Opinion | Everything Masai Ujiri did — his dreams and his success with the Raptors — was big. Maybe too big for the team’s owner
Masai Ujiri is one of those people who is both very human and larger than life, and he accomplished indelible things in this city and this country, and that makes the ending worse, really, because the ending was so small.
Masai Ujiri is one of those people who is both very human and larger than life, and he accomplished indelible things in this city and this country, and that makes the ending worse, really, because the ending was so small.
The ending was Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley saying goodbye to Ujiri as president of the ɫɫ Raptors on Friday without explaining why. He extolled the state of the franchise while implicitly blaming Ujiri if failure comes next. Pelley is a good man, but he had a lousy product to sell.
But maybe that’s just ɫɫ sports now. Pelley applauded Masai’s legacy here with good reason: The Rogers-controlled Blue Jays haven’t won a playoff round since 2016, when Rogers fired Alex Anthopoulos, and the Leafs have won two playoff rounds since 2004, but the ɫɫ Raptors won a championship in 2019, and have the fifth-best win percentage in the NBA since Ujiri’s first year as GM in 2014. Ujiri gave ɫɫ basketball credibility and more, a sort of self-belief. He changed this city.
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Bruce Arthur is a columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter:
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