Multimedia Jack Armstrong In Dino Nation Blog

I am very excited to start a new feature for our interviews here at Dino Nation Blog. It had been asked if there was a way the you the readers of the Dino Nation could hear the interviews I do. It was not possible from a technical stand point for me to do until now. So who better to kick of this new era than the Dino Blogger’s Favourite Guest Jack Armstrong.

So how this is going to work is that when I am able to do interviews via the phone they will start with what I am calling The Starting 5. If you have watched the show Pardon The Interruption they do the segment 5 good minutes with _________. Well for here at the Dino Nation Blog we are going add audio of the first 5 minutes of my interviews we do. It may go a little longer than 5 minutes as it did in this case. But the goal is to ask the 3 most interesting (Hopefully) questions and have the answers in form of an MP3 that you can listen too on the link to the blog’s podcast site. It will be followed by the rest of the interview in written word. Hopefully it is the best of both worlds for you the reader.

So in this first edition we have Jack talking about something he said on his radio show the Game Plan on Fan 590. If healthy Raptors could be good enough to get to Eastern Conference Final. Why does he think that? He will tell you. Also Andrea Bargnani at the 3 is it realistic for the Raptors and help them have success? Lastly it seems Jamario Moon is not in Sam Mitchell’s dog house and in fact he likely is the guy who has the 3 spot to loss. Doesn’t it make sense to have both Parker and Kapono on the floor together instead of both playing at the two spot? Jack breaks it down for us.

Dino Blogger Starting 5 with Jack Armstrong (Audio Link)

But five minutes of Jack Armstrong is not enough so we continued to chat and that will make up the rest of the blog. We started the rest of our conversation with the topic of Jermaine O’Neal. Yesterday I went into detail how I had over the summer went from unsure about Jermaine to the point where I feel now that I am a supporter of him. I shared these thoughts with Jack. I also expressed how he(Jack) once made the claim that Bosh had become better than O’Neal and how I was a supporter of that when he said it. But now J.O is here with Chris so what was his thought on what we have seen and heard from J.O thus far?

Well, first of all the most important thing is he is saying all the right things which is great. But as we well know saying and doing are two different things. For Raptor fans there is expectation, and with expectation people want results. So, Jermaine O’Neal is saying all the right things now and if he backs it up with the results that is when people get excited. If he says all the right things and doesn’t back it up with productivity and health, than the frustration sets in. I think the biggest thing is keep your fingers crossed and if he is healthy, I think he will back it up with productivity. I think he makes this team better. He is proven to be that type of player in the past. I definitely think J.O is an intriguing player to keep an eye on.

It has been said by Sam Mitchell that he is going to be counting on Chris Bosh, Jermaine O’Neal and Jose Calderon to lead this team. Does this help out Chris Bosh and take some of the pressure off of him? Here is Jack’s take on that idea:

When push comes to shove and the chips are down Bosh is going to be the guy no matter what you do. It is nice having some other people to kind of take a little bit of the pressure off of you. Chris is still the guy and I just think when you have a guy of that level and your able to surround him with better people, it makes them better and the team better. So, I think it is an intriguing situation for Chris Bosh. I think he has really matured and grown up dramatically as player and he has always been a heady and responsible person. It is a situation that allows you to get the best out of him.

I said to Jack that I see a change in Chris Bosh since he won his gold medal with Team U.S.A. That it seemed to me that the Gold Medal was almost a validation to Bosh of the fact that he is one of the best players in the NBA. Jack shares his thought on my view on this topic:

You make a good point. I think you see it with veteran players and coaches there is that security from a money stand point and a contract stand point. You have spent time with those peers that are some of best in the game. Great coaches and great management people and it all rubs off on you in a very positive sense. You learn things by listening, talking and just by osmosis just being around it and observing. I think all that stuff rubs off on Chris. He is a bright, responsible and mature young man. I was reading the Buffalo News and they were talking about the success of the Bills so far in the NFL. Marv Levy is the G.M that selected all these guys including Bills QB Trent Edwards. Marv has some great quotes that I have used. He says “Ability with out character always loses”, but he has another great quote ” smart guys get better ” .  Chris Bosh is a smart guy. If you have met him, If you have spoken to him, if you just have heard him speak about himself, about the team , and the sport, he is a smart young man. Smart young people who are highly motivated, driven and hungry to win get better. To his credit there is a big reason behind that, he is a hungry guy that wants to be a great player. You tell him what he has to do to get better he is smart enough to understand it and he is smart enough not to take it personal, and smart enough to figure out what it takes to get better.

The conversation about Chris Bosh continued. I mentioned about how as a fan I think Bosh gets it as far as reaching out to the fan base. Through his videos on You Tube to his Fantasy Football League for Raptor Fans. It was more a comment about Jack saying how smart a guy he was. The fact that Chris was a smart guy and embraced the fan base in a unique way. However Jack had some reaction to my comments.

It is interesting, I think it is year six for Chris Bosh with the Raptors. Here is the difference, the last superstar that you had in Toronto was Vince Carter and we saw a deterioration of work ethic, attitude and passion and desire to improve and to win. Chris Bosh to his credit over the years and a lot of it was losing, put up the good fight and grinded it out and kept after it. Now a guy like him is getting the fruits of his labour. There is something to be said for that. When the Raptors made the decision that they were going to give this guy a long term deal and he is our franchise player. They made the choice few years before that they were going to trade Vince Carter, now the trade was a disaster, they knew that this young man (Bosh) had the chance to be really good. I think they were right.

The conversation continued as I shared with Jack that when I was doing radio I actually interviewed V.C. I shared my opinion in which there was a feeling that you got that he was Vince Carter. In other words he was this big thing. I have never interviewed Chris Bosh but I said I just don’t get that sense. Jack had some more thought on V.C and C.B.4:

I think Vince Carter was a lot like Chris is now in his first few years in the NBA. What happens is the money the fame and all the exposure, how do you handle it?  10% is what happens to you and 90% is how do you handle it. Chris Bosh is a very mature and grounded individual. A lot of credit should go to his family and more importantly to him for how he carries himself. I’ll never forget the first game he played as a Raptor. Paul Hewitt the head coach of Georgia Tech is a friend of mine. He and his staff came to see Chris in his first game as a Raptor. He said to me, Jack you are going to love this kid, He is a hard working, coachable and hungry young player who is going to get better and better. You are going to love him and Toronto is going to love him. He was right.

It is interesting to look back on Chris Bosh as we look forward to this season. I often look back on his career and think how far he has come on and off the floor. The stuff about Vince Carter and Bosh being compared was interesting as well. Bosh when you put aside all the hate for Vince Carter is rapidly making the case to be considered the best Raptor of all-time. It was not something I planned on talking to Jack about but his comments were interesting and it was something that I feel will interest you.

I have enjoyed my conversations with Jack and having him come to visit the Dino Nation Blog as often as he does. He is someone who’s opinion I truly value not just about basketball but about what I am doing here.  He has been very kind to take an interest in what I am doing here and that is a great thing for me. I long have admired his work and the fact that I now talk with him on a fairly regular basis is a great honour for me. I hope by adding the audio element to some of the interviews I will be doing will allow you to share in that experience.  At the end of the audio interview I said that I love Jack and it is the truth I really do. I am lucky to have the support of fine people like him and I am always grateful for it.  I am always looking forward to the next time we get to say HELLLLOOOO. But for this time around it is good bye for this latest visit from Jack.

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Tags: Anthony Parker, Chris Bosh, Fan 590, Jack Armstrong, Jamario Moon, Jason Kapono, Jermaine O'Neal, Jose Calderon, Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors 08/09, Vince Carter