Latest News

News

Life after Gaddafi roundtable discussion

by Hannah George on

More in News:

Sam Reynolds

Montreal may seem worlds away from Libya and Muamar Gaddafi, but McGill professor Rex Brynen would argue otherwise. Having spent the summer in Benghazi as a consultant to the rebel leadership, Brynen is all too connected to the Libyan situation.

Brynen took part in a roundtable presented by the Atlantic Council of Canada on ‘Life After Gaddafi: Prospects for Post-War Libya’ on Oct. 13 at McGill.  The roundtable consisted of five guest speakers debating issues pertaining to the future of Libya.

“The real challenge in constructing and rebuilding Libya will not be physical reconstruction, but institutional,” Brynen said. He explained the need for widespread, functional changes in response to factionalism and cronyism currently present in the Libyan system of government.

“I’m absolutely gobsmacked by how many people have turned up for the event,” Dr. Bernd Goetze, one of the event hosts and director of the Atlantic Council’s Quebec division, said.

The Atlantic Council works to build public knowledge of international peace, security, and NATO through the publication of articles, roundtable and youth events, and competitions.

At this particular event, speakers discussed a range of issues, from personal accounts of Libya’s history under Gaddafi to the much more optimistic current situation from Salhin Gheriani, who concluded that “Libya is full of activity, and you have to prepare to be amazed.”

Dr. Miloud Chennoufi of the Canadian Forces College explained the role of the rebel leadership in the National Transitional Council, cautioning against too much optimism for the country’s future.

“The West is not interested in democracy in the Arab world. It has never been interested in democracy in the Arab world,” he said.

Dr. Imad Mansour, a faculty lecturer at McGill, took a more removed view in questioning Libya’s prospects for peace or violence.

“We are seeing more continuities than ruptures, but the problems will continue,” he concluded.

The final panelist was former diplomat Mr. Paul Chapin.  He took a positive stance, asserting that the revolution will provide peace and prosperity for the Libyans, but emphasized the importance of nuanced foreign involvement.

“We’re not going to make the mistake of coming in and telling them how to run their country,” he said.

After the presentations, the speakers discussed the results of the roundtable.

“I thought it was an excellent discussion,” Brynen said. “There were a broad range of perspectives offered by the panellists, and the large student audience seemed informed and engaged.”

Tom Aagaard, a research analyst from the Atlantic Council, agreed.

“There’s so much momentum behind this issue,” Aagaard said. It was surprisingly easy to get people involved because it’s such a hot topic right now. Although the tone was a little cynical tonight, the council does go for honest and critical discussion with a variety of perspectives.”

Michal Khan, U3 Middle East studies and political science, found the talk especially relevant in its discussion of the impact of policy on the Libyan community.

“Often in university events on politics like these, academics like professors are the only ones involved. So we get the analytic academic side of the story. The strength of the panel in my opinion is that we not only got different academic perspectives but also how the events in Libya impact governments and their officials and the Libyan community,” Khan said.

News

BaSIC survey gives voice to students on MUNACA strike

by Nathaniel Finestone on

More in News:

Sam Reynolds

On Oct. 1, the Bachelors of Arts and Science Integrative Council (BaSIC) asked its students what stance they wanted to take on the MUNACA strike.

When the results came in, the favoured response, with 44 per cent of the vote, was to maintain neutrality. Supporting the strike was selected by 37 per cent. The remainder, 19 per cent, were against the the strike.

As a result, BaSIC decided to remain neutral on the strike.

“We didn’t even discuss it in the executive. At AUS council, our VP external abstained. We would just go with whatever the surveys said,” Hubie Yu, BaSIC’s president, said.

In addition, the survey had an optional and anonymous comments section in which students could post their thoughts about the issue. Some questioned the validity of having a stance on this issue as a student group, while others criticized the lack of a fourth option condemning the strike. One commenter simply said they would rather see the money MUNACA might eventually get put towards more valuable uses like keeping tuition fees down.

Some students were pleased that BaSIC conducted the survey and consulted students before taking a stance.

“It’s just amazing that BaSIC, as an organisation, is willing to engage its membership and find out their views on a controversial topic such as this; it would have been unfair of them to assume their constituents are for the strike,” Brendan Stevens, a U2 political science student  and member of Conservative McGill, said.

Other students wondered why more organisations did not conduct similar surveys.

“Student groups should consult their constituent members, which SSMU did at the General Assembly, but there were only 100 people out of the huge amount that represents SSMU at that and they tend to be the ones who are more politically engaged anyway and more likely to support the strike so it really depends on the organisation,” Grace Khare, a student at McGill, said.

AUS and SUS have not taken positions on the strike due to opposition.

“We haven’t taken a position: there was a motion put forward two councils ago saying that we take a position on the strike, which did not go through,” Jade Calver, President of the AUS, said.

SUS President Akshay Rajaram noted that while the society has not taken a stance, this is as a result of a lack of information on how the strike affects their students.

“We discussed the issues affecting students in general council and with our dean but we haven’t formally taken a stance,” he said. “Depending on the year [at McGill], students are being affected differently in regards to the strike.”

News

McGill hosts conference on clergy sex abuse

by Eric Mauser on

More in News:

Lindsay Cameron
Lindsay Cameron

To many, the clerical abuse scandal in the Catholic clergy was something that happened in 2002 when media reports were first released, and has only appeared in the public consciousness sporadically since then. This is certainly not the case within the Catholic Church. On Oct. 14 and 15, McGill hosted “Trauma and Transformation: the Catholic Church and the Sexual Abuse Crisis,” a conference which drew together seven bishops, 50 nuns and priests, dozens of academics, and around 20 students to talk about clergy abuse, and how to resolve and prevent it.

“It is significant that this is the first time there has been a major academic conference that is at a secular university,” Dan Cere, a McGill Religious Studies professor and conference co-host, said.

“Most of the conversations that have gone to date [within the Catholic Church] have tended to focus on …  ‘what are the codes, what are the protocols that we need to put in place to stop this?’ They haven’t really looked at what the systemic issues are.”

A study released in May 2011 by the John Jay School of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York looked at statistics of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church from 1950 to 2010 in America. Principal investigator Karen Terry found that incidents of abuse had peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, implying that abuse may not, as previously thought, be endemic within the Catholic Church, but could be linked with particular phenomena of that era.

“We found that the rise in abusive behavior within the Church was consistent with rises in other types of behavior in society,” Terry said.

These included rises in crime, drug usage, divorce, and premarital sex. While Terry emphasized that these behaviors did not cause abuse, the social factors that caused these behaviors to increase may also have contributed towards the increase in abuse in the Catholic Church.

“The dioceses at this point need to continue to provide safe environment programs … but they still need to be held accountable, and they need to increase their transparency in responses to abuse,” Terry said, recommending changes for the church based on the study.

Archbishop Mancini of Halifax suggested that reforms need to be made within the church, including the church’s age-old teachings on sexuality.

“The fact is that sexuality is part of the human condition, and when it is ignored, minimized, or inadequately understood, the result is devastation in people’s lives.”

Instead of ignoring sexuality the way the church has in the past, Mancini urged more discussion on the subject, specifically to allow priests to understand themselves and develop.

Another conference participant, Fr. George Wilson, indicated that the Catholic Church should allow parishoners more power in matters of faith than had been previously granted.

“We should have laymen and laywomen on the board [to ordain priests] making that decision [of who becomes a priest and who does not],” Wilson said.

McGill Student Ombudsperson Spencer Boudreau felt that the abuse that occurred within the Catholic Church could be examined as a case study for other large institutions.

“I think the conference has a message to students that it’s important to speak about any kind of abuse,” Boudreau said.

“I’m in education. A big issue now for example is bullying that goes on in schools and on the Internet … that’s a form of abuse that maybe all of us have to be more sensitive about … I think that we always have to be sensitive to abuse.”

Students felt that the experience was unique and contradicted the views long thought to be true about the Catholic Church’s attitudes towards sexual abuse.

“I think the image from this conference is one that sharply contrasts the one that the mass media has been portraying since this issue erupted … that the church is complacent, that it’s not interested in improvement … but the sense that you get from a conference like this … is that they do care and that they are being proactive…. ” Julian Paparella, a U0 science student volunteering at the event, said.

“As the younger generation, we’re not necessarily directly affected as individuals by this particular issue, but it’s one about which we need to be knowledgable in order that in the future, we may not experience what we did in the past.”

News

Montreal native delivers 50th annual Massey lecture

by Elisa Muyl on

More in News:

Each year, the CBC, in conjunction with the House of Anansi Press, and Massey College in the University of Toronto, hosts the Massey Lecture, a series of lectures given by an expert guest speaker on their original research. In honour of the 50th anniversary of the lecture, CBC invited Montreal native—and staff writer for the New Yorker—Adam Gopnik to speak on a subject that is inherently Canadian: winter.

The Montreal portion of the lecture was co-hosted by McGill and introduced by Provost Anthony Masi. He spoke of the compatibility between the series and McGill’s goals of pedagogy and community service.

“For half a century, the Massey Lectures have advanced these goals by serving as a forum to engage Candians that stimulates reflection, discussion, and debate,” Masi said. “I would call [the series] a Canadian icon, but that might not be appropriate, since its lecturers are so often iconoclasts.”

Presented in a series of lectures that will eventually become a radio series, Gopnik’s treatise on winter is also available in book form. Winter: Five Windows on the Season offers a vista into the season’s historical and cultural relevance. As its name suggests, Gopnik has broken up the lecture and his treatise on winter into five sections, and will be traveling across Canada to deliver his discussion on each in a different city. The first section, on romantic winter, was delivered last Wednesday at the Telus theater. Romantic winter looks at the season’s transformation in European and Canadian cultural discourse.

Gopnik appreciated that the lecture took place in Montreal, the city where he spent his formative years after moving from Philadelphia. It was here that he experienced his first Canadian snowstorm in 1968.

“In the course of a lifetime, we get to live in a lot of places, if we’re very lucky, as I have been … but there’s only one place in life that we live that we can never get over … and Montreal is the place that I can never get over. I walk the streets and I remember,” he said. “But I remember everything, somehow, that happened: when you’re small and young in a place you’re remembering you; as you get older … the you and the place mix together; and I remember even my first snowstorm as if it were yesterday, although it was in fact Nov. 12, 1968.”

Gopnik’s lectured on the transformation of the conception of winter in European culture, then Canadian culture, to the modern understanding of winter that Canadians now hold.  He noted that we encounter a lot of natural metaphors, and that it makes a lot of sense that winter and loss are equated. His lecture then followed the evolution of winter from something awful, bleak, and grey, to something beautiful—almost mystical—and the role that the progression of time has played in the season’s conception. The romance of winter is now possible, as it was for him the morning of the snowstorm: technology and the modern era allow us to appreciate winter from behind one of our five windows.

The lecture was well-received by the audience, and many lined up afterwards for a chance to speak with Mr. Gopnik and have him sign their copies of the book.

“He really engaged my sense of romanticism,” Genvieve Aboud, a teacher at the Champlain College Cégép in Montreal, said. “Then he countered that with the realism, with what we live every year: walking through the slush …  I think it was really neat the way he balanced the two ideas.”

“I wouldn’t have immediately thought of Adam Gopnik for the 50th anniversary lecture,” Bethany Or, another teacher at the Cégép, said. “He writes for the New Yorker, and I know that he lived in Paris … but it was perfect and he obviously put a lot of thought into it.”

The lecture will air on CBC Radio 1 Ideas at 9 p.m. on the week of Nov. 7. Gopnik will speak next in Edmonton on Friday Oct. 21.

Sports

Martlets survive scare, keep streak alive in opener

by Sam Hunter on

More in Sports:

Sam Reynolds
Sam Reynolds

One hundred and six consecutive wins against Quebec conference opponents. Thirty-eight straight wins over rival Concordia. Three hundred and one career victories for Head Coach Peter Smith. But who’s counting?

The defending national champions kicked off yet another promising season in front of a sparse McConnell Arena crowd this past Friday. McGill withstood a surprisingly resilient effort from the visiting Concordia Stingers, holding onto an early lead they never fully relinquished in a tense 7-5 win.

“I’ll give Concordia credit,” Smith said. “I thought they were much improved and they did a good job.”

Concordia’s scoring output and the fact that the game’s outcome was ever in doubt raise the inevitable question: is there a crack in the Martlets’ patina of invincibility? Five goals is the highest total McGill has allowed in a regular season game over the past two years.

Smith didn’t appear ready to sound the alarm.

“I thought that we did lots of good things, I thought we moved the puck well,” Smith said. “I just thought we had some inconsistencies and I thought that we kind of complicated the game as [it] went on … We got away from some of the simple things that we do well.”

Despite rough patches of play—failed attempts to clear the puck and undisciplined penalties—every time the Stingers closed the gap the Martlets raised their game.

Three times in the third period Concordia cut the McGill lead to two goals, but each time the line of Leslie Oles, Ann-Sophie Bettez, and Katia Clément-Heydra responded quickly. The line scored 12 and 50 seconds, respectively, after each of the first two Concordia goals, twice restoring the three-goal cushion. The three skaters combined for three goals and three assists. Leading the charge was Oles, who picked up two helpers to go with a pair of goals.

“I think we got goals at the right time,” Oles said. “Every time you go out on the ice you want to bring a lot of energy and make sure that you win your battles … so that the next line out kind of follows the same pattern as our line did.”

Backup goalie Taylor Salisbury took that sentiment to heart. Coming on with under 10 minutes to go in relief of starter, Charline Labonté, Salisbury didn’t miss a beat. Stopping the only shot she faced, a point-blank snap shot with 1:50 to go, she preserved the win for McGill.

“I just tried to focus myself as best as I could,” she said of the surprise substitution. “And the team did really well in front of me so I didn’t have to do a whole lot.”

McGill led 3-1 after the first period and 5-2 after the second. Martlet captain Cathy Chartrand scored one goal, Chelsea Saunders chipped in two, and freshman Ioanna Cagionas notched the first goal of her McGill career.

With the win, a fresh season has officially begun. But for a team where anything short of a national championship seems to represent failure, and with a 106-game winning streak hanging over their heads, there is always plenty of pressure.

“We try not to think about [the winning streak] in the room,” Oles said. “Obviously, everyone outside tries to put a lot of pressure on us but, like I said, we just take it practice by practice, game by game, and shift by shift.”

Sports

Forget Field of Dreams, I’ll stay in the dugout

by Trevor Drummond on

More in Sports:

 

Sitting at his desk, in the basement of an empty building, the manager looks over a list of nine names. These nine names represent his best and most talented people. Though he earns a seven-figure salary, the manager’s office does not have any windows, is not particularly large, and is not in some modern high-rise. Baseball managers sit in the basement of the stadium, just down the corridor from the locker room. It’s an area more fit for a janitor’s office than for the head of a professional sports franchise. But he is not a coach; he’s a manager. There’s a difference.

A coach’s work is done mostly at practice, teaching his players the strategies he would like them to apply. Having coached hockey, I found myself frustrated by my inability to impact the outcome of various events in the game. The fact that my players were seven years old may have had something to do with their inability to execute. I was bothered by my lack of influence; I was limited to substitutions, speeches, and the occasional play-call. 

In baseball, however, the manager can affect multiple aspects of any given play throughout the game. He can decide what pitch is thrown and where it’s aimed, whether the batter goes to the plate hacking away or taking the first pitch for a strike. It’s this ability to control so many aspects of the game that makes the position so appealing to me.

I’d love be in the manager’s chair, admiring my lineup card and listening to the sweet sound of batting practice. Crack. Crack. Crack. I could tell just by the sound whether he’d hit it on the screws or off the end of the barrel. I’d walk slowly through the clubhouse and up on the top step of the dugout, examining the field. Come game time, the dugout becomes the manager’s real office. But rather than sitting at a desk, I’d be up against the railing, analyzing and studying the game with intense concentration and admiration for all of its subtleties. 

They say that sports are 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical, but no game is more cerebral than baseball. The manager must decipher what everyone on the field intends to do on a given pitch before it is thrown, and then decide what pitch to call. Every decision is influenced by statistics, psychology, intuition, experience, and wisdom. If the runner on first is about to attempt a stolen base, a curveball in the dirt could allow him to reach third, but a fastball on the outside corner would allow my catcher to gun him out at second. What separates baseball from other sports is the number of decisions that are made throughout a game. In a 10-pitch at-bat, the manager must decide 10 times whether to steal or hit and run, sacrifice bunt or suicide squeeze. The analysis involved in every decision is astounding.

Undoubtedly there are pressures that come with the position. But as an extremely competitive individual, I wouldn’t want these decisions to be in anyone’s hands but mine. I want to be able to say that we won or lost because of my decisions as a manager. After all, there’s another game tomorrow. Though some question the significance of a single game in a 162-game season, that’s what I love most about baseball: being at the ballpark day in and day out. When you’re truly passionate about something, that fire never dwindles. Not for a game. Not for an inning. Not for a pitch. 

a, Sports

Wolfe calls it quits midway through season

by Sam Hunter on

More in a:

Sam Reynolds

Sonny Wolfe, who took over from Chuck McMann as the McGill football program’s head coach in April of 2007, has stepped down from his post.

Wolfe announced the decision to his team after practice on Oct. 11. Earl Zukerman, Communications and Publications Officer for the Department of Athletics at McGill, broke the news to the public in a press release.

“The chances of making the playoffs are slim so it’s time to start thinking of next year,” Wolfe said, in an interview with Zukerman.

Wolfe had planned to step down next year, leaving the position open for the apparent heir-in-waiting—defensive coordinator Clint Uttley, who’s been with the Redmen for four years.

Wolfe will stay with the team in some capacity until his contract ends in April.

With three games remaining in the season, the next of which is this Saturday, Uttley will find himself in the hot seat sooner than anticipated.

a, Sports

Bishop’s keeps Redmen in check

by Christopher Nardi on

More in a:

Robert Smith
Robert Smith

 

There is an old adage that says “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Although this can be said about many sports teams, it applied particularly well to the Bishop’s Gaiters on Thursday as they roared back from a 9-5 deficit at the end of the third quarter to an 11-10 overtime win over the previously undefeated Redmen.

The large crowd that had braved the cold to attend “Fill the Hill” seemed confident that McGill would prevail, as they ended the first half leading their rivals 7-3. Yet an unruly fourth quarter cost the Redmen enormously and their 9-4 lead had evaporated by the time the final buzzer rang. 

“We made some mental mistakes, and we took some stupid penalties, and unfortunately we lost our composure a little bit in the second half, which really affected our concentration offensively,” Head Coach Timothy Murdoch said. “We had to stay on the defensive for way too long, and we allowed them to creep back into the game, tie it up and then actually get ahead.”

Despite the late game collapse, the team can focus on the many positives. McGill dominated Bishop’s during most of the first half, only allowing them to score two quick goals 13 minutes into the game, and then one late in the frame. McGill’s Alex Rohrbach and Ryan Besse potted two apiece in the first quarter, with Besse completing his hat trick in the second. This feat didn’t go unnoticed by his coach. 

“I’d say Ryan Besse was probably the outstanding player of the game [for McGill], he had a hat trick …[and] he played extremely well offensively,” Murdoch said. Jishan Sharples and Nolan Prinzen scored the other McGill goals.

McGill was also strong in the third quarter, as both sides scored twice, making it 9-5 Redmen. The score might have been much closer had it not been for McGill goaltender Ward Waesche who  made three incredible saves on point blank shots, including a gliding foot save.

The fourth quarter was a different story, as Bishop’s players got under the Redmen’s skin, leading to 13 penalties against the home team. The Gaiters scored five unanswered goals to take a one-goal lead before McGill’s J.J. Miller was able to tie the game in the last minute of play. However, Miller’s last-minute heroics weren’t enough, as Bishop’s scored once more in overtime to end McGill’s winning streak at seven.

Despite his apparent disappointment over the loss, Murdoch remained positive about his team’s performance. “I was proud of the team, even though we lost, I thought we played extremely well … in an emotional game. We fought back hard, and just ran out of gas in the overtime,” Murdoch said.

Despite the loss, McGill remains in first place in the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association East standings with two games remaining in the regular season. The Redmen will attempt to get back on track as they close out the year with a pair of games against winless Queen’s.

a, Sports

Championship hangover lasts until Monday afternoon; Redmen eliminated by Concordia

by Adam Sadinsky on

More in a:

 

The defending champions saw their reign come to a crashing halt Monday, as the Redmen baseball team dropped the deciding third game of their CIBA Northern Conference semi-final against the Concordia Stingers. With the win, Concordia qualifies for the National Championship tournament while McGill will be left at home wondering what could have been. After taking home the title last year, the Redmen sputtered to an 0-4 start. They closed the season in much better form and even took the first game of the series against the Stingers 9-3 on Sunday afternoon. That lead was squandered, however, as Concordia took the last two games by scores of 5-2 and 9-0. “There could have been [a championship hangover]. You know, guys were still on a high after winning, there’s still a lot of talk about the rings and all the garments we got that had ‘national champions’ on it. The minute that championship was done, for me it’s done,” Head Coach Ernie D’Alessandro said. “We were a little disappointed with how everything turned out. Short season, things get off to a slow start, and sometimes it’s tough to right the ship. We lost a couple of guys that we didn’t expect to lose, we had a bunch of injuries, and things just never seemed to turn around for us.”

a, Sports

The Red Rocket takes flight in Montreal

by Sam Hunter on

More in a:

 

After his appearance at the POP versus Jock Charity Basketball Game, held at McGill’s Love Competition Hall on Saturday Sept. 24, the Tribune had the privilege of speaking to current NBA player and former Toronto Raptor Matt Bonner.

Bonner has been with the San Antonio Spurs organization since 2006, and won a championship with them in 2007. However, lately, instead of fighting for the Larry O’Brien Trophy on the hardcourt, Bonner, as Vice President of the NBA Players Association, has been battling the NBA owners in the boardroom for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The Tribune contacted Bonner at his home in Toronto, and we discussed rookie tribulations, the origins of his “Red Rocket” nickname, his thoughts on the city of Montreal, and, nearest and dearest to all our hearts, academics.

 

After you were drafted by the Raptors you were asked to spend a year in Italy. Can you describe that experience?

While I was in Italy I had a great year on the court, but off the court it was an absolute nightmare. I only got paid half of my money, I had my electricity cut out: I had two  eviction notices because the team wasn’t paying my rent. My water heater broke the first week I was there and never got fixed. I’d do the old freezing cold shower, like when you jump in, get wet, jump out, soap up, jump in, rinse off, jump out. And also I think because of that, because I couldn’t disinfect anything with hot water, I ended up getting salmonella poisoning at one point. I was sick for six days and I lost 22 pounds. I hit 105-temperature fevers. I was hallucinating and stuff. And…uh…that was a lot of fun.

But that taught me two things: One, it made me want to make it in the NBA that much more, and two, once I got to the NBA, I never took anything for granted. I’m so happy just to be in the NBA. That was always my dream.

[A]t the end of all that I got my one-year rookie minimum, unguaranteed contract. The worst contract you can get, but I took it, even though I was getting much bigger offers in Europe because, like I said, playing in the NBA was my dream.

 

How do you feel about being such a fan favourite in Toronto?

I don’t even know what to say, it’s just incredibly flattering and awesome that all the fans would take to me, you know?…I don’t consider myself a flashy or exciting player to watch, I just try to go out and do whatever I can to help the team win, you know, through hustle and hard work….

It was funny, in Toronto, I got the nickname “The Red Rocket” because I never had a car and I just would either walk to the games or practice, or if it was raining I would take the streetcar or the subway. [Editor’s note: The red colour of Toronto’s TTC transit system and Bonner’s red hair both contributed to the nickname.] A lot of times, going to the game and coming home, I’m on the streetcar with fans who are also going or coming from the game. And they’re just like, “What are you doing here?” And I’m like, “I’m going home, just like you!” And I remember, every time I’d do a basketball camp we’d open it up for questions and one of the questions would be, “What kind of car do you drive?” You know, a big NBA player must have an awesome car. And they just could not understand when I’d tell them that I don’t have a car.

Another funny one…I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, it’s so embarrassing…because I didn’t really make much money in Italy—then I came back and played for the Raptors and I never really had time to secure living arrangements, so, when I came home that following summer, I remember I lived in my parent’s tiny basement with my brother for the whole summer. A year after playing in the NBA. And I remember, same thing at camps, [fans would ask] “How big is your house?” and I’d have to explain to them that I lived in my parents’ basement.

One thing I learned about the NBA is that in college I might average 20 points a game, in Italy I might average 20 points a game, but in the NBA I’m not going to score 20 points a game, ever. I’m not an All-Star. I’m not even a full-time starter. I’m fine with that, I understand that. It’s about finding your niche and your role that is part of the whole and that will win.

 

You said you’re not an All-Star but a lot of people felt like you should’ve been at the All-Star game in the three-point competition.

Don’t get me started on that. I feel like I’ve gotten the shaft a few times in that department but they always come back with some reason or excuse why I didn’t go. I’m just going to keep shooting the ball and hopefully one of these times I can catch a break. I just hope when I finally catch it I don’t go up there and shoot a two.

 

How great has it been playing with Tim Duncan in San Antonio?

It’s been awesome, he’s an incredible player. I mean, not just about his physical skills on the court, but his mentality; he’s about all the right things and will do whatever it takes to win. Some nights he won’t shoot the ball if he’s getting double-teamed because he knows if he kicks it out we can swing it and get a better shot off the rotation but if he needs to score he will. He’s not selfish. He doesn’t have an ego. He just goes out and wants to win.

He’s a really funny guy. I get along great with him because I’m from New England and people in New England have a very dry, sarcastic sense of humour and he shares that same attribute. He has a very sarcastic sense of humour and is definitely a funny guy.

 

What are your plans for the lockout?

I’m vice president on the executive board of the Players Association so I’ve been sitting in on all the negotiation sessions, which means a lot of travelling back and forth to New York City, so I’ve been busy with that, obviously, spending a lot of time with my family. [I’m] enjoying that aspect of the lockout. Normally right now I’d be in training camp but I can put in more time with my family and just work out and try to be healthy and in shape for whenever the lockout ends.

 

How did you maintain such a high GPA while playing so much ball?

Just busy. Hard work and being busy. I remember I’d go stretches where I’d wake up at 8 and go to bed at midnight for weeks at a time where every spare second was either something academic—studying, class, lab, whatever—or basketball—lifting weights, individual instruction, practice, games. So I just buckled down, put my head down and said I’m going to get the most out of college I can. I’m a student athlete and that means I’m going to get the most I can out of academics and on the court, and that’s what I tried to do.

 

How did you like our city when you came here for Pop Montreal?

It was amazing. Growing up in New Hampshire, which is about a three hour drive to Montreal, I remember in high school all my buddies would drive up to Montreal to party. You know, the drinking age is lower, they had the casino, and the US dollar was worth twice as much as the Canadian dollar back then and they would just go up there and go nuts and come back Monday morning and tell me all about it. And I obviously never went, I was at the YMCA working on my jumpshot. So the only stories I ever heard about Montreal coming up were these stories of just how…I don’t even know what I was picturing in my head, I was picturing the craziest party place, like Las Vegas times 10, like young 18
-year-old kids just passed out on the street from going nuts. And so I never really had a chance to take a proper visit to Montreal because I went to the University of Florida, then my career and everything. It just never happened for whatever the reason, even though it’s so close. So to be able to go to Montreal and have Win and Will and everybody from Arcade Fire be our hosts and be passionate about sharing their city with me and my wife, we had an absolute blast. We went to so many amazing restaurants and concerts and the whole Pop Montreal festival and everything that entails was amazing. We got to do the Old Port. 

We just got a really good cross-section of what Montreal’s about over those four days and it really blew my mind. I loved it, loved the city and it definitely shattered my preconceived notion of what it was.

I look forward to next year when I come back and hopefully participate again and get some of those same experiences.

1 … 1,186 1,187 1,188 1,189 1,190 … 1,367

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue