the Spurs of old
- ball will go down into both men
O’Neal:
- thanks the ownership
- been in Vegas most of the summer
- ran into many Toronto fans both in Vegas & Toronto and they have made him feel welcome
- excited to be here
- like a new life
- Pacers went through the worst situations ever in professional sports
- when he got the call about the trade, it was like a re-birth
- ready to roll his sleeves up
- knee is healthy
- excited to play with Bosh
- thinks Toronto has great 3pt shooting
- knee was torn 2.5 years ago and continued to tear because he continued to play on it.
- had surgery last summer, wanted to get back early with new team and coach, but pushed too hard again and it got worse with bruising, etc.
- decided to shut it down to be healthy going into this season. Came back last 10 games, seemed fine.
- has done the most of NBA players in the community
- never seeks out sponsorship
- as a leader you have to expect criticism, unfair or not
- you can’t change peoples opinion of you
- numbers don’t measure success, so stats are meaningless
- sacrifices need to happen for the team to succeed
- success is shown in wins and losses
- bargnani has lots of talent
- worked out with bargnani in Vegas
- Bargnani is a key factor to the team, a tough cover
- looking at the Celtics, the sacrifice by the big 3 and helping each other lead to their success
- defence won the championship
- he likes to take charges and alter shots, something the Raptors didn’t have last year
- this is Chris’s team, Jermaine is just here to help
- not into who’s team it is
- wants to work as a team
- played on one leg for 2.5 years and didn’t want to tell anybody
- not concerned about the past
- closing the chapter with Indiana and moving forward to be one of the best players in the league
- he likes to bang, Bosh is more finesse, giving teams different looks
- will wear jersey #6 (possibly)
- defensive mentality is his strongest asset he will bring
- spoke at length with Mitchell and Colangelo about defensive intensity
- Isiah Thomas gave him a lot of confidence
- Reggie Miller has been the best player he has played with
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Good job posting this so quickly, Scott.
“Pacers went through the worst situations ever in professional sports” — is this a tiny exaggeration?
slightly….but he was covering his butt.
I think that any basketball fan should be as excited ebout this trade as we were about the Celtics’ trade last season! This is going to be an awesome season and watch out for the raptors because they will make some noise this comming season.
bargnani should now play better with oneal becuase bosh dosent teach him anything and he got the potential to be an all star so good news for bargnani