Masai Ujiri’s future with Toronto Raptors dicier than ever after Rogers buys out Bell
September 19, 2024
Masai Ujiri’s future with Toronto Raptors dicier than ever after Rogers buys out Bell
12 comments
Tidbits:
>When asked for comment on Wednesday by The Athletic, Ujiri declined, expressing no concern about the sale.
>It stands to reason there will be increased tension. With Bell stepping away, minority owner Larry Tanenbaum, who has been Ujiri’s mentor within MLSE and is the chairman of the company, will likely become just another stakeholder rather than someone who holds significant sway because the two communications giants had equal power. Tanenbaum isn’t going anywhere imminently; last week, he was re-elected as the chair of the NBA’s board of governors. Ujiri is the Raptors’ alternate governor, a symbol of his relationship with Tanenbaum.
>He has not, though, had to deal with Rogers as the ultimate authority within MLSE and, therefore, the Raptors. The nature of the relationship changes. Rogers isn’t a boss within MLSE now; he is the boss.
>Does Ujiri, who has largely had carte blanche to run the Raptors as he has seen fit, have the stomach to deal with Rogers? Looking at the Blue Jays, Rogers hasn’t appeared to interfere too closely in day-to-day baseball matters.
>Meanwhile, as we enter the final two seasons of Ujiri’s contract, will Rogers want to commit to continue paying Ujiri as an elite executive, especially if the Raptors’ retooling outside of real competitive contention continues over the next few years?
>Ujiri has frequently expressed his love for Toronto and the Raptors during his tenure, even joking that the media would have to run him out of town for him to leave. With Wednesday’s deal, a more serious threat to end Ujiri’s time in Toronto became obvious.
He just needs to keep on doing his thing and keep his heads down, would be a big loss for the Raptors if Rogers got rid of him
From a Doug Smith article a few years ago:
>”One of the heads of Canadian telecom giant Rogers Communications, Edward Rogers, reportedly went to great lengths to keep the Raptors from re-signing Ujiri.
>Dobby and Smith report that Rogers believed the compensation offered to Ujiri was too high, and that the team would be okay without him at the helm.
>Rogers allegedly confronted the Raptors president over his grievances, leaving Ujiri feeling disrespected and reportedly considering taking time away from his position with the team. Larry Tanenbaum, Dale Lastman and Mirko Bibic — key members of the MLSE board — reassured Ujiri that he was wanted in Toronto and convinced him to return, according to Dobby and Smith.
>“Masai understands better than anyone that negotiations test both sides,” Rogers told the Star.
>Rogers reportedly contacted the NBA’s front office and league commissioner Adam Silver, complaining that his demands to MLSE were being ignored. League officials told Rogers that Tanenbaum, the team’s governor, had the power to overrule the board, and did so in order to bring Ujiri back.”
So Eddie didnt get his own way, cause Larry Legend had better plans, and he went and tattled to Daddy Silver to try to over rule the better plans. Is this the kind of leadership we have to look forward to?
lol nice try new york, keep em coming but Masai will leave when he’s done and he’ll go straight to Africa to start their space program
The run is over for Masai, sadly. Just hoping he can push the team a little further ahead before his contract is up.
Fire Ujiri and bring back Rob Babcock, or maybe Brian Colangelo…
For the fans that think anything would improve without him, I’d say 1% chance things improve or stay the same, 99% chance we go back to the never ending musical chairs dumpster fire that was basically every year Masai has not been part of the team.
See the leafs for reference
Clearly Roger’s doesn’t value the guy like Larry does. But …. Results > anything else. If this team is firmly ascending and headed in the right direction I think his job is pretty safe.
I choose to be positive. I am hoping from all I heard and read about Keith Pelley(MLSE CEO) that he will have the sense to keep the same Front Office that doubled the value of the team.
[deleted]
I’d like to know where Keith Pelley fits into all this. I’d think that he’s smart enough to foresee what could happen and would try to provide a buffer between Masai and the new board, like Tim Leiweke did. Although I suppose the difference is that Leiweke is much more powerful and influential as a sports executive than Pelley has ever been…
Can’t bring myself to get worked up about Masai Ujiri’s future after these last few seasons. He and Bobby have done a poor job since the championship, they have made more bad decisions than good ones, and many of their bad decisions are specific to them, a replacement-level generic GM wouldn’t have made them. A generic GM hasn’t always coveted Thad Young and isn’t willing to make a brain-dead trade for him, a generic GM doesn’t arrogantly double down on Vision 6’9″, a generic GM isn’t scarred by the Demar trade to the point that he prioritizes his personal friendships with Fred and Pascal over the long-term success of the team. If a replacement-level GM was in charge instead this team would be rebuilding with the wind at their backs right now, the future would look much brighter.
So yeah, the bad old days, sure, the alternative could be much worse, sure. I’m willing to believe that but I’m not willing to be sentimental about Masai anymore.
Ed Rogers is going to fuck everything up isn’t he? Just stick to snorting coke on your yacht nepo boy.
12 comments
Tidbits:
>When asked for comment on Wednesday by The Athletic, Ujiri declined, expressing no concern about the sale.
>It stands to reason there will be increased tension. With Bell stepping away, minority owner Larry Tanenbaum, who has been Ujiri’s mentor within MLSE and is the chairman of the company, will likely become just another stakeholder rather than someone who holds significant sway because the two communications giants had equal power. Tanenbaum isn’t going anywhere imminently; last week, he was re-elected as the chair of the NBA’s board of governors. Ujiri is the Raptors’ alternate governor, a symbol of his relationship with Tanenbaum.
>He has not, though, had to deal with Rogers as the ultimate authority within MLSE and, therefore, the Raptors. The nature of the relationship changes. Rogers isn’t a boss within MLSE now; he is the boss.
>Does Ujiri, who has largely had carte blanche to run the Raptors as he has seen fit, have the stomach to deal with Rogers? Looking at the Blue Jays, Rogers hasn’t appeared to interfere too closely in day-to-day baseball matters.
>Meanwhile, as we enter the final two seasons of Ujiri’s contract, will Rogers want to commit to continue paying Ujiri as an elite executive, especially if the Raptors’ retooling outside of real competitive contention continues over the next few years?
>Ujiri has frequently expressed his love for Toronto and the Raptors during his tenure, even joking that the media would have to run him out of town for him to leave. With Wednesday’s deal, a more serious threat to end Ujiri’s time in Toronto became obvious.
He just needs to keep on doing his thing and keep his heads down, would be a big loss for the Raptors if Rogers got rid of him
From a Doug Smith article a few years ago:
>”One of the heads of Canadian telecom giant Rogers Communications, Edward Rogers, reportedly went to great lengths to keep the Raptors from re-signing Ujiri.
>Dobby and Smith report that Rogers believed the compensation offered to Ujiri was too high, and that the team would be okay without him at the helm.
>Rogers allegedly confronted the Raptors president over his grievances, leaving Ujiri feeling disrespected and reportedly considering taking time away from his position with the team. Larry Tanenbaum, Dale Lastman and Mirko Bibic — key members of the MLSE board — reassured Ujiri that he was wanted in Toronto and convinced him to return, according to Dobby and Smith.
>“Masai understands better than anyone that negotiations test both sides,” Rogers told the Star.
>Rogers reportedly contacted the NBA’s front office and league commissioner Adam Silver, complaining that his demands to MLSE were being ignored. League officials told Rogers that Tanenbaum, the team’s governor, had the power to overrule the board, and did so in order to bring Ujiri back.”
So Eddie didnt get his own way, cause Larry Legend had better plans, and he went and tattled to Daddy Silver to try to over rule the better plans. Is this the kind of leadership we have to look forward to?
lol nice try new york, keep em coming but Masai will leave when he’s done and he’ll go straight to Africa to start their space program
The run is over for Masai, sadly. Just hoping he can push the team a little further ahead before his contract is up.
Fire Ujiri and bring back Rob Babcock, or maybe Brian Colangelo…
For the fans that think anything would improve without him, I’d say 1% chance things improve or stay the same, 99% chance we go back to the never ending musical chairs dumpster fire that was basically every year Masai has not been part of the team.
See the leafs for reference
Clearly Roger’s doesn’t value the guy like Larry does. But …. Results > anything else. If this team is firmly ascending and headed in the right direction I think his job is pretty safe.
I choose to be positive. I am hoping from all I heard and read about Keith Pelley(MLSE CEO) that he will have the sense to keep the same Front Office that doubled the value of the team.
[deleted]
I’d like to know where Keith Pelley fits into all this. I’d think that he’s smart enough to foresee what could happen and would try to provide a buffer between Masai and the new board, like Tim Leiweke did. Although I suppose the difference is that Leiweke is much more powerful and influential as a sports executive than Pelley has ever been…
Can’t bring myself to get worked up about Masai Ujiri’s future after these last few seasons. He and Bobby have done a poor job since the championship, they have made more bad decisions than good ones, and many of their bad decisions are specific to them, a replacement-level generic GM wouldn’t have made them. A generic GM hasn’t always coveted Thad Young and isn’t willing to make a brain-dead trade for him, a generic GM doesn’t arrogantly double down on Vision 6’9″, a generic GM isn’t scarred by the Demar trade to the point that he prioritizes his personal friendships with Fred and Pascal over the long-term success of the team. If a replacement-level GM was in charge instead this team would be rebuilding with the wind at their backs right now, the future would look much brighter.
So yeah, the bad old days, sure, the alternative could be much worse, sure. I’m willing to believe that but I’m not willing to be sentimental about Masai anymore.
Ed Rogers is going to fuck everything up isn’t he? Just stick to snorting coke on your yacht nepo boy.