Every once in a while I’m stuck staring at my computer screen unable to articulate my thoughts. I’ll hammer out a paragraph only to delete it within minutes because it doesn’t parlay the message I had intended.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It seems that with some stories I can spend hours staring my a computer screen with a ton of great ideas bouncing around in my head but faced with an inability to share those with readers. This is the dilemma I’ve faced after spending some time with Damon Stoudamire earlier this week; the only problem is this “writers block” has stretched over a couple of days.

As a vertically challenged point guard in high school cheering for Damon Stoudamire was an easy choice. He was the first face of the Toronto Raptors, played the game with passion and seemed to take all the loses that accumulated during the franchises formative years to heart.

Now that I’m an adult – and thankfully hit my growth spurt towards the end of high school – it was surreal to chat with an athlete I’ve admired and looked up only to only to be able to look him eye-to-eye as we chatted. There’s something about heroes that makes you think they are bigger than the 5’10″ the media guide claims they are.

As a grizzled three-year veteran of covering the NBA, the thought of chatting with a player I grew up admiring caused me to wait patiently in the Grizzlies locker room on Wednesday evening and miss out on chatting with other players. Part of me wondered if it was worth skipping out on post game quotes but after spending a couple minutes with Stoudamire but my doubts were quickly squashed as I was able to chat with him about what the Raptors franchise has meant to him, his favourite memories of his time in Toronto, any regrets he has about his time here and how he’s finding the transition from playing to coaching.

Click the play button below to here my live out the chance to chat with one of my childhood heroes.

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