
Former Raptors all-star DeMar DeRozan shares thoughts about playing in Toronto
During a recent appearance on the Run Your Race podcast, the California-raised NBA star – who has become involved in the rap feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, siding with the latter — shared his feelings about playing the majority of his career north of the border.
When asked by host Theo Pinson, a former NBA guard, about his time playing in Toronto, DeRozan was nothing but complimentary towards the Six.
'Talk about hooping in Toronto, in general … How special is Toronto?' Pinson asked.
'I'm glad I didn't get drafted nowhere else. Toronto is always going to be the No. 1 place in my heart,' DeRozan said.
'For everything that they've done for me, did for me, supporting me through my time there.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Globe and Mail
4 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Netflix's Content Strength Drives Engagement: What's the Path Forward?
Netflix 's NFLX content strength continues to fuel robust viewer engagement, a trend that is central to its growth strategy. In the second quarter of 2025, Squid Game Season 3 alone drew in approximately 122 million views, reinforcing the company's reputation for producing high-impact content that attracts and retains subscribers. Hits like Sirens, Ginny & Georgia Season 3, The Eternaut, and films such as STRAW and Exterritorial also boosted total watch hours, underscoring Netflix's consistent content pull. Looking ahead, Netflix's pipeline for the rest of 2025 and beyond is designed to sustain this momentum. August brings Wednesday Season 2 with fresh twists, while reality hits like Love Is Blind, Selling Sunset and Squid Game: The Challenge will keep unscripted engagement into the fourth quarter. High-profile originals include Billionaires' Bunker from Money Heist creator Álex Pina, thriller Black Rabbit starring Jason Bateman and Jude Law, House of Guinness from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and Mexican drama Las Muertas. Upcoming films span genres and star power, from French Lover with Lupin's Omar Sy to Kathryn Bigelow's A House of Dynamite and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. This robust lineup is bolstered by Netflix's 'local for local' strategy, which pairs global reach with regional storytelling, supported by major investments like its €1 billion commitment to Spanish programming through 2028. Netflix's growing ad-supported tier, a high-margin, engagement-driven revenue source, along with favorable foreign exchange gains, has boosted international sales and fueled investor optimism. Reflecting this confidence, the company lifted its 2025 revenue forecast to $44.8-$45.2 billion. Amazon & Disney: Streaming Giants Challenging Netflix Amazon AMZN leverages its vast ecosystem to add value to Prime Video with benefits like super-fast delivery. Amazon's push into original and international content fueled a 10% year-over-year rise in subscription sales to $11.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Strengthened by its delivery network and streaming scale, Amazon is also expanding its ad business, securing $1.8 billion in commitments and targeting $3.5-$4 billion in revenues by 2025. As a core part of Disney DIS, Disney+ benefits from its growing global reach and strong content portfolio, driving robust user growth. Bundling Disney+ with Hulu and Max keeps customers engaged while offering cost savings. Disney is focusing on stable, profitable growth rather than aggressive expansion. However, higher spending on new content will increase programming and production costs, which could put pressure on near-term earnings for the entertainment division. NFLX's Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates Shares of Netflix have gained 36.8% year to date compared with the Zacks Broadcast Radio and Television industry's return of 25.9%. NFLX's YTD Price Performance Netflix trades at a premium with a forward 12-month P/S ratio of 10.66 compared to the broader Zacks Broadcast Radio and Television industry's forward earnings multiple of 5.03. NFLX carries a Value Score of F. NFLX's Valuation Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NFLX's 2025 revenues is pegged at $45.03 billion, indicating 15.47% year-over-year growth. The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $26.06 per share, up 2.8% over the past 30 days. This indicates a 31.42% increase from the previous year. NFLX stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double" From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all. This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren't winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months. Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners Up Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Netflix, Inc. (NFLX): Free Stock Analysis Report The Walt Disney Company (DIS): Free Stock Analysis Report


Globe and Mail
5 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
CineDream Inc. Begins Production on New Romantic Short Drama Series
Los Angeles, California--(Newsfile Corp. - August 12, 2025) - CineDream Inc., the Los Angeles-based short drama studio, announced today that the principal photography has wrapped on its latest romantic title, Lap by Lap, Back to You. The series marks a significant step in the company's ongoing mission to expand its standardized short drama production system for the global market. Blending sports themes, heartfelt family bonds, and a sweeping romance, the new series is helmed by award-winning Chinese director Sining Xiang. "We're always looking for ways to bring fresh elements into the short drama format," said Xiang. "Each project is an opportunity to create a unique viewing experience for audiences around the world." CineDream applies feature-film production standards to its mobile-first dramas, combining genre-driven narratives with high-efficiency workflows. "Standardizing production for fast-paced, emotion-driven short dramas allows us to deliver consistent quality at scale," Sining Xiang said. "It's the foundation for building sustainable, international success." Looking ahead, CineDream is expanding beyond individual titles into full production ecosystems, covering script development, casting, platform strategy, global marketing, and adaptation opportunities. About CineDream Inc. CineDream Inc. is a Los Angeles-based production company dedicated to crafting cinematic, mobile-first short dramas for global audiences. With a diverse international creative team and a commitment to genre-driven storytelling, CineDream delivers compelling, high-quality content designed for worldwide distribution. At the core of CineDream's approach is a "low-cost, high-efficiency" model that unites creative talent from across the globe. By integrating local cultural insights with international storytelling sensibilities, the company produces content with both emotional depth and broad market appeal.


National Post
6 hours ago
- National Post
Streaming: Ryan Coogler's Sinners hits Crave
Article content Ryan Coogler's film Sinners made a quick trip from cinemas to streaming — it's new on Crave — and, well, it's a trip indeed. Article content Coogler's creative journey started with his first feature Fruitvale Station (2013, Apple TV+) starred Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant, an ex-con attempting to rebuild his life. It's based on a true story, with Coogler striving to humanize Grant in the 24 hours before he died at the hands of the BART cop who would shoot Grant in the back. Coogler next played with the Rocky franchise with Creed (2015, Prime) before taking on one of the more masterful entries in the Marvel Universe, Black Panther (2018, Disney+). Article content Sinners feel like Coogler's most ambitious film, a long way down the line from the social realism origins of Fruitvale Station. Jordan (Coogler's most frequent collaborator) does double duty here playing twin brothers, named Smoke and Stack, who have returned to their Mississippi birthplace after scoring big, dirty money in Chicago. They buy a disused sawmill with the ambition of transforming it into a juke joint, with the help of young would-be bluesman Sammie (Miles Caton) and select members of their community. Article content The brothers anticipate trouble from the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody expects the kind of trouble delivered by Remmick (Jack O'Connell), a drifter with his own vampiric designs on the juke joint. Article content It is apparent Coogler was granted carte blanche to make the movie he wanted, which explains why it has the bravado elements of a musical as well as a Southern Gothic drama. It touches on Black history, but also Black mythology, offering its own take on the story of bluesman Robert Johnson, who purportedly sold his soul to the devil in exchange for mastery of the guitar. Article content Article content But it's a horror movie first. As such, it's a film that warrants the viewing of another film to put it in a greater context. Article content That film is the 2019 documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, now playing on the genre specialty streaming service Shudder. In it, director Xavier Burgin makes the case that the horror genre best reflects the Black experience, although not always in a positive way. Article content 'We've always loved horror,' writer-educator Tananarive Due (an executive producer of the doc) observes at the beginning of the film. 'It's just that horror, unfortunately, hasn't always loved us.' Article content The doc proceeds to demonstrate the sorrowful history of black characters in horror movies, often the first to die, and just as frequently sacrificing their lives so that the white hero may live. Scatman Crothers in The Shining is the film's example of the 'sacrificial negro' trope, double painful because the character in Stephen King's book escaped with his life. How interesting it is that Coogler pays a kind of homage to The Shining with a shot of a vampirically possessed character, as well as a scene which is essentially a replay of the blood testing scene in The Thing. ('My very first movie was The Thing,' actor Keith David proudly notes in the doc. 'And I lived all the way to the end.')