Player Exit Interviews Live

[mdenny]

I feel like he didn't want to play off-ball when it was clear that the best for the team was for him to play on-ball. These guys are not stupid. They know what will be the most effective.

The guy wanted to win. Shocking. Despite what posters here believed, Scottie being an offensive focal point was not a good strategy in 2022 just like it is not in 2025. If Scottie would have bought in and brought effort every night he could have been an incredible defensive player for us that season, but for some reason we seem to ignore his motor was god awful that season and ran into issues with Thad **** Young and FVV and the media. But this board seems to think Scottie is blameless in all that.

Yes Scottie had deficiencies. My point is related to the fact that a 4th overall pick is a huge investment, who at some point is going to demand big bucks. When asked to do whatever to both facilitate the development of Scottie and create a winning system, regardless if it is working or not, you do what management and your coaches say. Sure, have your discussions, but don't play stupid hero ball and tick off half the fan base. That's not a guy trying to win. That's a guy playing for his next contract. It was obvious that FVV and Scottie were not going to work on the same team. Look at how the ball is now shared on our team. There is no pecking order. FVV was all about pecking order.

Yeah the ball being shared more under this new system has really led to so much success.

You were wrong about Fred and you are still wrong. It’s funny how because he’s had so much success in Houston that your argument is now totally different to what it was before.

If we had to pick one veteran player in the league right now who was doing the best job in leading and mentoring young players.....it has to be fred doesn't it? Or he would be at least top 3.

Who else would it be?

[Tha Cynic]

Except the press sorest work with or for the raptors. I understand some technically so through bell/rogers, but they’re ultimately not coworkers.

Yall seem to be lying to yourselves that you’ve never **** talked a bad or annoying client to colleagues.

Since it looks like this is going to be the main topic here…

What you said above is not the point. People can say whatever they want in private, but if you’re caught doing it and it becomes public, that definitely creates issues, especially when you can probably call this a work setting. Like I said earlier, I’m not sitting in the conference room after a meeting with a mic around, **** talking my coworkers. It’s common sense. If I did, I’m facing some repercussions. There’s no way these guys are not trained to be careful of mics lol.

These are media folk. Of course they’re talking **** about someone when their entire job is to talk about other humans.

Why do ppl keep on referring to reporters as "coworkers" of multi-millionaire professional basketball players?

For me personally I just categorized them as this from sheer laziness as the Raptors have control over whether they allow certain media folk access to their players. Didn’t want to go too deeply into it so referring to them as “coworkers” was just easier.

The Raptors decided it’s not a big deal, so all these guys should be fine I guess, or maybe behind closed doors someone’s ask for access to certain players is rejected a bit more.

[mdenny]

Since it looks like this is going to be the main topic here…

What you said above is not the point. People can say whatever they want in private, but if you’re caught doing it and it becomes public, that definitely creates issues, especially when you can probably call this a work setting. Like I said earlier, I’m not sitting in the conference room after a meeting with a mic around, **** talking my coworkers. It’s common sense. If I did, I’m facing some repercussions. There’s no way these guys are not trained to be careful of mics lol.

These are media folk. Of course they’re talking **** about someone when their entire job is to talk about other humans.

Why do ppl keep on referring to reporters as "coworkers" of multi-millionaire professional basketball players?

For me personally I just categorized them as this from sheer laziness as the Raptors have control over whether they allow certain media folk access to their players. Didn’t want to go too deeply into it so referring to them as “coworkers” was just easier.

The Raptors decided it’s not a big deal, so all these guys should be fine I guess, or maybe behind closed doors someone’s ask for access to certain players is rejected a bit more.

That sounds right. And yes, access to players is an ongoing unspoken bargaining deal. It's totally fair if someone gets the silent treatment after getting caught on an open mic like this

The weirdness of the whole scotty thing still can't be denied. Sorry but it's like a cult. Layers of motivated reasoning on top of motivated reasoning. I think the weirdness of that whole dynamic has now surpassed Bargnani. The Scotty brigade is officially the weirdest and most bizarre fan sub-group in raptor history.

Noone has harassed members of scotty's family on instragram. Diehard scotty fans engaged in such behaviors. Pensare is a good representation of how crazy the whole thing has been for 3 years now.

Media figures have been routinely harassed by scotty supporters too. Through no fault of his own....for whatever reason, scotty attracted the most toxic fans in the raptor fanbase. Everyone in raptor media is aware of it.

The good news is that it's dying off now. But remnants of it will remain and occasionally rear it's ugly head.

If a media person said OG or Pascal or Fred was dumb....I guarantee it wouldn't have been a big deal. Ppl in this thread are calling for them to get fired. It's insanity. A grown man said another grown man is dumb on a hot mic. The vitriol and sense of vengeance is indicative of a cult-like phenomenon.

We've officially never seen anything like this in raptorland.

[mdenny]

Since it looks like this is going to be the main topic here…

What you said above is not the point. People can say whatever they want in private, but if you’re caught doing it and it becomes public, that definitely creates issues, especially when you can probably call this a work setting. Like I said earlier, I’m not sitting in the conference room after a meeting with a mic around, **** talking my coworkers. It’s common sense. If I did, I’m facing some repercussions. There’s no way these guys are not trained to be careful of mics lol.

These are media folk. Of course they’re talking **** about someone when their entire job is to talk about other humans.

Why do ppl keep on referring to reporters as "coworkers" of multi-millionaire professional basketball players?

For me personally I just categorized them as this from sheer laziness as the Raptors have control over whether they allow certain media folk access to their players. Didn’t want to go too deeply into it so referring to them as “coworkers” was just easier.

The Raptors decided it’s not a big deal, so all these guys should be fine I guess, or maybe behind closed doors someone’s ask for access to certain players is rejected a bit more.

That sounds right. And yes, access to players is an ongoing unspoken bargaining deal. It's totally fair if someone gets the silent treatment after getting caught on an open mic like this

The weirdness of the whole scotty thing still can't be denied. Sorry but it's like a cult. Layers of motivated reasoning on top of motivated reasoning. I think the weirdness of that whole dynamic has now surpassed Bargnani. The Scotty brigade is officially the weirdest and most bizarre fan sub-group in raptor history.

Noone has harassed members of scotty's family on instragram. Diehard scotty fans engaged in such behaviors. Pensare is a good representation of how crazy the whole thing has been for 3 years now.

Media figures have been routinely harassed by scotty supporters too. Through no fault of his own....for whatever reason, scotty attracted the most toxic fans in the raptor fanbase. Everyone in raptor media is aware of it.

The good news is that it's dying off now. But remnants of it will remain and occasionally rear it's ugly head.

If a media person said OG or Pascal or Fred was dumb....I guarantee it wouldn't have been a big deal. Ppl in this thread are calling for them to get fired. It's insanity. A grown man said another grown man is dumb on a hot mic. (I dont even lnow that this actually happened) The vitriol and sense of vengeance is indicative of a cult-like phenomenon. And the victim complex is cult-loke too. There is a media conspiracy to hold scotty down now that nurse and Pascal and Fred and OG and Thad Young (of all ppl) are gone.

Another thing in retrospect....Thad Young is an extremely close player archetype to what Scotty seems to be emerging as. High IQ, great passer, amazing team defender, solid rebounder and court presence. Except i get the sense Thad left the team not very fond of Scotty and same vice versa. That is NOT a good sign. But of course, that just provoked the scotty cult to criticize Thad. One of the most respected vets across the entire league.

Honest question: what do ppl genuinely believe is the consensus perception of Scotty amongst nba players? I am skeptical it's anything that bodes well.

We've officially never seen anything like this in raptorland. This is gonna be a thing in the team history. The crazy scotty ppl who deluded themselves into all sorts of crazy narrative spins.

[Los_29]

Why do ppl keep on referring to reporters as "coworkers" of multi-millionaire professional basketball players?

For me personally I just categorized them as this from sheer laziness as the Raptors have control over whether they allow certain media folk access to their players. Didn’t want to go too deeply into it so referring to them as “coworkers” was just easier.

The Raptors decided it’s not a big deal, so all these guys should be fine I guess, or maybe behind closed doors someone’s ask for access to certain players is rejected a bit more.

That sounds right. And yes, access to players is an ongoing unspoken bargaining deal. It's totally fair if someone gets the silent treatment after getting caught on an open mic like this

The weirdness of the whole scotty thing still can't be denied. Sorry but it's like a cult. Layers of motivated reasoning on top of motivated reasoning. I think the weirdness of that whole dynamic has now surpassed Bargnani. The Scotty brigade is officially the weirdest and most bizarre fan sub-group in raptor history.

Noone has harassed members of scotty's family on instragram. Diehard scotty fans engaged in such behaviors. Pensare is a good representation of how crazy the whole thing has been for 3 years now.

Media figures have been routinely harassed by scotty supporters too. Through no fault of his own....for whatever reason, scotty attracted the most toxic fans in the raptor fanbase. Everyone in raptor media is aware of it.

The good news is that it's dying off now. But remnants of it will remain and occasionally rear it's ugly head.

If a media person said OG or Pascal or Fred was dumb....I guarantee it wouldn't have been a big deal. Ppl in this thread are calling for them to get fired. It's insanity. A grown man said another grown man is dumb on a hot mic. (I dont even lnow that this actually happened) The vitriol and sense of vengeance is indicative of a cult-like phenomenon. And the victim complex is cult-loke too. There is a media conspiracy to hold scotty down now that nurse and Pascal and Fred and OG and Thad Young (of all ppl) are gone.

Another thing in retrospect....Thad Young is an extremely close player archetype to what Scotty seems to be emerging as. High IQ, great passer, amazing team defender, solid rebounder and court presence. Except i get the sense Thad left the team not very fond of Scotty and same vice versa. That is NOT a good sign. But of course, that just provoked the scotty cult to criticize Thad. One of the most respected vets across the entire league.

Honest question: what do ppl genuinely believe is the consensus perception of Scotty amongst nba players? I am skeptical it's anything that bodes well.

We've officially never seen anything like this in raptorland. This is gonna be a thing in the team history. The crazy scotty ppl who deluded themselves into all sorts of crazy narrative spins.

I don’t really see what you’re seeing. Most people have admitted they were wrong about Scottie and most accept that he’s not a franchise player and likely will never be one.

No doubt it was a weird time on here two years ago though. So many wanted the keys to be given to Scottie and the coaches, executives and a few on here knew he wasn’t capable of it.

The three players that were supposedly holding him down are now having amazing success on their new teams. All three with less usage or similar usage to what they had with us. It’s shown that all three contribute to winning and put the team first. But here, people needed someone to blame for Scottie’s struggles. Unfortunately our vets got that blame.

[mdenny]

For me personally I just categorized them as this from sheer laziness as the Raptors have control over whether they allow certain media folk access to their players. Didn’t want to go too deeply into it so referring to them as “coworkers” was just easier.

The Raptors decided it’s not a big deal, so all these guys should be fine I guess, or maybe behind closed doors someone’s ask for access to certain players is rejected a bit more.

That sounds right. And yes, access to players is an ongoing unspoken bargaining deal. It's totally fair if someone gets the silent treatment after getting caught on an open mic like this

The weirdness of the whole scotty thing still can't be denied. Sorry but it's like a cult. Layers of motivated reasoning on top of motivated reasoning. I think the weirdness of that whole dynamic has now surpassed Bargnani. The Scotty brigade is officially the weirdest and most bizarre fan sub-group in raptor history.

Noone has harassed members of scotty's family on instragram. Diehard scotty fans engaged in such behaviors. Pensare is a good representation of how crazy the whole thing has been for 3 years now.

Media figures have been routinely harassed by scotty supporters too. Through no fault of his own....for whatever reason, scotty attracted the most toxic fans in the raptor fanbase. Everyone in raptor media is aware of it.

The good news is that it's dying off now. But remnants of it will remain and occasionally rear it's ugly head.

If a media person said OG or Pascal or Fred was dumb....I guarantee it wouldn't have been a big deal. Ppl in this thread are calling for them to get fired. It's insanity. A grown man said another grown man is dumb on a hot mic. (I dont even lnow that this actually happened) The vitriol and sense of vengeance is indicative of a cult-like phenomenon. And the victim complex is cult-loke too. There is a media conspiracy to hold scotty down now that nurse and Pascal and Fred and OG and Thad Young (of all ppl) are gone.

Another thing in retrospect....Thad Young is an extremely close player archetype to what Scotty seems to be emerging as. High IQ, great passer, amazing team defender, solid rebounder and court presence. Except i get the sense Thad left the team not very fond of Scotty and same vice versa. That is NOT a good sign. But of course, that just provoked the scotty cult to criticize Thad. One of the most respected vets across the entire league.

Honest question: what do ppl genuinely believe is the consensus perception of Scotty amongst nba players? I am skeptical it's anything that bodes well.

We've officially never seen anything like this in raptorland. This is gonna be a thing in the team history. The crazy scotty ppl who deluded themselves into all sorts of crazy narrative spins.

I don’t really see what you’re seeing. Most people have admitted they were wrong about Scottie and most accept that he’s not a franchise player and likely will never be one.

No doubt it was a weird time on here two years ago though. So many wanted the keys to be given to Scottie and the coaches, executives and a few on here knew he wasn’t capable of it.

The three players that were supposedly holding him down are now having amazing success on their new teams. All three with less usage or similar usage to what they had with us. It’s shown that all three contribute to winning and put the team first. But here, people needed someone to blame for Scottie’s struggles. Unfortunately our vets got that blame.

Well for example, pensare is posting the hot mic footage on social media in an attempt to demonize members of the media. And portray them as having a bias against Scott Barnes.

Said media ppl have been accused in this thread of racism. Accused of disrespecting their coworkers jn the workplace. People have suggested they should get fired. It confirms to many ppl that the toronto media has always been biased against scott barnes.

Doesn't all that strike you as strange?

I finally listened to the hot mic. Unless I'm not hearing something...it sounds completely innocent to me. I don't hear the word "dumb". So why should such a thing create such an uproar? It goes back to the very very strange dynamics surrounding Scott Barnes. How he's a victim that is being treated unfairly.

Very strange indeed. Ppl like Pensare on the fringe/indie media side have been more disrespectful to raptor players than anything depicted in the hot mic footage. Ppl on this board have posted far more disrespectful comments about raptors media figures for decades.

Yet this hot mic footage (anyone who edits and posts hot mic footage in this context is a dishonorable snitch btw) is cause for moral outrage? The ppl speaking on the hot mic are "bullying kids" lol. Barnes is a man that has a 200 million dollar contract. These media figures are making less than 6 figures per year.

The whole thing is bizarre. There's no precedent in raptor history for it. The golden child moniker is apt. There's nothing to compare any of this to. It's weird.

If I happen upon some hot mic recording of a third party talking **** about my best friend....and I show it to my best friend. I'm a dirty rascal snitch trying to **** - disturb. No honorable person publishes hot mic footage in this context on social media.

I loathe pensare. If I found hot mic footage of him disrespecting another person that he didn't intend for that person to hear....I would not publish it/share it. Because I'm not a dirty rascal snitch that aims to create conflict between others unnecessarily. Was Pensare thinking he might get someone fired by drawing attention to this? I don't doubt it.

If nothing else than let's get this part straight. Pensare was watching the presser clean feed. Noticed that there was a hot mic while raptor media ppl were chatting off the record. Decided to make an edit and post it....thereby drawing attention to it. What was his motivation?

His motivation was a scott barnes-cult like delusion of victimization. His chance to show "look there is a real conspiracy against scott barnes". And, predictably, it's the lamest evidence that something like that exists. Yet a whole bunch of ppl in this thread also jumped on it like it was a smoking gun.

It's a cult.

[Johnny Bball]

It is a good summary, yes.

This part reminded me, RJ said the same thing a year ago, he wanted to improve his D. Was he any better this year?

RJ is a terrible team defender. I didn't see any improvement there. It's related to same issue as his tunnel vision when trying to score on drives.

The complaint about his tunnel vision is a bit odd considering how much better his playmaking has improved that mostly come off those "tunnel vision" drives.

A guy with tunnel vision saying someone else has tunnel vision. What's that word again?

Even if one was unable to see any defensive improvement, or refused to see it, it was pretty difficult to completely miss the change in effort.

[KP730]

That sounds right. And yes, access to players is an ongoing unspoken bargaining deal. It's totally fair if someone gets the silent treatment after getting caught on an open mic like this

The weirdness of the whole scotty thing still can't be denied. Sorry but it's like a cult. Layers of motivated reasoning on top of motivated reasoning. I think the weirdness of that whole dynamic has now surpassed Bargnani. The Scotty brigade is officially the weirdest and most bizarre fan sub-group in raptor history.

Noone has harassed members of scotty's family on instragram. Diehard scotty fans engaged in such behaviors. Pensare is a good representation of how crazy the whole thing has been for 3 years now.

Media figures have been routinely harassed by scotty supporters too. Through no fault of his own....for whatever reason, scotty attracted the most toxic fans in the raptor fanbase. Everyone in raptor media is aware of it.

The good news is that it's dying off now. But remnants of it will remain and occasionally rear it's ugly head.

If a media person said OG or Pascal or Fred was dumb....I guarantee it wouldn't have been a big deal. Ppl in this thread are calling for them to get fired. It's insanity. A grown man said another grown man is dumb on a hot mic. (I dont even lnow that this actually happened) The vitriol and sense of vengeance is indicative of a cult-like phenomenon. And the victim complex is cult-loke too. There is a media conspiracy to hold scotty down now that nurse and Pascal and Fred and OG and Thad Young (of all ppl) are gone.

Another thing in retrospect....Thad Young is an extremely close player archetype to what Scotty seems to be emerging as. High IQ, great passer, amazing team defender, solid rebounder and court presence. Except i get the sense Thad left the team not very fond of Scotty and same vice versa. That is NOT a good sign. But of course, that just provoked the scotty cult to criticize Thad. One of the most respected vets across the entire league.

Honest question: what do ppl genuinely believe is the consensus perception of Scotty amongst nba players? I am skeptical it's anything that bodes well.

We've officially never seen anything like this in raptorland. This is gonna be a thing in the team history. The crazy scotty ppl who deluded themselves into all sorts of crazy narrative spins.

I don’t really see what you’re seeing. Most people have admitted they were wrong about Scottie and most accept that he’s not a franchise player and likely will never be one.

No doubt it was a weird time on here two years ago though. So many wanted the keys to be given to Scottie and the coaches, executives and a few on here knew he wasn’t capable of it.

The three players that were supposedly holding him down are now having amazing success on their new teams. All three with less usage or similar usage to what they had with us. It’s shown that all three contribute to winning and put the team first. But here, people needed someone to blame for Scottie’s struggles. Unfortunately our vets got that blame.

Well for example, pensare is posting the hot mic footage on social media in an attempt to demonize members of the media. And portray them as having a bias against Scott Barnes.

Said media ppl have been accused in this thread of racism. Accused of disrespecting their coworkers jn the workplace. People have suggested they should get fired. It confirms to many ppl that the toronto media has always been biased against scott barnes.

Doesn't all that strike you as strange?

I finally listened to the hot mic. Unless I'm not hearing something...it sounds completely innocent to me. I don't hear the word "dumb". So why should such a thing create such an uproar? It goes back to the very very strange dynamics surrounding Scott Barnes. How he's a victim that is being treated unfairly.

Very strange indeed. Ppl like Pensare on the fringe/indie media side have been more disrespectful to raptor players than anything depicted in the hot mic footage. Ppl on this board have posted far more disrespectful comments about raptors media figures for decades.

Yet this hot mic footage (anyone who edits and posts hot mic footage in this context is a dishonorable snitch btw) is cause for moral outrage? The ppl speaking on the hot mic are "bullying kids" lol. Barnes is a man that has a 200 million dollar contract. These media figures are making less than 6 figures per year.

The whole thing is bizarre. There's no precedent in raptor history for it. The golden child moniker is apt. There's nothing to compare any of this to. It's weird.

If I happen upon some hot mic recording of a third party talking **** about my best friend....and I show it to my best friend. I'm a dirty rascal snitch trying to **** - disturb. No honorable person publishes hot mic footage in this context on social media.

I loathe pensare. If I found hot mic footage of him disrespecting another person that he didn't intend for that person to hear....I would not publish it/share it. Because I'm not a dirty rascal snitch that aims to create conflict between others unnecessarily. Was Pensare thinking he might get someone fired by drawing attention to this? I don't doubt it.

If nothing else than let's get this part straight. Pensare was watching the presser clean feed. Noticed that there was a hot mic while raptor media ppl were chatting off the record. Decided to make an edit and post it....thereby drawing attention to it. What was his motivation?

His motivation was a scott barnes-cult like delusion of victimization. His chance to show "look there is a real conspiracy against scott barnes". And, predictably, it's the lamest evidence that something like that exists. Yet a whole bunch of ppl in this thread also jumped on it like it was a smoking gun.

It's a cult.

I don’t know what Scottie did to this man, but he’s got him writing multiple essays in this thread about him and his fanbase, mad as hell

to think, Raptors own fans have this sort of hate for their OWN franchise player to write this much about it? it’s sick!

[Tripod]

I don’t really see what you’re seeing. Most people have admitted they were wrong about Scottie and most accept that he’s not a franchise player and likely will never be one.

No doubt it was a weird time on here two years ago though. So many wanted the keys to be given to Scottie and the coaches, executives and a few on here knew he wasn’t capable of it.

The three players that were supposedly holding him down are now having amazing success on their new teams. All three with less usage or similar usage to what they had with us. It’s shown that all three contribute to winning and put the team first. But here, people needed someone to blame for Scottie’s struggles. Unfortunately our vets got that blame.

Well for example, pensare is posting the hot mic footage on social media in an attempt to demonize members of the media. And portray them as having a bias against Scott Barnes.

Said media ppl have been accused in this thread of racism. Accused of disrespecting their coworkers jn the workplace. People have suggested they should get fired. It confirms to many ppl that the toronto media has always been biased against scott barnes.

Doesn't all that strike you as strange?

I finally listened to the hot mic. Unless I'm not hearing something...it sounds completely innocent to me. I don't hear the word "dumb". So why should such a thing create such an uproar? It goes back to the very very strange dynamics surrounding Scott Barnes. How he's a victim that is being treated unfairly.

Very strange indeed. Ppl like Pensare on the fringe/indie media side have been more disrespectful to raptor players than anything depicted in the hot mic footage. Ppl on this board have posted far more disrespectful comments about raptors media figures for decades.

Yet this hot mic footage (anyone who edits and posts hot mic footage in this context is a dishonorable snitch btw) is cause for moral outrage? The ppl speaking on the hot mic are "bullying kids" lol. Barnes is a man that has a 200 million dollar contract. These media figures are making less than 6 figures per year.

The whole thing is bizarre. There's no precedent in raptor history for it. The golden child moniker is apt. There's nothing to compare any of this to. It's weird.

If I happen upon some hot mic recording of a third party talking **** about my best friend....and I show it to my best friend. I'm a dirty rascal snitch trying to **** - disturb. No honorable person publishes hot mic footage in this context on social media.

I loathe pensare. If I found hot mic footage of him disrespecting another person that he didn't intend for that person to hear....I would not publish it/share it. Because I'm not a dirty rascal snitch that aims to create conflict between others unnecessarily. Was Pensare thinking he might get someone fired by drawing attention to this? I don't doubt it.

If nothing else than let's get this part straight. Pensare was watching the presser clean feed. Noticed that there was a hot mic while raptor media ppl were chatting off the record. Decided to make an edit and post it....thereby drawing attention to it. What was his motivation?

His motivation was a scott barnes-cult like delusion of victimization. His chance to show "look there is a real conspiracy against scott barnes". And, predictably, it's the lamest evidence that something like that exists. Yet a whole bunch of ppl in this thread also jumped on it like it was a smoking gun.

It's a cult.

I don’t know what Scottie did to this man, but he’s got him writing multiple essays in this thread about him and his fanbase, mad as hell

to think, Raptors own fans have this sort of hate for their OWN franchise player to write this much about it? it’s sick!

It's quite funny to see the obsession he has going after Barnes.

Also the "dumb" comment by media was directed to Mogbo, not Barnes. But yet he still goes after Barnes about it.

Speaking of cult like behavior....