Toronto Star: Edward Rogers fought plans to keep Raptors’ Masai Ujiri

[Fairview4Life]

Im a victim too. Im a lowly pawn who cant understand the dynamics of the RCI power struggle. My apologies. Educate us all.

Hey, you cancel that Rogers subscription. Its a noble fight you got there. LOL

I dont have a rogers subscription. Tell me how to identify whether a videographer is filming or not? if im not there. These are the insights we came to you for.

Do you even drive to Muskoka bro?

[vini_vidi_vici]

This **** is too funny, okay boys, enjoy.

[lobosloboslobos]

No GM is worth 15 million dollars (nothing wrong in Rogers' thoughts). You know how much Billy Beane makes - 4 million - in a sport where being a GM is most impactful.
This team is headed towards a decade of mediocrity or worse and here we have a bunch of lemmings cheering a suit. Gl.

get a new slant Ed

[Quattro]

Looks like the small crew who defended the cop in Golden State are still hanging around.

[OakleyDokely]

No GM is worth 15 million dollars (nothing wrong in Rogers' thoughts). You know how much Billy Beane makes - 4 million - in a sport where being a GM is most impactful.
This team is headed towards a decade of mediocrity or worse and here we have a bunch of lemmings cheering a suit. Gl.

get a new slant Ed

Whose going to tell him that Masai isn't the GM.

[carlosey]

This is how **** it is. After Larry T and crew re-signed Ujiri and over ruled rogers, he unilaterally went to adam silver to change it. (I always found weird how silver didnt stand up with Ujiri specially during the BLM days).

Would this have happened if Masai wasnt black?

[Boselecta]

I swear the people in this thread are new fans and never experienced the raptors before Masai and Tim lewicke. You want to talk about direction lol we were a true laughing stock of the league. Every star young player left, no free agents wanted to sign here, and it felt like pretty much every trade we were getting robbed including 1st or whatever for no reason

There were times I legit questioned if I would ever see a raptor championship in my life. The fact that Masai was able to change this image along with leading us to a championship is worth whatever there playing him plus more. After the championship I pretty much accepted the fact that I'm ok if the raptors don't make a run for another 10 years because from where they came from to just get one was amazing.

And with Masai leading I'm sure we get another one soon. Year 2 into a rebuild where we lost Kawhi for nothing we already have some solid players. Picking barnes over suggs and getting banton last in the past draft are just some of the masterful moves this guy continues to pull off.

[mdenny]

Wow this is huge news.

[mdenny]

Wow this is huge news


Tbh....i thought Masai was a goner. The way that contract negotiation went was basically unprecedented. So now we know why. Unbelievable. .

One of rhe factors in how weird it was....all our reporters work for the same interests that control the team....so we weren't gonna hear much speculation about it from anyone if they had a scoop. In anycase....it was really hard to believe masai's resigning was a sure thing with all the delays and radio silence. We knew SOMETHING was going on so it wasnt looking good.

Thats incredible that masai was offered more than 15 milly per year AND 3% ownership stake. Also hadnt considered an emglish premier league opportunity. Damn man....he genuinely wants to ve here.

In anycase....i hope for the sake of my industry that Ed gets whats coming to him. Maybe this event will slow down all the cost-cutting that is sending me and my colleagues to unemployment.

[Vampirate]

No GM is worth 15 million dollars (nothing wrong in Rogers' thoughts). You know how much Billy Beane makes - 4 million - in a sport where being a GM is most impactful.
This team is headed towards a decade of mediocrity or worse and here we have a bunch of lemmings cheering a suit. Gl.

The GM is literally the most important person on the team, yes even more than Superstars for one simple reason. The GMs are the ones that 'get' the Superstars or not. They are the decision makers.

If the Raptors didn't have Masai, they don't have all the people Masai hired and probably would have went with the safe pick in Suggs who critics say should have went #4 and the picks fans wanted etc.

3 games in and it's clear Barnes has a significantly higher ceiling than Suggs unless Suggs gets a deadly shot.

Incompetent management who runs the team gets you people like Bryan Colangelo or worse.


Yes, top executive's are worth their dough.


The Lakers letting go of Jerry West will still haunt their fans. (the Lakers recent success is all because Lebron chose there, nothing else. Because of the Lakers brand and city, they are really the only team that can get away with dysfunction at the top)

[Duffman100]

Also, for any of us pretending to understand the relationship, power structure and decisions between Ujiri and Webster is just flat out ridiculous. The only people who know how they make decisions, who makes the calls, etc are the people who work closely with them.

[prelude00]

Too many people here who either weren't around for the dark days or have just turned a blind eye to them.

The culture change that was brought in by Masai/Tim was HUGE. The words "believe in yourself, believe in your city" carried a lot of weight to them.

Toronto was NBA purgatory. Never taken seriously in the media (still isn't to some degree), no one ever wanted to play here and no one wanted to sign here. Shoot, we had Canadian players in the league who didn't even want to play here. This is probably what pushed Colangelo's obsession with going after European talent. They were less likely to run away to the States lol.

I never in my life thought the raptors would win a championship because of how poorly the team was managed.

I was worried that if Masai had left this year that the culture that was established would be pushed to the wayside in a couple years and we'd be back to the old days.

This man deserves everything he's gotten. Just following his story, you know he's a compassionate, hard-working individual who has the ability to truly affect change.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

[AJ416]

Hang Edward Rogers and bring down that ugly gross statue. The family is a curse to the city. Is there even a company more hated in this country than Rogers?

[HiJiNX]

Masai is just incredible at PR and embodying Canadian values as a leader. People love him for that, but I do think he has not really positioned Toronto for the future. He says we are rebuilding, but when will Toronto be relevant again. I think Rogers was asking for a plan and that is fair because how bad will this team be?

Here is my take on Masai's tenure:

Prior to the 2019 championship Toronto was a bit of laughingstock being bullied by LBJ every playoff series. They did win a lot in the regular season though, but the East was historically bad during that time.

Toronto had one championship run based on a lucky trade for Kawhi Leonard and LBJ moving to another conference. Also, Golden State losing their most important player to injury also helped immensely.

After the Championship, he bungled all the free agencies there after losing Ibaka, Gasol and Lowry for little to no compensation.

Masai has always valued Toronto players so high with without testing the market. The Khem Birch signing makes no sense and I doubt he was valued in the market the way Toronto signed him on. Siakam was signed before being on the open market - same as OG, and FVV got a pretty big contract as a 6 foot PG who only averaged 17.6 points, 6.6 assists at the time of his deal.

Trent Jr. was RFA and yet they signed him right away when they could have went after other players with their capspace and signed him with Bird rights. Or, they could have done their own sign and trade if another team wanted him. He isn't a bad player, but the contract value at his age is tough to accept.

Lowry's sign and trade really only helped Miami and only brought a mediocre prospect in Achuiwa and a paperweight in Dragic and killed all the capspace that had been planned for the past summer. It wasn't a great free agency, but we missed out on Richaun Holmes and Spencer Dinwiddie which would have made this team much better and supported the core team if that was direction we were going in.

Instead we have an awkward group of vets in their primes who have to play with a bunch on underexperienced players that may make the playin game. I only say this because other front offices with cheaper and shrewd GMs have made huge strides like Chicago, NY, Atl, Phoenix and maybe even Charlotte will take step this year.

Many valid points here imo. I find myself wishing we had a roster like the Bulls, a team that is going for it. Even the Wizards added Dinwiddie and the 3 Lakers, and are solid now. I was all for Suggs at the draft, obviously I'm coming around to Scottie now, but we are still a long way from contending, with no guarantees. And the roster construction
is questionable. I like Masai, glad he re-signed, but it is an awful lot of money for uncertain future results.

What have the Wizards and Bulls won in the last 20 years?
Masai has given Toronto a perennial playoff team until last year.

But I take it you are okay with MLSE paying a king's ransom to Leaf executives the last 40yrs with nothing to show for it.

Plus being an organization with a reputation for paying its own players well is a selling point to attract other players. Players with potential know that Toronto is the top destination to develop and get paid in the NBA. Masai built that. And that reputation will continue to pay dividends by having guys like Barnes immediately embrace the franchise before stepping onto the court.

Results follow relationships in this world and Masai understands that, which is precisely why he’s so successful.

[Pointgod]

It’s hilarious how ItsDanger gets worked on every topic. I’m dying seeing him flailing

[Boselecta]

Too many people here who either weren't around for the dark days or have just turned a blind eye to them.

The culture change that was brought in by Masai/Tim was HUGE. The words "believe in yourself, believe in your city" carried a lot of weight to them.

Toronto was NBA purgatory. Never taken seriously in the media (still isn't to some degree), no one ever wanted to play here and no one wanted to sign here. Shoot, we had Canadian players in the league who didn't even want to play here. This is probably what pushed Colangelo's obsession with going after European talent. They were less likely to run away to the States lol.

I never in my life thought the raptors would win a championship because of how poorly the team was managed.

I was worried that if Masai had left this year that the culture that was established would be pushed to the wayside in a couple years and we'd be back to the old days.

This man deserves everything he's gotten. Just following his story, you know he's a compassionate, hard-working individual who has the ability to truly affect change.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

That "believe in yourself, believe in your city" still brings tears to my eyes. Needs to be up somewhere outside or inside Scotiabank Arena. Really changed the belief and outlook of the city and team at the time

[tdot_steel]

Hang Edward Rogers and bring down that ugly gross statue. The family is a curse to the city. Is there even a company more hated in this country than Rogers?

Rogers under Edward Jr doesn't care about the reputation of the Company as long as it turns a profit. Apparently, Melinda Rogers is the one cognizant of the negative perception of Rogers and would like to lead the Company in a different......based on what I have read.

[tdotrep2]

this is literally the subs worst nightmare, and its real. jesus christ, always gotta be something man

[mdenny]

An interesting but largely irrelevant aspect of this is William Lou. I wonder if he'll speak on the situation given that he works for Rogers.

He would be violating all the internal HR stuff that we all have to complete like 2 to 3 times per year. Incidentally....I just finished mine. They are getting more and more aggressive about public statements on social media. Lou's hands are tied on this one. And ppl will be watching closely.

let's all do him a favor and not put him in that spot for a call-in show or whatever. We finally have raptor coverage. Let's do our part to protect it. We know where he stands....he doesn't need to say anything.

[anotherhomer]

Hang Edward Rogers and bring down that ugly gross statue. The family is a curse to the city. Is there even a company more hated in this country than Rogers?

Rogers under Edward Jr doesn't care about the reputation of the Company as long as it turns a profit. Apparently, Melinda Rogers is the one cognizant of the negative perception of Rogers and would like to lead the Company in a different......based on what I have read.

melinda isn't an idiot....
when the company leadership team went to google to observe best practice, Melinda went with them, but not Ed....

i'm not saying Melinda is smart, but at least there's a chance things will work better if Melinda was the chair....