TORONTO - On the eve of his memorable exit interview, Greivi

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TORONTO - On the eve of his memorable exit interview, Greivis Vasquez sat down for dinner with the leagues most famed and influential global ambassador, carrying on his mission to secure a new contract with the team that gave him new life in the NBA. In Vasquez time, the meal may have lasted six hours. What did he and Drake discuss? Perhaps a certain 2013-14 MVP came up in conversation. Thunder forward and four-time scoring champion Kevin Durant has been on the minds of Raptors fans for the better part of the last year. Could Drake help lure Durant from Oklahoma City when he becomes a free agent following the 2015-16 season? He may have found a partner in crime. "Hopefully I get to play with him one day in the NBA," Vasquez said of Durant, his high school teammate and old friend, guesting on TSN Drive with Dave Naylor on Monday. "Hopefully its here in Toronto." He wasnt done. "Imagine if we get KD, Kevin Durant in 2016 and he leads us to a championship," the Raptors point guard added, unprompted in an interview with Bryan Hayes on TSN 1050 the following day. "I think hed have statues right outside the ACC." Well played, sir. Vasquez, the quote that keeps on quoting, is angling for a new deal and with the offseason barely a week old, he has positioned himself favourably. In case you havent heard, Vasquez is quite fond of being in Toronto. A week ago, on a day in which Kyle Lowrys impending free agency took centre stage, it was his backup, Vasquez, that stole the show delivering an emotional 19-minute soliloquy, with the occasional question sprinkled in. He thanked the city, its fans, his teammates, coaches and general manager. He thanked the Toronto school board. "My son cannot wake up at 8:00 in the morning, he wakes up at six because hes excited to go to school." He thanked his waiter at the local all-you-can-eat Brazilian steak house. So, he was thorough. It was exit interview meets academy award acceptance speech, only no one had the heart to play him off with music. "Thats Greivis," GM Masai Ujiri said a day later. The 27-year-old point guard rarely holds back on the court, playing the game with a refreshing passion that helped spark Torontos remarkable turnaround in 2014. The same could be said about his approach away from basketball. "Id use the word passionate for Greivis," said newly extended head coach Dwane Casey. "He has stones. Hes probably, truth be told, probably the most confident player on the team. He feels like he can score on LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan in his prime, which is great and you need that." "If you tell him, Greivis, run through that window right there, hes going to do it. Now he may look at you a little bit, but hell do it." Vasquez, a restricted free agent this summer, is sincere in his sentiments, he truly hopes to remain a Raptor and the way hes gone about publicizing it could go a long way in ensuring hes back with the team next season. "It would be heartbreaking if I dont come back," Vasquez exclaimed on a Monday afternoon in the bowels of the Air Canada Centre. "Im an emotional guy, so I really embrace, Im really committed to the team, to the city, to this franchise." Seven days later, there was Vasquez, on stage shaking hands with Torontos Deputy Mayor and representing the organization as May 12 was proclaimed "Raptors Day". After arriving in an early-season trade from Sacramento - where he says he lost his passion for the game - Vasquez averaged 9.5 points and 3.7 assists in 61 games for the Raptors, his fourth NBA stop in four years. He has not wasted the opportunity. Hes gone all in. The Venezuelan-native has established himself as an emotional leader on the team and an ambassador in the city. For good measure hes also offering up his services in recruiting one of the NBAs premier talents, should he still be around in 2016. But will he be around? Ujiri will not be pressured, not by elaborate speeches or the promise of an endorsement in two years from now. Vasquez will be retained if Ujiri determines it makes sense in basketball terms, and it may. Still, the extracurricular incentives cant hurt, especially if the Raptors GM values continuity and chemistry as much as he has indicated. "We hope to get something done," Ujiri told TSN.ca, in reference to Vasquezs contract status. "Hes one of those pieces on the team where you know that hes always going to be a great teammates and hes going to go out and compete." As Vasquez walked off the podium, an audience of assembled media brimming after he captivated them with a season-ending speech for the ages, he left the room the same way he entered it 20 minutes earlier. The "loveable underdog" - as he once referred to himself - wore a black cap decorated with the words "We The North" on his head and a big smile across his face. "Im not taking this for granted," he told the city and its acting mayor on Raptors Day. "Im saying it because I mean it." And he does, but he knows exactly what hes doing. Custom Manchester City Jerseys . It was well worth the wait. Manning and the Denver Broncos waited eight long months, then another 33 minutes to get the season started because of a lightning storm. Fabian Delph Jersey . -- Brendan Leipsic had two goals and an assist and Nicolas Petan extended his point streak to 11 games as the Portland Winterhawks slipped past the Red Deer Rebels 5-4 on Saturday in Western Hockey League action. http://www.authenticmanchestercityshop. ... ersey/.com) - John Wall had 15 points, 12 assists and four steals as the Washington Wizards defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 92-85 on Monday night. Riyad Mahrez Jersey . MLB executive Joe Torre ruled on Tuesday nights game at Wrigley Field that was called after 4 1-2 innings. The Cubs were declared the winners by a 2-0 score. Now, it is instead a suspended game that will resume at 4:05 p. Ilkay Gundogan Manchester City Jersey . Luis Enrique signed the deal with club president Josep Bartomeu two days after it was announced by the club. That was two days after coach Gerardo Martino stepped down when Barcelona finished its first season without a major trophy in six years.TORONTO – It wasnt so long ago that Nazem Kadri played the role of highly hyped prospect trying to crack the Maple Leafs roster. Kadri was electric in his first NHL training camp in the fall of 2009, a flashy performer who wowed with an array of theatrics on the ice. Though he was quickly returned to juniors with the London Knights when camp concluded, Kadri would, over the course of the next two seasons and even beyond, live in the spotlight associated with a super-touted top-10 pick in the city of Toronto. Due to play in his first NHL game on Saturday, 19-year-old Morgan Rielly now finds himself occupying similar skates. Reflecting back on an experience that was not without its share of drama and outside noise, Kadri offers the following words of wisdom. "Just worry about the team and yourself and what you have to do," he counseled Rielly in conversation with the Leaf Report on Friday afternoon. "I think thats when you start steering yourself sideways when you start listening to what everyone else has to say outside the rink, what everyone else expects of you, what this person thinks youre going to do. Thats really just distractions he doesnt need right now." Just as it was with Kadri, the debate has been ongoing internally as to whats best for Rielly at this moment and over the long-term for his development, a season in the NHL or a trip back to junior in Moose Jaw. When training camp concluded last month, Leafs coach Randy Carlyle theorized that to say Rielly was "unequivocally" ready to play in the NHL "is a tough question to ask and a tougher question to answer at this point". In trying to further that assessment, he and the Leafs opted to keep their promising defender when the regular season began earlier this week, the prospect of a 9-game audition on the table in October. Then under the leadership of the Brian Burke and Ron Wilson, Kadri didnt garner such a look, the flaws in his dazzling game too difficult to ignore. Outside noise in the city was rampant in the days, months and years that followed, a chorus of voices debating how the club was handling the progression of his development. Even Kadri seemed to infer last winter that he was held back by Wilson, who was replaced by Carlyle in March of 2012. "It was tough for me because I did everything I could and thought I put myself in a pretty good position in order to help the team that year," Kadri said of his first training camp, during which he dazzled with three goals and five points in six games.. "Obviously I had a few flaws defensively, but I thought my offensive production might be able to outweigh that and maybe the coaching staff could see through that. "They decided to send me down andd it wasnt a bad thing," he reflected.dddddddddddd"I went back and developed pretty well and standing here a couple years later Im glad it happened." The patient approach – which saw him bounce between the Leafs and Marlies – was eventually rewarded. The now 22-year-old centre was a standout for the better part of 2013, ending the year with 44 points in 48 games. Jake Gardiner was a different case, but also suitably hyped when he was pried from Anaheim in the Joffrey Lupul-Francois Beauchemin swap. He arrived at training camp in the fall of 2011 as a long-shot to crack the Leafs roster, but wowed the organization as a 21-year-old and stormed his way to all-rookie team honours. Handling the pressure associated with being the next big thing, Gardiner – still finding his place in his third NHL season – said expectations in his own mind were always held in check. "He seems like a pretty relaxed kid," Gardiner told the Leaf Report of Rielly, "and thats how I went into it too. "I wasnt expected to make the team right away so I dont think I felt much pressure. I just kind of rolled with it once I started playing well and kept going." "There is a lot of expectation," he continued, "but hes still young so I dont think theres too much pressure on him." Rielly sat in the press-box for the opening two games of the regular season, but with Mark Fraser sidelined for up to a month with a left knee injury, an opportunity opened for him to get his first look against the Senators in the Leafs home opener on Saturday. The clock will starting ticking on his audition – one year of his entry-level contract will be burned after 9 games. What looms for the organization is an opportunity to assess whether he is, in fact, ready to play in the NHL as a teenager. Though they will likely exercise the utmost patience with their top young asset, the Leafs do believe his game could translate right away, Riellys cerebral nature and easy flow on skates among his more prominent traits. "He plays the game with his head and his legs and his hands," Carlyle said of Rielly ahead of the Saturday tilt, his Leafs sitting a perfect 2-0-0 to start the season. "Hes got all three assets that separate him from other people in his age-group. "Hes a strong puck-mover, he can get the puck through from the point on the power-play, hes got great wheels to get up and down the ice, hes smart in his reads so I dont know what more I can say that doesnt put an exclamation point on the type of player he is and what he can be." As to the expectations of his debut? "Just go out and play," Gardiner advised, "do your thing." ' ' '