Royal Tanenbaum, Not The Movie

Larry Tanenbaum , the Chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertaiment, is getting a lot of heat lately from sports commentators and plain fans for the elimination of the Maple Leaf hockey team from the playoff. Somehow this made the performance of its other sports franchise, the Toronto Raptors less painful. Not that it matters to hockey fans. You see , the established sports media has the hockey bias. Some hockey fanatics would prefer that the Raptors are not here. One columnist always refers to ' the 20,000 or so Raptors fans ' as if quantifying their numbers means that they are few and limited.
Larry is not exactly Larry Legend of the Celtic fame but he has quite the same passion for sports stemming from his student days at Cornell University where he was the student manager of the hockey team in the '60s. His group's pursuit of an NBA team in Toronto took the whole 10 years before transfer of ownership fell into MLS&E lap.
His was the plane Vince Carter used to attend the graduation ceremony at UNC and to fly back for the 7th game of Toronto vs. Philly series ( the Raptors lost 88-87) .
He got invited at Vince 's wedding and served as VC's protector from harsh media treatment during the days before his transfer to New Jersey.

Nor is he Larry The Cable Guy , as he a owns a paving company with business contracts in N.America and other interests worth millions. He is the guy the camera focuses sitting in front
with his wife whenever the Raptors are playing at home.

The problem stemmed from Mr. Tanenbaum's perceived 'friendship' with Tie Domi , the pugnacious Maple Leaf which some consider as talentless but managed to hang on to his position in the hockey team. The other thing is the endorsement he gave to the present executives of the team . A lot of the sports commentators and writers are asking for the head of the President and the coach of the team.
Why can't you do what you did with the Raptors basketball team and hire a first class GM ? the media people asked.
Who do you think has a better future , the Raptors with some outstanding young players and cap room to boot or the Leafs with its aging crew ? they asked further.
To Raptors basketball fans , it was a shock. The basketball team mentioned at the same breath
as the revered hockey club.
... and who is the bread and butter of the organization ? the media added rather forcefully less you forget your place in the organization you basketball nuts.