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Former Toronto Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo addressed his tanking comments made at the MIT Sports Analytics Conference in Toronto on Friday and admitted it was merely a poor choice of words. Speaking on TSN Radio 1050s TSN Drive with Dave Naylor on Monday, Colangelo said he had no intention of tanking the shortened 2011-12 season, but definitely wanted a high pick in the draft. "I wish that word wasnt used for headline reasons," said Colangelo, "but the story behind it was: how can we fix the system? How can we tweak the system to make it less likely that teams are rewarded for losing records? "I do believe that if youre as transparent as we were at the time - with our season seat holders, our fans, the market place and the media - everybody knew what the plan was and what we were going through. It didnt make it easy to lose games but there was anticipation that games would be lost. With that comes curtain rewards and in the system that we currently play under, the team with the worst record gets the greatest odds and a non-playoff team is in a lottery that can ultimately lead to them getting top-notch talent coming to their team." Colangelo said the team was happy getting Terrence Ross in the first round (8th overall) of the 2012 draft and would never tell a coach to lose games since it can only have negative long-term effects. "Coach was doing such a fabulous job with the group that there certainly was no intentional losing going on because we won far too many games than anyone anticipated and it put us in a position to still get a nice draft pick in Terrance Ross," said Colangelo. "But it certainly decreased our odds of getting the top choice, which was a franchise centre in Anthony Davis." Colangelo talked about when the team faced heavy scrutiny when they picked Jonas Valanciunas, who was selected in the first round (5th overall) in 2011. "We got booed off the stage when the announcement was made but that was the right pick for this organization. It was not an easy one to make knowing that Jonas would not be made available for at least a year and maybe more if the buyout hadnt been successfully negotiated. We knew it was going to be a tough scenario going into a new year without the inclusion of a top draft pick but the following season we also knew that not only would Jonas be coming but another fairly high-value draft selection - unknown at the time - would be helping us as well. Not to mention we would have cap space and greater developed players at that point." The Raptors finished the 2011-12 season with a 23-43 record, good for 11th in the Eastern Conference, 12 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for the final playoff spot in the East, and the eighth-worst record in the NBA. The team neither rose nor fell in the lottery, receiving the eighth-overall pick in the 2012 draft where they selected Ross out of the University of Washington. The 2007 NBA Executive of the Year (with the Phoenix Suns) was speaking at the MIT Sports Analytics Conference on a proposal currently in front of the NBA Board of Governors which would see the draft lottery and any incentive to bottom out eliminated. "Admittedly, I will say, I tried to tank a couple years ago," said Colangelo to the conference. "And I didnt come out and say, Coach (Dwane Casey), youve got to lose games. I never said that. I wanted to have him establish a winning tradition and a culture and all of that, but I wanted to do it in the framework of playing and developing young players, and with that comes losing. Theres just no way to avoid that, but I never once said, Youve got to lose this game." Colangelo was relieved of his general manager position last May in favour of Masai Ujiri and eventually resigned his post as Raptors president the following month. Baltimore Ravens Jerseys China . Dallas also Monday recalled defenceman Aaron Rome from his conditioning assignment with the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League and assigned goaltender Jack Campbell to the AHL squad. Cheap Ravens Jerseys .C., won gold in the womens 200-metre backstroke, and Dominique Bouchard of North Bay, Ont. http://www.cheapravensjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-trace-mcsorley-jersey . Canada will host the second stop on the circuit, the 2014 Skate Canada International in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 31 - November 2, 2014 at Prospera Place. Ray Lewis Jersey . Summers has seen scant playing time with the Coyotes since being selected 29th overall by the club in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, having played in 47 career NHL games. Wholesale Ravens Jerseys . The Brazil defender was substituted 13 minutes into Wednesdays 2-1 Copa del Rey win at Athletic Bilbao because of a right hamstring problem. Scans revealed a second grade tear which could keep him out for a reported four to six weeks.PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Dont worry, Kris Letang insists. The heat is coming. Sure, the Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman admits the New York Rangers dont invite quite the same animosity inside his teams locker room as the Philadelphia Flyers. The Rangers ended any shot of that tantalizing matchup when they beat the Flyers in seven games to set up a showdown with Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference semifinals starting Friday. That doesnt mean Letang expects the next two weeks to be devoid of drama. Far from it. "Im pretty sure the intensity will get really high at one point when we start," Letang said. "The emotion is always going to be part of the game and were going to have to control it the best we can." Its an internal battle the Penguins won during a taut first-round series against Columbus. Expected to send the inexperienced Blue Jackets home without much effort, Pittsburgh needed six trying games to advance. The way the Penguins figure it, thats a good thing. Forced to respond to adversity, they played what coach Dan Bylsma called their best 120 minutes this season to avoid the upset. "We keep coming and we keep coming, playing forward and playing in the offensive zone and grinding teams down with that play with that speed and quickness," Bylsma said. "Games 5 and 6 were our best at playing that way." The Penguins will need to do it four more times if they want to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year. They split their four regular-season meetings with New York, all of them coming before the Olympic break. The Rangers hardly look like the team that was still struggling to find an identity when they last faced Pittsburgh in early February. Pittsburgh is no longer the patched-together unit that cruised to the Metropolitan Division title despite having stars Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Paul Martin and James Neal miss large chunks of the season due to injury. The Penguins are healthy. New York is hot. Five things to look for heading into Game 1. SLUMPING STARS: Pittsburgh captain and likely NHL MVP Sidney Crosby hasnt scored a goal in his past 10 playoff games. New York forward Rick Nash has just one in 19 post-season contests wearing a Rangers sweater. Whichever sttreak ends first could swing the balance of the series.dddddddddddd Crosby had six assists against the Blue Jackets, including one to Malkin in the first period of Game 6 in Columbus that gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead. Crosby knows he needs to take more chances. So does Nash, who can live with the drought as long as the Rangers keep it going. "Thats all that matters," Nash said. "Im going to try to keep getting my game going." LUNDQVIST VS. FLEURY: New Yorks Henrik Lundqvist and Pittsburghs Marc-Andre Fleury are the two winningest goaltenders in the regular season over the past five years, combining for 334 victories. Yet Lundqvist has yet to lift the Rangers past the conference finals while Fleury has struggled in the playoffs since helping the Penguins win the Stanley Cup in 2009. Both had their wayward moments in the first round. Both responded with brilliant play. Whoever gets hot — and stays hot — will give his team the upper hand. POWERLESS POWER PLAY: The Rangers went just 3 for 29 on the power play against Philadelphia, ending the series by failing to score 21 straight times with the man advantage. Not exactly the recipe to hang with the Penguins, who had the NHLs best power play during the regular season and was a solid 4 for 15 against the Blue Jackets while adding a pair of short-handed goals in the process. GENOS BACK: Like Crosby, Malkin was in the midst of a lengthy goal drought before coming up with his second career playoff hat trick in the clincher against the Blue Jackets. The rust that came with missing the final three weeks of the regular season appeared to vanish as he lit up Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 6. Playing alongside Crosby at times to try to shake loose the cobwebs, Malkin got hot. Expect to see the two MVPs on the ice frequently against New York. NEW YORK MINUTE: Game 1 marks the middle of a busy stretch in which the Rangers will play five times in seven days. Thats fine by them considering it beats the alternative of watching from home. "Now were in the middle of it and were in the battle," New York forward Brad Richards said. "This is when it gets real fun." ___ AP Sports Writer Ira Podell in New York contributed to this report. 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