[Shams] Masai Ujiri is out as Vice Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors

[Randle McMurphy]

As mentioned, Shapiro is getting a lot of rope from ownership because he was hired by Ed Rogers. Masai obviously was not so this was inevitable. The key to this is going to be who they get to replace Masai.

Theres no replacement. Bobby is top dog now. Basically business as usually without President. Leafs got rid of Shanaplan but kept the GM.

The Raptors post championship have not been well run, and Webster has been there the whole time. Removing Masai but keeping everyone else seems counter productive, unless Webster was just getting Masai coffee the last six years.

Agreed, it doesn’t make much sense to keep Bobby too which suggests to me this decision was largely about money.

The other big distinction between Shapiro and MU is that they aren’t paying Shapiro a ridiculous amount of money (10M+ a year) to get mediocre production.

[canz55]

The unfortunate reality is that a large part of corporate Canada is filled with nepo babies who don't know their asses from their face.

[traps#10]

Damn this is sad. We have officially closed the door on the greatest era in Raptors history.

What else can you say but thanks for all the memories.

We are all just Witnesses

[arbsn]

Masai has been bad for 2-3 years now trading multiple FRP for win now players and we still tank.. That being said, sometimes the devil you know is better than the alternative... He won us a ring - something I never thought would happen in Toronto - which should've given him a 10 year grace period.

The future does not look bright for TOR right now

[LoveMyRaps]

We’re gonna hire Kendrick Perkins

[Mack11]

I think Bobby has been running the show for many years now….Masai was just there to give final approval.

Which is why theres a noticeable dip in management. Once again why are we keeping booby around? If youre gonna fire masai they both need to go and just bring in a fresh new voice

You need to have someone in place. Bobby is the GM in title the way Anthopoulis was for a time after Shapiro was hired. But the new team president will hire his own guy, whether internal or not.

theyre talking about extending him..that doesnt mean they just want to keep someone around

[Bankai]

Why didn't they trade him for a draft pick then, ATL would've given us 13 or the Pels pick smh
Rogers is dumb

You are under the assumption that Ed Rogers knows how the NHL and NBA operates. Rogers wanted to slash salary, not to make moves that benefits the teams.

[nestea]

Really hope Pelley steps in and does the same thing with the jays president. I wonder if Rogers can make that happen.

jays arent part of MLSE

I know. Just wishing

[Yeezus_]

Keith Pelley is an idiot too. Dude likes to have control.

I was thinking this too, there is so much vitriol for Rogers (perhaps not undeservedly) but if the Blue Jays are any indication, Shapiro runs the team.

Perhaps Pelley is the actual driving force behind this. He got the “credit” for firing Shanahan but no one seems to be pointing in his direction for this.

He has an annoying personality where he likes to be front and center of the show. I’m fairly confident it was his decision and then Ed supported it. Otherwise they probably would’ve let Masai finish the final year of his contract.

[Mikistan]

The Ed Rogers Era will be the darkest this franchise has ever seen.

Pretty sure it will be a pale reminder of the worst of times

[TheRealDeal]

The Raptors post championship have not been well run, and Webster has been there the whole time. Removing Masai but keeping everyone else seems counter productive, unless Webster was just getting Masai coffee the last six years.

Masai is expensive to re-sign, while Bobby is cheap….tens of millions of dollars versus a few million.

I don't disagree, but when you have a franchise worth 4.5B, you should probably invest quite a bit in your top basketball guy.

and how much has Masai done to help raise the value of our franchise since being here? He’s earned every dollar he’s made

[RapsFanInOhio]

Ed is calling his preferred candidate right now:

Don’t you wish that upon us!

[Raps Next GM]

Theres no replacement. Bobby is top dog now. Basically business as usually without President. Leafs got rid of Shanaplan but kept the GM.

The Raptors post championship have not been well run, and Webster has been there the whole time. Removing Masai but keeping everyone else seems counter productive, unless Webster was just getting Masai coffee the last six years.

Masai is expensive to re-sign, while Bobby is cheap….tens of millions of dollars versus a few million.

I don’t think this is about cheap ownership. Based on their investments in the Blue Jays, they will spend money. In fact, I fully expect them to go “whale hunting” for a big name.
I suspect part of it is Masai’s “brand” in the market and even around the NBA. He is a powerful guy going into the last year of his contract and likely ruthless enough to leverage every penny and ounce of power he can get.
If the Raps show a dramatic improvement this season with Masai at the helm, then Masai’s ask would be even larger. So they’re either caving to his demands (probably a piece of ownership) or letting him walk.
I believe this is the Raptors dumping him before Masai could dump them next season.

[Raptors_128]

Ed, go get Presti then all will be forgiven.

[Randle McMurphy]

Randle, got your wish. Hail Ed! Hope you get seasons man.

Some much needed and expected change, yes. Unless Masai was gonna take a pay cut off his crazy deal, this was inevitable.

And I’ve had seasons for well over a decade now. Maybe they’ll actually be worth watching soon once again.

[SpiderMunn]

[magani]

Read on Twitter

?t=t7_JkkmSUY3heI0EiBNDMA&s=19

Interesting they’re looking for a new President for the Raptors and not the Leafs?

I think Pelley is THE CEO over the Leafs, Raptors, TFC, Argos, and Raptors. I believe they canned the Presidents and that title for TFC, Argos, and Leafs with Shanahan. Now it was Masai as President. The only one left is Shapiro as President leading the Jays. He was the only Ed Rogers direct hire. He’s likely gone too if they don’t have success this year. Pelley oversees all these teams and then hires like a GM position to lead each team. He’s kept on Brad Treliving from the Leafs who was the GM and gave him a vote of confidence to keep leading. If the Leafs flame out this year, he’ll look to hire his own guy. I’m guessing that they want to restart that with the Raptors and a new leader over Basketball Operations. Could be Bobby as a candidate or a fresh new someone Pelley picks that he will work closely with. Pelley is like Leiweke where he doesn’t meddle in the day to trade trades and player decisions. He’s a culture guy and he’s in charge. He just wants his chosen leaders leading each team and reporting directly to him. With no President as intermediary. His job is to bring championships and to keep making MLSE money. Masai’s position had to go. Simple as that.

[Mikistan]

I’m telling you, Bell, LarryT and Masai getting expansion in Montreal soon. I think Silver sees it as a way to make inroads to France and Europe

This would be delicious and hilarious

Honeslty if it happened I’d have to debate jumping ship

I got no real connections to Toronto but do to Montreal (I understand the irony of being a leafs, not habs fan), and I got a feeling this team by Roger’s is gonna get just ran straight into the ground.

Hopefully Boucher can be a part owner too!

[Boardbreaker]

Ed Rogers was waiting for this for a long time. Ed didnt like Masai. Masai is a hot commodity in the NBA. Raptors are in for years of pain.

I would point out that the Rogers Bell deal and Larry Tannenbaum’s presumed departure isn’t consummated yet. This feels more like Pelley downgrading the presidency of both the Raptors and Leafs. Also he could have done this in April but waited in the Raptors case for the draft and end of the school year. I suspected something was up when Tolzman gave the pre-draft press conference

Might be the most camera time Tolzman’s ever gotten. Wouldn’t be surprised if he gets promoted.

[Badonkadonk]

the timing is bad, should have been earlier if this was the plan. But he was being paid as a top level GM, but hadn't been performing that way. So this next contract was always a likely break up. The idea of Masai taking less, seems unlikely, as does the idea of continuing to pay him as a top performing GM. If you can tell which way the wind is blowing without the weather man telling you, you would have anticipated this was happening this year, despite the fact that that captured imbedded propagandist beat guys only report what the org wants.

Except he wasn't the GM, and the role he was ACTUALLY playing he was perfectly suited for.