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. Tony Gwynn Jersey .Y. - Geno Smith shouted a couple of mighty expensive expletives. Randy Jones Jersey . The biggest shock of this seasons competition was on when Watford took a 2-0 lead after 30 minutes at Etihad Stadium, only for a remarkable Aguero-led comeback by City in the final half-hour. The Argentina striker produced clinical finishes in the 60th and 79th minutes to level the score before Aleksandar Kolarov put City in front in the 87th. http://www.padressale.com/padres-rickey-henderson-jersey/. Then again, he really was at his home away from home. "It was nice to sleep in my own bed last night," Shields said after pitching Kansas City past the San Diego Padres 8-0 Wednesday. Wil Myers Jersey .C. -- Ryan Sproul scored the winner late in double overtime to lift the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 2-1 win over the Abbotsford Heat on Friday in Game 1 of their American Hockey League playoff series. Rollie Fingers Jersey . The Raptors had an early deadline Sunday, a dreaded afternoon game, and they left the bulk of their work until the last minute, as theyve done so many times before.PHOENIX - At 6-foot-10, Randy Johnson stood on the mound and looked down on batters, an intimidating presence before he even threw the ball.And when he let it fly, his talent matched his imposing stature.With a menacing fastball and devastating slider, The Big Unit had a career that rivaled any other left-handed pitcher who played the game. There is a long list of statistics to back that up, and he seems a shoo-in as a first-ballot selection when the new Hall of Fame class is announced Tuesday.His best seasons came with the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he won four consecutive Cy Young awards — he had a total of five — and his only World Series championship. Every start was a display of searing intensity.We knew that every fifth day we were going to get one of the most competitive efforts in the history of the game, said Bob Brenly, his manager for most of his time in Arizona. He pitched every game like it was the most important of his life.Since his retirement in 2009, Johnson has mostly detached himself from baseball, concentrating on his love of photography, travelling the world, shooting pictures of his many rock musician friends, meeting with soldiers on USO tours to Kuwait, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.Johnson pitched 22 seasons with Montreal, Seattle, Houston, Arizona, the New York Yankees and San Francisco, compiling a 303-166 career record.He led his league in strikeouts nine times, third-most in baseball history behind Walter Johnson and Nolan Ryan. His average of 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings ranks first among all pitchers.Johnson had six seasons of at least 300 strikeouts, tied with Ryan for the most ever.A hard-throwing but extremely wild pitcher as a youngster at USC and in his early professional years, Johnson worked with Ryan and pitching coach Tom House in 1992 to fix his mechanics. And he developed remarkable control.Hes out of the mould physically when it comes to a major league pitcher, Brenly said. For him to go from where he was at the beginning of his career in Montreal when he was just a wild, hard thrower to where he finished his career — this guy would regularly strike out 300 more guys than he walked in a season.Thats a slight exaggeration, although Johnson did accomplish it once. In 2001, he fanned a career-high 372 and walked 71. It was the greatest season inn Johnsons career, largely because of the way it ended.dddddddddddd.In the seventh game of a World Series considered by many to be the best ever played, with the New York Yankees leading 2-1, Johnson jogged down to the bullpen to thunderous cheers from the home crowd. When he emerged from the bullpen to pitch with two outs in the eighth inning, the reaction was even louder.For all the great moments there were in that World Series, Brenly said, people continuously tell me that when Randy ran down to the bullpen, then when the door opened and he came out of it, that was the seminal moment in that World Series.Johnson retired all four batters he faced, then Arizona scored twiof the ninth to win it all in just the franchises fourth season. Johnson was 3-0 in the series and earned co-MVP with Curt Schilling.A lot of left-handed hitters on opposing teams took the day off when Johnson pitched. The rest of the lineup knew they were in for a challenge.Its almost like youre going into a game with a 1-0 lead because of the psychological advantage he gave to the team, teammate Luis Gonzalez said. ... He thrived on intimidating other teams.Johnson talked about his approach to baseball in an interview with reporters when he appeared at Chase Field last May for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of his perfect game.I did what worked for me, he said. Doesnt mean it was the right way — it just worked for me. Whether it was working out the way I worked out, my regimen, my off-season training, my demeanour on game day, my demeanour working up to game day, it worked for me.In 2001, he became the third pitcher to strike out 20 in nine innings in a 4-3, 11-inning victory over Cincinnati. In 2002 he won the pitching version of the triple crown, leading the National League in wins, strikeouts and ERA.And in 2004, at the age of 40, he became the oldest person to throw a perfect game, a performance against Atlanta that still can be viewed on YouTube.Johnson has said hes not the same intense person he was back then. He stepped away from baseball for a long time, enjoying the easing of the internal pressure he always put on himself.I didnt have any problems retiring because I felt like I did what I wanted to do, he said in May. I deserved to walk away. ' ' '