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. Stitched Cowboys Jerseys .The long-haired pivot, who joined the Alouettes midway through the CFL season and put up a 9-3 record as a starter, will be listed as the top quarterback in training camp next spring.With a full training camp under his belt, the Alouettes will see if he has what it takes to get them back to the Grey Cup game after a four-year absence. Dallas Cowboys Store .S. - Nova Scotias Mary Fay guaranteed at least one more match and a shot at the Canadian junior curling championships final on home ice. https://www.cowboysjerseysale.com/ .com) - Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 12 points in the top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats 70-55 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide. Dallas Cowboys Gear . Jannero Pargo scored 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to help the Charlotte Bobcats erase a 21-point deficit and rally for an 83-76 preseason victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night. Wholesale Cowboys Jerseys . The best round belonged to Pat Perez. Tiger Woods didnt come close to claiming either Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open, where the seven-time champion failed to break par in the opening round for first time in his career.TORONTO -- Rudy Gay and the Toronto Raptors just didnt work out, according to team general manager Masai Ujiri. Ujiri said he didnt have a problem with Gays talent level or attitude. But he said that the Raptors were lacking in chemistry, and changes had to come. So Ujiri pulled off his second major trade since joining the Raptors in the off-season, sending Gay and his sizable contract to the Sacramento Kings. "Phenomenal talented player, it just wasnt working," Ujiri said at a press conference Monday. Ujiri said there were issues with spacing on the floor, and also acknowledged the suggestions that Gay and guard DeMar DeRozan did many of the same things on the court. The seven-player deal also sees centre Aaron Gray and forward Quincy Acy head to the Kings. The Raptors receive guards John Salmons and Greivis Vasquez, forward Patrick Patterson and centre Chuck Hayes in return. For his part, Gay was looking forward to a fresh start with the Kings. "Excited to say the least," Gay told reporters in Sacramento before the Kings hosted the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night. "I have a couple guys with me that came with me. Its a new beginning. Ive been saying it all day. They have a lot of young pieces and Im glad to be a part of it." Gay averaged 19.4 points per game, 7.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Raptors this season. The move will free up significant cap space for the Raptors. The six-foot-eight, 230-pound Gay was the Raptors highest paid player with a contract that pays him US$17.8 million this season with a $19.3-million player option for next season. The team also announced Monday that it has waived back-up point guard D.J. Augustin. A first-round pick of the Houston Rockets in 2006, Gay came to Toronto from Memphis on January 30 in a three-team deal that sent Ed Davis to the Grizzlies and Jose Calderon to Detroit. Gay posted averages of 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 35.0 minutes in 51 contests (50 starts) with Toronto. Gay scored 20 or more points 27 times for the Raptors, with four games of 30 or more points. He was ranked second on the Raptors in scoring (19.5) and rebounds (7.4) this season. While Gay often put up big scoring numbers, it often took him a lot of shots to do it. This season has been particularly troubling as Gay has a 38.8 per cent field goal percentage, well off his career average of 44.7 per cent. "To be fair on Rudy, he wasnt having the normal shooting years that hes had," Ujiri said. "He was going through a tough stretch I think. "That wasnt necessarily the case on what made our decision. I think it was more of just chemistry. Everyone could see there wasnt much sync there." Ujiri has wasted no time putting his stamp on this team.ddddddddddddJust 19 games into the 2013-14 season, the team is already looking vastly different to the squad that ended the last campaign. One of Ujiris first moves as GM was to trade out-of-favour forward-centre Andrea Bargnani -- once considered the future of the franchise -- to the New York Knicks. Like Gay, Bargnani was considered difficult to move because his contributions did not match his hefty contract. Others gone after last season include Alan Anderson, John Lucas III, Linas Kleiza and Sebastian Telfair. The other players Sacramento gets in the deal are role players off the bench. Acy, at 6-7, 225-pounds, is averaging 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds off the bench. The 23-year-old is making just $788,872 with one year left on his contract after being drafted 37th overall by the Raptors in 2012. Gray, a seven-foot, 270-pound 29-year-old bench player, is averaging 1.3 points and two assists. Hes in the last year of a contract that pays him $2.6 million. He scored a career-high 22 points with the Raptors on January 28 versus Golden State. The player who should make the biggest impact on the Raptors coming the other way is likely Vasquez. The six-foot-six, 211-pound guard is known as a decent ball distributor, which should help a team ranked dead last in the league in assists. Vasquez has averaged 9.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 25.8 minutes in 18 games with the Kings this season. Vasquez played with Memphis and New Orleans prior to joining the Kings. In 232 career games (123 starts), he has averaged 9.0 points, 5.6 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 24.6 minutes. "Hes a tough kid, great basketball IQ," Ujiri said. "Hell give us something, and were happy to bring him in as a piece and see what he can bring to this organization." The native of Caracas, Venezuela, brings a cap hit of $2.1 million. His contract expires at the end of the season. Salmons, 33, is a 12-year NBA veteran who has serviceable career averages of 9.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists, though that drops to 5.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists so far this season. He may be best known in Toronto for entering a verbal agreement to play here in 2006, before backing out and joining Sacramento instead. "I didnt really feel (Toronto) was where God was leading me," Salmons said at the time. With a cap hit of $7.5 million to Toronto this season with $7 million more in 2014-15, the 6-7, 210-pound Salmons is the most expensive player coming from the Kings The 30-year-old Hayes, a 6-6, 250 pounder, makes $5.7 million this season and $5.9 million next season. He averages 2.1 points and 2.9 rebounds. Patterson, a 6-9, 235-pound 24-year-old, makes $3.1 million this season while averaging 6.9 points and 5.8 rebounds. ' ' '