Jeremy Lin has become a media star in New York and the lesser media centres scattered about the planet.

Jeremy Lin says God’s fingerprints are all over his story and if that’s true you have to admit He certainly took his time.

“A miracle from God is the way I would describe it,” Lin told a packed news conference at Air Canada Centre prior to tonight’s game between the Raptors and his New York Knicks.

“So much has to be put into place and a lot of it is out of my ...

It is past midnight in Lithuania but Alex Dzikic is still up.

The coach of Lietuvos Rytas in Vilnius (metropolitan population 850,000) is happy to accommodate a reporter’s call from North America.

“Anytime,” he says. “Call anytime.”

Dzikic is a 40-year-old Serb and a key figure in the aspirations of the Toronto Raptors. He is not on the Raps’ payroll. That doesn’t mean his work won’t benefit the NBA team.

Dzikic is nursing 19-year-old Jonas Valanciunas through the  season that includes play in the Lithuanian league, the VTB United League as well as Eurocup ...

Coaches and players hate turnovers.

No really hate them. They are like Moriarty to Holmes, Kryptonite to Superman, the Toronto Star to the Mayor of Toronto, environmental rules to the nice folks who run the Tar Sands. Turnovers to basketball lovers are like a Greenpeace inflatable that skids into an ice-floe jammed with nice, fat seals.

You want to elicit a hairy eyeball from an NBA coach, float the idea that turnovers are fun to watch.

“I don’t think any coach or fan who enjoys NBA basketball wants to see any turnovers,” Raptors ...

Funny thing happened in the Raptors dressing room, Wednesday night.

The locals had just dropped a hard-fought 90-85 decision to the Indiana Pacers. It was a wonderfully ramshackle affair. Down 11 points with eight minutes left, the Raptors cut the margin to 83-81 before James Johnson leaned a step too far toward the key. His man, Danny Granger, slid out to the corner with just over a minute to play.

James Johnson is freaky athletic. He scoring line looks like something your keyboard barfed up. Against Indiana he brought down eight rebounds, ...

MORE FROM MONDAY’S COMMUNITY VISITS

It is suppertime at the St. Felix Centre, a soup kitchen in the heart of Toronto and Jamaal Magloire towers above the tables. He is wearing an apron and a plastic pitcher is enveloped in his giant right hand.

“Who needs milk ?” he says, working the crowd, joshing the clientele, six-foot-11  and bigger than life.

When the 33-year-old Magloire signed a free agent contract with the Raptors last month, he became the first Canadian player in franchise history.

He seems destined to also be the most dedicated to ...

Johnny Davis has skated.

“When I was a kid growing up in Detroit, sometimes the firemen would spray water on a spot in a park and the kids would skate on it,” he said.

It’s not hard to imagine the Raptors lead assistant gliding along the ice.

Everything Johnny Davis does, everything he touches it seems, is cool.

Johnny Davis oozes cool. Just how he does it isn’t hard to see. He listens. He smiles. He speaks deliberately with an aim not to be heard but to be understood.

These are superb faculties in human ...

Leandro Barbosa touches his head. Then he taps a spot on his chest directly above his heart.

“It’s going to take both,” he says.

Media Day brought the first public viewing of the 2011-2012 Raptors and it will be a regular season like no other.

The Raptors will play 66 games in an astonishing 113 days. What begins Boxing Day in Cleveland will end four months later at home against the New Jersey Nets.

“Man, it’s insane,” said centre Aaron Gray, a seven-footer who played last season with the New Orleans Hornets.

“We’re doing two-a-days ...

Read Bargnani’s Official Statement

The basketball guy prefers ornate answers and gentle language. The hockey man speaks in six-word sentences and swears a lot.

Now that Bryan Colangelo has signed a multi-year-extension, he and Brian Burke have something in common past the letterhead on their cheques. Both will be charged with making a soufflé out of a donut.

It’s a simple truth that spans the sports: no centre, little chance of a playoff.

The Toronto Star’s Dave Feschuk reported that Andrea Bargnani told Italy’s Sky Sports that IF he were to leave Toronto he ...