INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Anthony Bennett wasnt really all that interested in playing basketball. Yeah, it was cl dunking on guys, and a great way to make new friends after moving from Toronto to the citys suburbs. Then, he decided to get serious about six or seven years ago. His future was calling. "I just started growing," Bennett said, flashing a smile while talking about his unique path to the NBA. "And everyone said, You should probably play basketball. So I said, All right. Ill give it a shot. Lk where it got me now." Lk indeed. Bennett was formally introduced Friday by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who shocked the draft by selecting the UNLV power forward with the No. 1 overall pick on Thursday night. Although he wasnt regarded by many draft experts as the best player available, Bennett was always at the top of Clevelands board. They scouted the 6-ft-7, 240-pounder extensively all season, fell in love with his game and after getting rave reviews about his character, chose him over Kentucky centre Nerlens Noel, Kansas guard Ben McLemore, Georgetown forward Otto Porter Jr. in a flawed draft. "As we did our evaluations throughout the entire year, we just kept coming back to his ability and his talent and how it fit with our guys," Cavs general manager Chris Grant said. "A lot of times, like last year, its just clear-cut. But for us, through the year, we always had him very high in our rankings and as we went back and reviewed the film and went on campus and visited everybody, we came away saying hes a great kid. Hes willing to work and do the right things and hes got a bunch of talent." From almost the moment they won the lottery until they had to call the league with their pick, the Cavs listened to multiple trade offers before taking Bennett, who averaged 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds in his one season with the Runnin Rebels. Bennett didnt find basketball as much as the sport discovered him. After his family moved from the rough Jane and Finch area of inner Toronto to Brampton, Ontario, Bennett enjoyed playing hps, but it wasnt his passion. "I was just playing around and just wasting time," he said. His mother, Edith, was encouraged to get him on an organized team, but as she watched her boy clumsily run up and down the flr, she never dreamed it would one day become his profession. "At first, people were saying, Oh, he cant play," she said. "But a few of the coaches stuck with him and gave him a chance. See what a chance will get you?" Bennetts arrival didnt come without some risks for the Cavs. He recently underwent shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and has reportedly struggled with his weight while recovering. Grant, though, sees him as the next piece -- along with Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters -- to help turn around a franchise that has gone 64-166 in the three seasons since LeBron James left. "A lot of guys in this draft were out for medical reasons, but at the end of the day we just felt like this was the right guy to add with all the talent he has," Grant said. "You put him in a pick and roll with Dion or Kyrie, hes going to be pretty difficult to guard because he can sht the ball and is athletic and can handle the ball and get to the rim." Theres a strong possibility Bennett wont even start as a rkie next season. He could wind up as a backup to fellow Canadian Tristan Thompson, who was taken by the Cavs in the first round in 2011. Like Bennett, Thompson grew up in Brampton. "I feel like me and Tristan will become best friends," Bennett said. "Hes going to be my go-to guy just because hes from Canada. Im sure there are lot more guys on that team I can go to, but just because even if Im here in Cleveland or back home in Brampton, I can talk to him anywhere I am." Some questioned why the Cavs would take another power forward with Thompson on the roster and other pressing needs like a shter or small forward. Cavs coach Mike Brown isnt concerned about having two potential starting power forwards and is confident playing time will begin to get sorted out in training camp. "They have to go out and compete," Brown said. "They may be buddies, but once they cross that line, I think theyll get after each other. Theyll want to make themselves better, as well as the team. Its great to have depth in all areas. Anthony is definitely a guy that has added that to us. He is versatile. Hes different than the bigs we have. "He can be used in a lot of different ways." As his skills developed and his game blossomed, Bennett kept a list of players he dunked over. A dunking diary, so to speak. "I thought it was pretty fun to do," he said with laugh. "It was between me and my friends growing up in Canada. I thought, Why not? I think I gave it a year and a half. When I got to 100, I stopped." Hes already made history as the first player from his country to be taken first overall, and Bennett says theres plenty more talent north of the U.S. border. And now that the Cavs have two Canadians, is he expecting to hear "O Canada" played before games in Cleveland? "If it happens, man, Ill be happy," he said. Philadelphia Phillies Gear . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. Cheap Phillies Jerseys . NBA officials ruled the court unplayable in the Bucks final exhibition game on Oct. 25 because players were slipping, and the game was cancelled midway through the first period. https://www.cheapphilliesjerseys.us/ . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shtout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shk off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. Phillies Jerseys 2019 . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Fake Phillies Jerseys . - The Oakland Raiders re-signed offensive lineman Khalif Barnes on Friday. When Paul Tracy completed a three-race winning streak at Gateway International Raceway early in the 1997 CART season, it brought Team Penskes tally of Indy car race wins to 99. Commemorative hats for the teams impending 100th win were hastily commissioned.The Penske hospitality crew carried those black hats emblazoned with a red 100 logo around the country for the next three years as Roger Penskes flagship team endured the longest winless period since the teams formation in 1968. The hats finally escaped captivity on May 27, 2000, when Gil de Ferran earned the teams historic 100th Indy car win at Nazareth Speedway.?Team Penske broke out a batch of nearly identical 100 hats Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway after Brad Keselowski earned the man they call The Captain his 100th victory in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. The hats didnt fester as long this time; Joey Logano had scored win No. 99 at Michigan International Speedway just three weeks ago.Even though Penskes first Indy car and NASCAR wins came within the space of two years (1971 and 72), it tk much longer to reach the century mark in stock car competition. The Indy car team has now amassed 183 race wins, including six this year split between Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Juan Pablo Montoya.While Penskes front-runner status in the IndyCar Series is a given, success has been much more difficult in NASCAR. Thats why he tk so much satisfaction in Keselowskis landmark win at Daytona.With four wins split between Keselowski (with three) and Logano, Penske is enjoying a strong campaign during his 50th anniversary season.Well, I would just say that the 100th in NASCAR is something special and to do it here on the Fourth of July weekend, its amazing, Penske said.?But its a byproduct of all the gd people we have, and weve got to continue to remember that.?We lose more than we win in this business, and youve got to know how to deal with the downs and take advantage of the ups.One hundred wins puts us in a gd position and it couldnt come at a better time, he noted. Sixteen years ago we won our first 100th race in IndyCar, so it tk a long time to get here on the NASCAR side. But a pretty important night for us.Back in 2000, Penske didnt have to wait long for his 101st Indy car win. It came just three weeks later at Detroit Belle Isle, where longtime Team Penske driver Helio Castroneves earned his first Indy car race win and inaugurated his traditional fence-climbing celebration.Penskes resurgence as a champion Indy car team after three years in the wilderness came after a near-total rebuild. In late 1999, he hired 31-year-old Tim Cindric away from Bobby Rahal to run the Indy car team, abandoned his philosophy of building his own chassis and maintaining an in-house engine program and hired a pair of up-and-coming young drivers in de Ferran and Castroneves.Equipped with the same basic Reynard-Honda-Firestone package that had dominated the CART series from 1996 to 1999, the rejuvenated Penske organization again demonstrated that it was the top dog in the CART series, with de Ferran winning the championship in 2000 and 01. A move to the Indy Racing League in 2002 did nothing to slow the Indy car momentum, and Penske drivers Pagenaud, Castroneves and Power currently rank 1-2-3 in the IndyCar Series standings.In 2006, Cindric assumed control of all of Team Penskes racing operations and was tasked with moving the Indy car team from its longtime Pennsylvania base to Penskes 375,000-square-ft facility in Mressville, North Carolina.dddddddddddd. With all of Penskes racing operations under one rf, a surprising amount of technology and procedural transfer tk place between the two sides of the enormous building.Penske trended younger with his NASCAR drivers as well. After longtime stalwart Rusty Wallace retired, 28-year-olds Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman formed the Penske lineup. Newman delivered Penskes first Daytona 500 crown in 2008, but the NASCAR team sn went even younger. Sam Hornish Jr. (who won an Indianapolis 500 and an IndyCar Series championship for Penske) and AJ Allmendinger failed to produce in the Cup Series, but the late-2009 hiring of Keslelowski, then 25, proved to be the real catalyst for the Penske NASCAR team.With 44 wins for the team across the various NASCAR platforms, Keselowski is the second most successful driver in Team Penske history, trailing only founding pilot Mark Donohues 59. Keselowski has won 19 Cup races for Penske since 2011, including Penskes first NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2012.Now an established Cup veteran at age 32, Keselowski has paired well with 26-year-old Logano, who since joining the team in 2013 has started to live up to the high expectations placed upon him at the start of his career. Its one of the strongest driver lineups in the Cup Series, and Penske has 22-year-old Ryan Blaney waiting in the wings with the satellite Wd Brothers team should he decide to upsize his Cup operation to three cars.The chemisty the drivers have achieved with their respective crew chiefs (Paul Wolfe for Keselowski, Todd Gordon for Logano) is another key to the NASCAR teams recent success.Thats what Roger does best, putting the right people in the right places for the teams success, Cindric said. He has a way of finding the right people.For Penske, finding the right people extends far beyond the scope of his 450-strong racing operation. Penske Corporation is a worldwide conglomerate, with more than 40,000 associates, and the racing teams are a visible and valuable marketing tl for the companys various business interests that span the globe.Winning obviously is the ultimate goal, Penske said. But I think being competitive every race is the key. Youre not going to win every race, but when I go home after a race I want to see that we were competitive today. Maybe we didnt compete the way we wanted to, but I get probably more satisfaction today seeing one of our drivers get in the winners circle because all those people who are directly involved with that driver and the team get on such a high and it just spreads through the organization.To me, thats the most important thing -- what it does for us with 40,000 employees, he added. Every Monday they know whether theyve won or lost and thats a big thing for them.Another Penske trait is a stubborn resistance to lk back at the past, no matter how successful it may have been.One hundred NASCAR wins is a great milestone, but Roger Penske is already focused on the next goal.You lk at Joe Gibbs and you lk at Richard Childress and certainly Rick Hendrick and some of the other teams, these guys have won a lot of races, Penske said. I think weve competed in multiple series, and I think were almost at 450 wins now [434, to be exact], and three or four away from 500 poles.Our goal is 500 and 500 [wins and poles], he added.?This was the first step -- to get to 100 wins in NASCAR. ' ' '