Valanciunas must now prove he can take his medicine

There's nothing like the ominous "Toronto Raptors statement on Jonas Valanciunas" to make one sit up in bed when you check Facebook first thing in the morning.  And then wait, a statement from JV too.... s*** man, what's he done?

My first instinct was a brawl, but driving-under-the-influence is possibly worse.  I abhor drink-driving as we call it in the UK - there is just no need and the way this played out leaves lots of questions about how the young centre handles his time away from the court.

Overwhelmingly I'm frustrated.  At this point of the season the team and the fans don't need the distractions, it was a situation that was easily avoidable, and the casual nature of how he has got caught just shows a tip of the kind of above-everybody attitude that pro-athletes can have sometimes.  I had a ton of love for the young kid from Lithuania going making it big in the NBA and it's hard not to fall for his humble interview routine, and - well - he's let more important people than me down, for sure.

Jonas is going to have to pick himself up from a big mistake

Then part of me thinks - the lad is 21 years old.  Now, I wasn't drink-driving at 21 but pretty sure I was doing stupid stuff.  And we get our wrists slapped and we carry on.  JV has now got to find a way to put it behind him, focus on the next game and build his public persona back up - let's be honest, two or three dominant displays and a hand in a play-off series win and nobody will remember the day he broke the law.

I'm hopeful, and the early signs are good, that he has the right professional people around him to do that.  Ujuri playing Head Master and Lowry playing the Head Boy/Prefect role - there should be enough arms around the young Center to help him focus, take his medicine and move on.

But we know from a few of his slumps that he has a tendency to put the weight of the world on his shoulders and take things hard...