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ORLANDO - Magic centre Nikola Vucevic was a wide-eyed 18-year-old when he first met college teammate DeMar DeRozan. Born in Switzerland and raised in Belgium, Vucevic had been in the U.S. for just over a year and spoke very little English as he and DeRozan began their freshman season - DeRozans lone season - at the University of Southern California. When he was at SC, he was young, DeRozan said of seven-footer. He was coming over, just learning the game. Everything was so new to him. But was he any good? He barely played, DeRozan joked. Vucevic missed the first eight games that year, waiting to have his amateur status confirmed by the NCAA. Logging just 11 minutes per game the rest of the season, he averaged just 2.6 points and 2.7 rebounds. So, no. He wasnt all that good. Not yet. Meanwhile, DeRozan went on to star for the Trojans, alongside Bulls forward Taj Gibson. The Raptors would draft DeRozan ninth overall that coming summer. Vucevic entered the league two years later, a 16th overall pick by Philadelphia, later flipped to the Magic in a four-team deal that included Dwight Howard, Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bynum. Again, he was an afterthought. On Saturday they squared off in Orlando. Faces of their respective teams. Two teams going in opposite directions. DeRozan, an All-Star. Vucevic, still a couple years behind, a budding star and the recipient of a brand new four-year, $53 million contract extension. Vucevic threw the first punch, scoring six of his teams first 11. One of the premier rebounders in the NBA, the 24-year-old has diversified his game. His first bucket was a smooth 15-foot jumper. He followed it up with a put-back layup and a dunk. By the time intermission rolled around, Vucevic had his Magic were ahead by three, shooting a sparkling 52 per cent. He had the Raptors on the ropes. What did Dwane Casey have to say at halftime? I can’t repeat it, he said after the game. But it was one of those things where we had to remind them: If we’re serious about being a playoff team you come out and have a serious, business-like approach each and every night. I don’t care if you’re playing a junior high team, you come out and perform. Message received. On the back of DeRozan, the Raptors scored 38 points in the third quarter. Their All-Star guard poured in half of his game-high 26 points. I knew I was bigger than [Evan Fournier] and I knew I could get in the post, he said following his teams decisive 109-95 win Saturday. As long as I could get my shot off I feel like every shot I take will be a good shot, and I was just trying to take advantage of that. Bouncing back from a 4-of-16 performance in Wednesdays opener, DeRozan took control. He was responsible for 10 of Torontos impressive 48 free-throw attempts, logging just 29 minutes in the contest. His crafty up and under move put the Raptors up by 10, their largest lead at the time, with just under three minutes left and they never looked back. DeMar did a heckuva job in the post against Fournier, Casey said. And that was the difference in the ball game. As per usual, Vucevic was quietly dominant. He finished with a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out late in the fourth. He was frustrated, but such is life for the emerging star. His Magic have now dropped eight straight to the suddenly red-hot Raptors, yet to break 100 points in any of those meetings. Theyve started the season 0-3 for the first time in nine years. On the other end of the spectrum you have DeRozans Raptors. 2-0 for the first time since 2008, the year DeRozan and Vucevic shared the court at USC. Meeting with NBA royalty Even for those with the immense talent and good fortune required to play basketball at the highest level, its not everyday you come face-to-face with a legend in the sport. Shortly after the Raptors arrived in Orlando Friday afternoon, players were surprised to learn that Oscar Robertson, Hall-of-Famer and one of the all-time greats, would be a guest speaker at their team meeting. Setup by senior consultant Wayne Embry, also an NBA icon and longtime friend of the Big O, the historical significance of this meet and greet was not lost on Caseys young team, despite the fact that none of his players were alive to watch Robertson play live. Thats the great thing about the computer, said the Raptors coach. We have some students of the game. We have some sharp young man from that standpoint. They werent around to see him play and most of their parents probably barely saw him play, but hes the history of the league and before you can go forward you gotta know what came behind you. Im always preaching that and that was a good example. Its always great talking to one of them legends, one of them pioneers that shaped the way the league is today, said DeRozan, who admitted he was a bit starstruck after meeting Robertson for the first time. It was just great to hear from him, ask him a couple questions and get his input on playing back then and how much the game has changed. So you definitely gain more of an appreciation for the love of basketball. Robertson, 75, is a 12-time All-Star, an MVP and NBA champion. His 14-year career came to an end in 1974. He averaged a triple-double in his second season, hovering around one throughout most of his time in the league. Heres a man that was 6-foot-5, Casey said of Robertson, who attended Saturdays game, in town to promote prostate cancer awareness. He was LeBron-size back in the day, before weight training was big and did a lot of the same things. We just didnt see a lot of it. [The players] were in awe of how big he was, how he spoke about competing, how he spoke about being a good teammate and doing things as a team. When he throws out the names of players that he played with it definitely gives you goosebumps, DeRozan said. Guys who came way before we did. Weve got to appreciate them. They played in a different era and they played in a lot worse conditions than us. Sometimes we forget about what they went through, with all the luxuries we have now and everything. So its definitely, definitely humbling when you talk to somebody like that. Robertson and Embry were teammates in Cincinnati before Embry became a general manager and signed Robertson to the largest contract of his playing career with the Bucks. That was a lot of history sitting in the room last night, Casey said. I hope the players took a lot out of. Marcel Schmelzer Jersey . Ashton scored a hat trick -- giving him 13 goals in 16 AHL games this season -- to power the Toronto Marlies to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Lake Erie Monsters in AHL action on Sunday. Marcel Schmelzer Dortmund Jersey . Ribery terrorized the Schalke defence throughout and put the home side ahead in the 36th minute when he chipped the goalkeeper before stroking the ball into the empty net. The French winger struck again after the interval, combining with Thomas Mueller on the left before firing a deflected shot beyond the helpless Timo Hildebrand in the 55th, as Bayern bounced back from Wednesdays 1-0 loss at FC Basel in the Champions League. http://www.footballdortmundpro.com/Kids-Manuel-Akanji-Jersey/ . Monta Ellis had 30 points and nine assists, Nowitzki was another of seven Dallas players in double figures with 11 points and the Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 123-104 Tuesday night. Abdou Diallo Jersey .com) - The Utah Jazz look to put an end to their five-game losing streak when the Denver Nuggets visit Salt Lake City Monday night. Axel Witsel Jersey . The deal will pay Hainsey $3 million for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons and $2.5 million in 2016-17.Here in the Spodek arena in Poland, tens of thousands of people are watching two teams of five men compete in the final of a new kind of sport. Around the world millions upon millions of people are watching just as keenly at home. The atmosphere at the Spodek is electric – palpable, in fact. The crowd is chanting “TSM” to support Team SoloMid so loudly that the arena sounds like booming thunder. The stakes are high, the top prize consists of $108,414 and the accolade of being a world champions.But there are no boots, no balls, no bats. All of the people competing are sitting in front of state-of-the-art computers. Around the arena giant screens display the digital action taking place. This is eSports – professional, competitive, computer gaming – a digital sport for a digital age. There has been much debate as to the legitimacy of calling eSports a sport, but regardless of opinion the spectacle taking place is as vital and exciting as any other major, large-scale sporting event. Michal Blicharz, the organiser behind Intel Extreme Masters Championship told Sky Sports: “Is eSports a sport? Well, I have a black belt in judo, I was a referee for 12 years. I competed, I coached and to me eSports is sport. “People typically think that if you don’t get punched in the face or if you don’t sweat then that’s not really a sport. But you can go out and throw a ball against a wall for an hour, is that sport? No! You need some structure, you need some rules to it, and you require a certain eco-system around it. “All of it is here with eSports. If the International Olympic Committee recognises chess as a sport, you cant convince me that a game like Starcraft is not a sport.“I don’t see anybody getting punched in the face or sweating with pigeon racing and that was an Olympic sport. But either way, it doesn’t change the nature of the beast.” You need some structure, you need some rules to it, and you require a certain eco-system around it. All of it is here with eSports. Michal Blicharz CommitmentSo how do you prepare to compete in an eSports tournament? All the competitors in Poland agree that simply being a gamer isn’t enough, and if you were to observe them close up, you’d understand the truth behind this. At first you’d be forgiven in thinking that their hands hardly move across mouse and keyboard but, upon closer inspection, you suddenly nootice that the speed of their movements is so rapid that it hardly registers to human eyes.dddddddddddd. Twitch motions, twitch gaming. To develop these skills requires relentless training and dedication. During a respite before facing Chinese favourites Team WE in the League of Legend finals, Team SoloMid shed some light as to the level of commitment required.Jason ‘WildTurtle’ Tran said: “We practice every day for 10 to 12 hours. We wake up, eat and start practising.”Marcus “Dyrus” Hill insisted eSports doesn’t advocate an unhealthy lifestyle: “I like to stay healthy, Lucas ‘Santorin’ Larsen and I hit the gym every other day.”SoloMid’s regime is understandable when you consider that some eSports competitors can make an estimated $20,000 to $40,000 a month simply by streaming their gameplay online. That figure excludes sponsorship revenue and tournament winnings. But competing in eSports isn’t simply about money, fame and accolade. The games that drive eSports are the backbone of this sociable community and the best way to understand them is simply to play them. Right now at the Spodek arena, Team SoloMid are two games up against Team WE. Deep into their third and potentially final game, SoloMid are dominating. The crowd is frantic, their roar deafening. In a quick sudden flash of excitement SoloMid secure their third game and become the world champions at IEM, their first ever victory at an international event. Søren Bjerg revels in Team SoloMids win ' ' '