One of the nice things about the Toronto Raptors ongoing general manager search is that it offers a much-needed reprieve from the dark and dour gloom of the lockout that pervades so much of the NBA conversation. While talking about an executive that will, at best, serve as a vocal underling to president Bryan Colangelo is hardly earth-shattering stuff, anything that distracts from the stench of cancelled games is worth diverting to for a couple of minutes. For those coming to the party late, after Colangelo was extended for two years by the upper management of MLSE this spring he announced he was on the hunt for a high-profile executive to join his inner circle, and he was willing to offer the title of GM if it got the right guy into the spot. The search was seen by some as a concession Colangelo must have made to MLSE to get a new deal signed, while others saw it merely as housekeeping to replace Masai Ujiris departure when he went to Denver last summer. Regardless, several weeks later Yahoo!s Adrian Wojnarowski suggested that Philadelphia GM Ed Stefanski and San Antonio assistant GM Dennis Lindsey, along with former New Orleans GM Jeff Bower, had made the Raptors short list for the position. Last week, he went on to report that Stefanski had all but sewn up the position and was just waiting to sign a deal. The reaction from fans in Toronto was mixed, and it was with no great pain that they took in the news on Friday that Stefanskis deal had hit a snag and that Bower was now emerging as the frontrunner for the job. The evaluations of both men tend to be quite superficial, and their suitability for the job in Toronto is often mischaracterized as a result, especially considering how little anyone knows about the responsibilities of the job in question. The fact is that no matter who is hired to work under Colangelo, they will be working under Colangelo. After five years fans know that Colangelo is a man who likes to have the final say, no matter how controversial his say may be. Stefanski, Bower, or anyone else in line for this job would be acting as another voice in the room. That voice may carry more weight because of the position it holds, but it is nonetheless just a voice alongside Maurizio Gherardini, Wayne Embry, Marc Eversley, Jim Kelly, Dwane Casey and a number of other scouts and assistant coaches. Colangelo is a guy who likes to hear a variety of opinions, but at the end of the day he wants to be front and centre making decisions based on those opinions. That will not change, regardless of whether or not Stefanski or Bower is hired by the Raptors in the coming weeks. While the tenor of the behind-the-scenes conversations may change slightly, those outside of the room, so to speak, will never know exactly how influential any GM would be in persuading Colangelo to do anything, nor how divergent their opinions would even be of their boss and leader. In any line of work the man or woman in change is the only one that people outside of the company really need to concern themselves with. A total picture of the inner workings of any company is intentionally obfuscated by every company because it is rarely (if ever) in a companys best interest to have their inner workings laid out in the public record. If the general managers position in Toronto were one that offered total autonomy, then this search would be far more interesting and would carry far greater meaning than the Raptors search does today. Instead, Colangelo is shopping for an underling, someone who can function well within the machine that he has designed, while also offering something new to help improve its workings. Obsessing over the draft record or free agent history of anyone up for the job in Toronto wont offer any more insight into what the future of the Raptors might look like than looking at the history of an assistant coach would. As of today, Colangelo calls the shots. Tomorrow, Colangelo will still call the shots. Until the day he is fired, Colangelo will call the shots for the Toronto Raptors, regardless of who his most recognizable underlings happen to be. That said, getting to talk about his underlings is a welcome break from talking about the lockout, the continuance of which, of course, even further negates the impact of this hiring. Oops, so much for avoiding the gloom of the lockout. wholesale jerseys . Even the potential problems at Andretti Autosports right now are good ones to have. Hunter-Reay grabbed the lead with 12 laps to go and held off a surging Andretti to win his second race in seven days, a week during which Michael Andretti successfully pulled off a return to Milwaukee as a first-time promoter. cheapjerseys.com . Thats all that separated Real Quiet from racing immortality. http://www.comcheapjerseys.com/ . -- Jason Vargas already had an efficient night -- and his job became that much easier as his defence turned double plays to shorten his outing. nfl jerseys china .S. Ryder Cup team surprised European captain Jose Maria Olazabal. cheap jerseys . However, there was a setback for another of the competitions big names as Liverpool was held to a frustrating 2-2 draw at home to Young Boys, leaving the English sides hopes of progressing to the last 32 in the balance.LONDON, Ont. -- Brett Welychkas first career hat trick led the London Knights to a 22nd consecutive win on Thursday in a 9-4 victory over the Windsor Spitfires in Ontario Hockey League action. Welychka, who had eights assists but zero goals in his past dozen games, had Londons (30-5-2) first goal 8:12 into the contest after Michael Clarke had opened the scoring for Windsor (14-16-6) 1:37 into the matchup. Londons 22-game streak evens the Barrie Colts from 2009-10 for second all-time in the OHL, with the all-time OHL record of 25 owned by the 1983-84 Kitchener Rangers. Max Domi scored a pair for the Knights, while Alex Broadhurst was credited with the winner making it 5-2 three minutes into the second period. Matt Rupert, Bo Horvat and Josh Anderson also scored one apiece, while Kevin Raine and Chris Tierney each supplied three assists for London. Kerby Rychel replied with two goals and one assist for the Spitfires, which have now lost four in a row. Clarke and Adam Bateman also scored for Windsor who are eighth in the Western Conference and just one point up on Saginaw for the last playoff spot. Knights starting goalie Kevin Baillie was the winner despite being pulled.dddddddddddd He allowed four goals on 24 shots through 40 minutes. Jake Patterson was perfect on eight shots in the third. Jaroslav Pavelka was pulled one minute into the third with just 26 saves on 34 shots for Windsor. Jordan DeKort made 10 saves on 11 shots in 19 minutes of action. Londons power play was 2 for 6, while the Spitfires were 1 for 5. Elsewhere in the OHL on Thursday, Tom Wilsons power-play goal broke a 2-2 tie and led the Plymouth Whalers to a 4-2 win over the Saginaw Spirit. Wilson put Plymouth ahead to stay at 11:40 of the second period before 3,008 spectators at Compuware Arena. Whalers goalie Matt Mahalak made 47 saves to anchor the win. Saginaws Eric Locke opened the scoring with a short-handed goal 11:13 into the first before Matt Mistele tied it at 4:41 of the second. Garrett Ross put the Spirit back ahead on the power play at 9:02 of the second. But Alex Aleardi tied the score just 26 seconds later. Connor Carrick cemented the win for Plymouth, scoring with 3:29 remaining in regulation time. Saginaw goalie Nikita Serebryakov finished with 31 saves. ' ' '