A few little things to wrap up what turned out to be a very long and difficult week, although I suspect we’ll be back here tomorrow sometime with the post-game, morning-after Raptors stuff.

But seeing as tomorrow’s Saturday and normally a morning of loafing, don’t be looking for it at the crack of dawn.

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This went completely by the boards earlier in the week because the season opened, the Raptors played a real game and there was all kinds of other stuff to worry about.

But …

News that Johnny Miller is about to hang ‘em up as a golf analyst on TV is a huge blow.

I don’t watch a lot of golf any more but I do spend a lot of time watching the majors where Miller generally works and at one time I spent a chunk of every weekend in front of the TV for at least a little while with that week’s PGA Tour event as the background entertainment.

And, man, did I like Miller and his style.

He never backed down from critical comments – think how many times he said somebody “choked” when they missed a shot?

He didn’t seem to care who he was ripping, or praising.

He had the bonafides as a player, the 63 in the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont made sure of that.

He wasn’t too, too technical as to make your head hurt while showing why a shot was made or missed – like any of us can possible replicate a Tour pro’s skills – and he wasn’t nearly as “hey look at me!” over the top as a guy like, say, the buffoonish Gary McCord.

All those attributes are what I want in a former athlete turned major television broadcaster, it’s a delicate balance few can pull off and Miller certainly did.

I know he was not for everyone’s tastes, there were more than a few “good riddance to bad rubbish” takes when the news of his retirement first broke and that’s fine.

But to someone with a bit of an interest in the game and the craft of explaining it, he was outstanding and golf of TV will not be as good once he’s gone.

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Digging through the trunk of the car to find the scraper for the windows on a Thursday and figuring out what light clothes to wear because it’s going to be 15C on Friday.

No wonder everyone’s sick.

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Had a hoot doing this AMA Reddit thingamabob with Evy and The People yesterday, grew wistful for the olden days of the weekly Q and A sessions.

But I’m sure there were questions that didn’t get asked or couldn’t be asked and we’ve still got the weekend mail to deal with them.

It’s askdoug@thestar.ca if you want to play along.

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No, I’m not ready for the Red Sox to be in the World Series because I now find them and their fans a wee bit insufferable.

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I’m also not ready for the distinct possibility that Boston teams will play for championships in MLB, the NFL and the NBA in the next few months.

And I’ll have to ask Baseball Steve about the Bruins hopes but since they’re in the same league as the Leafs, I presume they’ve got no chance.

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G League draft tomorrow and you know what that means?

I gotta get some kind of mock going in my brain, I wonder which washed up retired NBAer will throw his name into the ring and I’ve got to find out who the Unfortunately Named Mississaugas like.

But the G League did make some pre-draft rule yesterday when it announced a new contract level that will pay one guy on each team $125,000 – more than twice the highest pay now – provided that player is currently ineligible by age to play in the NBA.

I can see it as a bit of death knell to the NCAA one-and-done situation but not as big as many do. The G League is long bus rides and connecting commercial flights and tiny gyms with no discernible crowds. It is NOT the highest level of NCAA and I wonder how many truly promising young players would rather go to the big schools than, say, Fort Wayne?

And, it doesn’t look like teams that employ these special players on their affiliate teams will have the NBA rights and why would a team give minutes to someone who’s not “theirs” at, perhaps, the expense of their own two-guy.

Now, it’s good in that it’s more money in the salary pot and I’m all for athletes making as much as they can as quickly as they can. So it that respect it’s good news, I just don’t know what kind of big difference it’s going to make.

Oh, and now I think the NBA needs to get involved in the WNBA contract negotiations and disbursement of funds for the women so that those paydays go up.

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Raptors?

Quiet day yesterday, facing a grind of a schedule which is three games in the first four days of the season, it was a very light workout after a heavy film session, which is to be expected.

But as we said in the off-day tome here, there is a bit of a feeling that tonight’s a somewhat important game.

Not the end all and be all but a game with some extra juice.

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