McDonald, the fourth overall pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1973, was considered early to be a huge draft bust. He had a terrible rookie season, an awkward second campaign and came close to being traded in his third year. Then all of a sudden, his career took off. McDonald starting scoring and he didn't stop for about the next 11 seasons.

Bargnani, the first pick in the 2006 NBA draft, had a reasonable rookie season, a depressing and regressing second year and this campaign seemed to be going nowhere until Jermaine O'Neal got hurt and he became the starting centre for the Toronto Raptors . Since then, 10 games and counting, a different Bargnani has emerged. More skilled and less lumbering. More passionate and less gawky. For the first time in a long time, looking like he won't be the great mistake of Bryan Colangelo's career.

He may never be Brandon Roy, who has emerged as the best player from the Class of 2006. But Bargnani can, as he has demonstrated this month, still be something special.

The last 10 games, with Bargnani scoring almost 22 points a game, is either a start or a fluke. But it has been magic for Il Mago. The 10 games previous, he scored just 8.4 a night. His next 10 should be telling -- and, if you consider McDonald's history, potentially career-shaping.

HEAR AND THERE

So, Ron Wilson said, the Leafs are a lousy team and somehow that upsets people. What is he supposed to say about a team that played its most recent playoff game in 2004? Paul Maurice said they were a playoff team. Where did that get him? . . . Aside from moving the obvious candidates, Leafs general manager Brian Burke is going to have to decide which of his future second-line centres, Matt Stajan or Mikhail Grabovski, has to go. You can keep one, but it's superfluous to hang on to both . . . If news conference performance counts for anything, Bart Andrus is off to a good start as the new Toronto Argonauts head coach. He came across as poised, self-deprecating, humorous and open to media scrutiny. You knew in the first press conference of John Ferguson Jr. that he was going to trip all over himself as Leafs GM. You said hello and he didn't have an answer. Sometimes you get a feel right away and the early line on Andrus is impressive . . . The Argos would have been in a real bind had Tennessee beaten Baltimore, as it should have, last weekend. Had the Titans gone to the Super Bowl, the Argos wouldn't have waited around for Andrus . . . One more news conference question: Why was GM Adam Rita so nervous on the podium making a coaching announcement on Friday? Normally, he is the calmest man around.

SCENE AND HEARD

How dumb is the NFL? The AFC final was played outdoors at night in Pittsburgh, while the NFC final was in the afternoon indoors in Arizona. Wouldn't it have been wise just to flip the schedule and play the cold-weather game in the afternoon? . . . The problem with arguments about the Baseball Hall of Fame is that nobody ever talks about defence. All they talk about is numbers. Jim Rice played half his career (when he wasn't a DH) in the outfield. He was an average to below-average outfielder, which means that half the time he played the game, he was an average to below-average player. Which is why, in my mind, Omar Vizquel, the best shortstop these eyes have seen, should be a first-ballot Hall of Fame player when, and if, he ever retires . . . The rumours about a Jermaine O'Neal-for-Shawn Marion trade are everywhere and, when you consider how badly the Raptors need a starting small forward, and the fact Marion played for Colangelo in Phoenix, well, in this case, one and one may equal two . . . Upon his retirement, it was noted that Tony Dungy won only one Super Bowl as an NFL head coach. Not entirely true. Dungy's teams won two, but Jon Gruden got credit in Tampa Bay for winning one with Dungy's team.

AND ANOTHER THING

Love the Joe Flacco story. He was redshirted as a freshman, was a backup QB in his second season at Pitt, transferred to Delaware, earned a starting job in his fourth college season, flourished in his fifth and is starting in the AFC title game today as a Baltimore rookie . . . After all the damage, internally and externally, you have to feel good for Jason Blake, who finally is playing the kind of hockey that made him rich . . . Manny Ramirez will end up as a Dodger or a Giant: Evil agent Scott Boras is playing one rival off against the other in the National League West . . . What a proud dad Colin Campbell must be, watching son Gregory emerge as an everyday NHL player in Florida. Another proud hockey dad: TSN's Bob McKenzie, whose son Michael leads St. Lawrence University in scoring . . . If the Raptors are close to the playoffs in mid-March, their chances are enhanced by a schedule that includes a homestand against Charlotte, the Clippers, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City and Chicago, followed one game later by back-to-back games against the Knicks . . . The great thing about Don Cherry's Hockey Stories And Stuff: There is no beginning, no middle, no ending. It's perfect bathroom reading. You open any page and read a quick vignette . . . By the time the Olympics in Vancouver begin, I will be tired of the commercials that drone on about the fact no Canadian has won a gold medal on Canadian soil. So will the athletes, who already are under enough pressure . . . Happy Birthday to Big Papi, David Ortiz (34), Mark Messier (48) and my favourite minor league catcher, Kevin Costner (54) . . . The left-field history for the Boston Red Sox: Ted Williams was replaced by Carl Yastrzemski, who was replaced by Rice. Hall to Hall to dubious Hall members.