Raptors President Masai Ujiri Has Positioned Himself for Jobs Outside the NBA

[djsunyc]

When you have this many options to choose from I just don't see how staying in Toronto and dealing with the current situation is all that desirable. It's probably why he put so many eggs in the Giannis basket. Building a potential dynasty would get the juices flowing.

Except he created the situation, he should have the character to want to fix it before leaving

lol.

[WaltFrazier]

Personally, I think a guy like Masai Ujiri could potentially do a better job running Ontario or even Canada for that matter than the politicians we currently have in charge.

Our current Prime Minister is a Drama Teacher.
Our current Minister of Finance is a journalist and an expert in Russian Literature.
Our current Health Minister has no background outside of running homeless shelters in Thunder Bay.
Our former Minister of Technology was an Accountant.

It doesnt take much to succeed in modern day politics.

Masai's potential to be a political giant either here or elsewhere is huge.

Parliamentary representative democracy was created a long time before there were 10,000 plus occupations. You could probably draw from a list of 10 to 20. You only have to go back two generations and the majority Canadians were farmers. This is why you had mandarins and high ranking civil servants. The business of governing continued no mattered who was in power and the people's reps were guided and aided by these policy and legislative pros. Today because of marketing "positioning", especially of personality, we look at our reps as having inherent flaws because the partisan politics of the day demands the baiting of opponents into media gotcha moments where bought and paid for media acts like the propaganda arms of side A or side B.

A drama teacher should not be scoffed at any more than classical dancer unless we have narrow take on who should represent us. After all most here voted for who was spoon fed to them anyway. Thank you electorate! That is the bigger issue. Who decides for us whom we'll ultimately rubber stamp on a ballot? Is the process of a registered party choosing their leader among their delegates for citizens to vote the very best expression of democratic will? If everyone had a say in the candidate contests then maybe we find a Plumber wants to lead. Lech Walesa was a unionized shipyard Electrician and led the first independent trade union in communism and overthrew that form of imposed government. He became President of Poland and won the Nobel Peace Prize. Name all the professionally trained Harvard lawyers who have become politicians and never had so much as a whiff of those accomplishments Walesa had. They and many like them never impact history. There is no high school and university trajectory for great leaders as great leaders seize their opportunities. Bad ones, deplorably bad one's, are hatched by party backroomers and work in so-called think tanks and other vehicles of influence and for their sacrifices and podium presence get tapped to lead their Dinosaur parties. By rights they should have stuck to fundraising and canvassing but the established parties want to project a false strength but more importantly the image of those doing the electing.

It is not about professional credentials it is about the quality of independent leadership with a laser focused vision on nation building. A sense of history and the inventing the future. Many of our leaders are not visionary they occupy a mantle. So give me your very best Drama Teachers, Poets and Journalists and save us the grief of Lawyers and others who when push comes to shove are technocrats sitting on bags of all our money.

Your post is littered with Liberal propaganda.

The Minister of Finance should have a legitimate background in finance.

The MInister of Health should have a legitimate background in medicine/health.

I work for a tech company. We were looking a Director of Engineering to oversee our engineering team. We chose from a pool of Engineers. Is that not logical?

Would an NBA team hire a President of Basketball Operations with no background in pro sports?

Hiring people based solely on personality, sex, race and branding is how you can get into a constant cycle of incompetence.

Trump and Trudeau were elected for the same reasons.....all about the brands and nothing to do with their actual credentials.

If Justin Trudeau had the exact same experience and "qualifications", but his name was Justin Leblanc (ie he was not the son of Pierre), he would never have become an MP let alone party leader and PM.

[BBS22]

Some interesting hot political takes in here. I won't get too off topic but with my post. Ultimately there's no "real" job that suits Masai's vague interests.

1. Philanthropy? I could see him forming another charity and making that his top priority but that's typically a side project for someone - i.e. Jalen Rose school, LeBron James "I Promise" program, Obama "Brother's Keeper" program. Neither of those folk run the project fulltime. To a degree the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is somewhat similar. Even if he worked with the UN I'm not sure if that's his skillset - he already does the NBA Africa program (or helps it out), there's not much value in doing something with the UN brand. I do see him having an interest in bringing COVID vaccines to Africa and just the general healthcare situation. Perhaps as a partner in an overall organization but I wouldn't pin him as the guy willing to do it from scratch. So do I see Masai just going head first into something philanthropic? Highly unlikely.

2. Politics? No. At least not formal politics like a mayor or elected official. There's multiple reasons for this. To address some takes in this thread politics rarely attracts the quote "best and brightest" talent. A lot of those personalities that are driven do so because they have a capitalist driven objective or some sort of fulfillment that drives them. With politics the act is to be an idealist and affect change, it's an act of charity. That's the idea at least - doesn't really work seeing the results. Politics are usually lawyers or etc related field due to the machine related understanding of legislation and other boring ins and outs.

No seriously - ask yourself why does a guy like Donald Trump (who is a multimillionaire by all counts) want to be president (or wanted)? It's a job that pays something like ~400k a year and most presidents donate their salary. It's because he wanted to help funnel money to his brand/name. Basically leverage political office into a $$$ situation - it's corruption. I'm sure it doesn't hurt the ego of a politician to have a legacy as well. You do need a certain megalomania to run for any political office.

In addition, with politics you lose a ton of brand control because automatically 50% of the voting population will write you off during and after your political life - impacting your perception the rest of your life. It's much easier to be "the basketball guy who helped build a team to win an NBA championship" than to be "the politician who oversaw massive delays in hospital care post covid19" (just taking a random stab at it). LeBron might be able to run for governor of Ohio as the favourite son just for the hell of it - he's already political and the people who hate him would already hate him. He also has so much money it probably doesn't matter.

Needless to say Masai probably wouldn't take the role for the same reasons millionaires and billionaires don't often seek office. It's a branding mistake for once and any financial advisor would flip out seeing the lack of 0's brought in going forward. Masai also doesn't seem corrupt enough to want the job - the machine politics are just daunting, slow and the news cycles are silly for someone of his personality.

Extreme side note: For those who want a solution and how to attract the "best and brightest talent" to politics it may seem backwards but one of the methods is to pay a lot more. Not just double. But almost triple or quadruple. Look up Singapore. There are many reasons they have low corruption - one of them is simply because salaries for their politicians are close to 1 million or more last I checked. It means people who are doctors, successful business people and etc are willing to leave their profession because they get a pay raise but also they're held to a way higher standard as a consequence. They're also less likely to take bribes because they're already being paid a high amount. There's ultimately many ways to get these types of people into politics but it requires serious reform that a lot of people will balk at ("you're asking me to give Doug Ford triple his salary???" "Trudeau never helped me why should I allow these politicians to increase their salaries! I haven't gotten a wage increase in years!").

3. Another team? Highly unlikely. The TL Seattle thing comes up every now and then. But we're years away from that happening. Possible ownership stake, fresh start - but even if we're 5 years away I don't see a 55 year old Masai Ujiri with the same passion for basketball as what he's built with the Raptors over a probable 15 years. But who knows? I could see a Lou Lamoriello situation Maple Leafs/Islanders with Masai but if I'm Tim Leiweke, the first person I kick the tires on is Sam Presti. OKC is pretty well situated with the draft but we know their ownership isn't everything. Presti is young enough and most likely won't win a championship in the next 2-3 years. You get a bunch of backers + TL + fresh start team + great market + young GM that hasn't seen much success it's a great story.

Masai though? He's won his championship. Built his legacy here. Family are basically Canadian. Not saying it's impossible for him to leave this offseason but Woj isn't wrong. It would have to be a VERY compelling offer to get him to go to say the Atlantic Hawks. He's just not a guy like David Griffin (no offense to him) - he's not starting over with another team, another coach, another staff when MLSE can likely outbid everyone and give him continuity.

Conclusion:

Masai is extremely hard to get a read on. This entire board including myself haven't ever been able to parse through his words because he keeps his cards close. I truly don't think Masai knows what Masai wants to do. If this wasn't a covid world - I could see a situation where he leaves and joins something larger with basketball and Africa or a charity. But with travel being restricted and his kids are still very young (not even in high school yet?) - I doubt he wants to be that far away for too long. Some of this information is probably fed to drive up his price, as any agent would do for their client.

I think he stays with the Raptors for large money (don't cheap out MLSE). The years I couldn't tell you. If he leaves it's for something larger than basketball. But I really don't think Masai knows right at this moment what he wants to do at say 55 years old. 51-54? Probably continue to be with his kids and earn a lot of money with the Raptors while continuing to build your network. Pretty sweet gig if you can get it.

[MavCarter]

Maybe things have changed but am i the only one who remembers that interview from last season where he was asked about mentoring bobby as a successor (im paraphrasing here) and he said hes still very competitive and still wants to win championships and isnt leaving basketball anytime soon. Masai is a scout at heart and a lifelong basketball guy. I find it hard to believe he'll walk away from basketball, especially since basketball has given him such a great avenue to help in africa

[djsunyc]

masai didn't position anything. this is an opinion of woj who said he was going to the wiz the night we won the chip.

f outta here with that nonsense and stop posting sh t like this is tmz or fox news.

[Tor_Raps]

masai didn't position anything. this is an opinion of woj who said he was going to the wiz the night we won the chip.

f outta here with that nonsense and stop posting sh t like this is tmz or fox news.

Until he signs an extension with us, all stuff can still be true. We'll find out very soon whether it was or not.

[WaltFrazier]

To say, well he's won his championship, is silly. Competitive guys like him want to keep winning more.
And if he left basketball behind he'd have nothing. Basketball exec is his life, his skillset, his platform.

[2019nbachamps]

There’s only 2 reasons he hasn’t resigned and neither is good for us: he’s shopping around or he wants a better offer. I think he wants to pursue a new challenge.

[Yosemite Dan]

I don’t think it’s the end of the world if he leaves because we are left with a really good GM and a top notch scouting staff. I’m a fan of Masai in how he assembled this staff so effectively but this team was on a constant treadmill where our main guys were still from the BC years. It was only thru an exceptional case of circumstances that we were able to land Kawhi but that’s a one off. Had that not happened we would have been a 2nd round and out team during our championship year and we’d be in the same position we are now. Missing our window and having to rebuild. And from what I’ve read it was Webster’s idea to go after Kawhi so he was mainly responsible for that title. People still think Masai as the defacto GM but there’s no evidence to suggest that Webster is not mainly in charge of player movement. As long as we have the core staff locked up for a few years then how much of having Masai as president will really change our future prospects? His personality gave us a presence on the NBA stage but that hasnt translated to getting big time free agents or disgruntled superstars wanting to be traded here so does losing that presence really matter?

[Dennis 37]

Personally, I think a guy like Masai Ujiri could potentially do a better job running Ontario or even Canada for that matter than the politicians we currently have in charge.

Our current Prime Minister is a Drama Teacher.
Our current Minister of Finance is a journalist and an expert in Russian Literature.
Our current Health Minister has no background outside of running homeless shelters in Thunder Bay.
Our former Minister of Technology was an Accountant.

It doesnt take much to succeed in modern day politics.

Masai's potential to be a political giant either here or elsewhere is huge.

Actually, I am good with those qualifications. One has to have shown an ability to learn, listen to advice, and work with people. We don't want to waste a doctor on Minister of Health. It is the top level civil servants who need to be the experts with related education.

Ujiri has leaned on the job, and he has experience working collaboratively with people, so yes he would make a good politician.

Learning, listening to advice and working with people are soft skills that many jobs require.

In addition to those skills you actually have to have hard skills and knowledge pertaining to the role you take on.

Would you hire a President of Basketball Operations to run the Raptors franchise with no experience in pro sports?

Politics isn't like that. It just isn't. It is a soft skills and a visionary position. The leader has the vision, the party develops policy, but it is the civil servants who iron out the details.

[nestea]

Tim Leiweke is gonna get Seattle a franchise easily - that guy was the true vision behind hiring GM Masai, getting the Toronto All-star game and the Biosteel expansion / 905 Raptors team coming in

Unreal

Loved Tim

[Merit]

Tim Leiweke is gonna get Seattle a franchise easily - that guy was the true vision behind hiring GM Masai, getting the Toronto All-star game and the Biosteel expansion / 905 Raptors team coming in

Unreal

Not to mention what he did for TFC (MLS Champs) and the Leafs with Shanahan/Shanaplan. Plus, was it him that got the Argos under the MLSE umbrella too? At this point, I'm giving him credit for everything.

[brownbobcat]

Your post is littered with Liberal propaganda.

The Minister of Finance should have a legitimate background in finance.

The MInister of Health should have a legitimate background in medicine/health.

I work for a tech company. We were looking a Director of Engineering to oversee our engineering team. We chose from a pool of Engineers. Is that not logical?

Would an NBA team hire a President of Basketball Operations with no background in pro sports?

What was Masai before being an executive? A scout. What does a scout know about leading an organization?

This is not to say that training and skills don't matter - they do. But at a certain level, leadership positions are more about, well, leadership and not technical skills. Tell me, what engineering background did Steve Jobs have?

[KrazyP]

Your post is littered with Liberal propaganda.

The Minister of Finance should have a legitimate background in finance.

The MInister of Health should have a legitimate background in medicine/health.

I work for a tech company. We were looking a Director of Engineering to oversee our engineering team. We chose from a pool of Engineers. Is that not logical?

Would an NBA team hire a President of Basketball Operations with no background in pro sports?

What was Masai before being an executive? A scout. What does a scout know about leading an organization?

This is not to say that training and skills don't matter - they do. But at a certain level, leadership positions are more about, well, leadership and not technical skills. Tell me, what engineering background did Steve Jobs have?

Was Masai appointed directly to a president of basketball operations or did he have to spend time in the league learning and gaining knowledge and experience about basketball/NBA first?

Steve Jobs? Him and Wosniak were coding gurus. They had technical skills/talent directly corresponding with what they were trying to build. Also, they were innovators building something from scratch...starting small and then building towards something bigger. In this context, you can gain technical skills and knowledge on the fly as you grow. Do you think Steve Jobs as a 20 yr back in 1976 was qualified to be a CEO of a big tech company with thousands of employees just because he was smart?

Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO of Amazon....do you think it would be wise for them to replace him with the best new grad with charisma and leadership potential they can find? Leaders just need to be leaders?....knowledge and experience in technology and business not required?

[alpha]

Masai has that championship. He also has this failure of a season. Won't bother me too much if he leaves, only that he should have told the organization, he was doing so first (maybe he has?) Need to give Bobby the reins and see what he has learned.

[Fairview4Life]

Masai has that championship. He also has this failure of a season.

It is hilarious that you're equating those two things as equal on the scales.

[KrazyP]

Actually, I am good with those qualifications. One has to have shown an ability to learn, listen to advice, and work with people. We don't want to waste a doctor on Minister of Health. It is the top level civil servants who need to be the experts with related education.

Ujiri has leaned on the job, and he has experience working collaboratively with people, so yes he would make a good politician.

Learning, listening to advice and working with people are soft skills that many jobs require.

In addition to those skills you actually have to have hard skills and knowledge pertaining to the role you take on.

Would you hire a President of Basketball Operations to run the Raptors franchise with no experience in pro sports?

Politics isn't like that. It just isn't. It is a soft skills and a visionary position. The leader has the vision, the party develops policy, but it is the civil servants who iron out the details.

This is actually the problem with modern day politics and the reason why you end up with guys in important positions who are completely incompetent. Trump and Trudeau were elected for the exact same reasons...good branding.

A leader of a country should have some knowledge and experience pertaining to economics, business and world politics. Just having soft skills and some random idealistic "vision" with no knowledge or experience simply isnt good enough for me and shouldnt be good enough for you either.

[lobosloboslobos]

Personally, I think a guy like Masai Ujiri could potentially do a better job running Ontario or even Canada for that matter than the politicians we currently have in charge.

Our current Prime Minister is a Drama Teacher.
Our current Minister of Finance is a journalist and an expert in Russian Literature.
Our current Health Minister has no background outside of running homeless shelters in Thunder Bay.
Our former Minister of Technology was an Accountant.

It doesnt take much to succeed in modern day politics.

Masai's potential to be a political giant either here or elsewhere is huge.

Our premiere is a business man former drug dealer whose father was a politician and who inherited the family business that he ran into the ground and who came into the job with no platform

ftfy

this is not meant at anyone in particular just a personal rant now...

i am far from someone who is going to let politicians off easy, but it's also much too easy to generalize and say they are all as incompetent and undeserving as our current premiere is. The reality is that there are really good people who get elected and really slimy ones, and a lot in between. I know some politicians who work their asses off to try to help working people and communities who need them, and it's too bad more people don't appreciate what they do so they could compare it to the crappy behaviour of others and make better choices. just saying, it's easy to cast stones so at least look who you're throwing them out.

re Masai, I'd love to see him lead the provincial NDP or even Liberals or greens. Or a federal party. Go Masai! Invest in Canada bro! We need you!

[OakleyDokely]

Masai has that championship. He also has this failure of a season.

It is hilarious that you're equating those two things as equal on the scales.

And it's not like Masai is the first top exec to have a bad season.

Even the guys running MIA, GS, SA, LA, BRK etc have a bad season or two every now and then. Winning consistently is hard.

Frankly, this fanbase has been spoiled since 2013.

[Fairview4Life]

Masai has that championship. He also has this failure of a season.

It is hilarious that you're equating those two things as equal on the scales.

And it's not like Masai is the first top exec to have a bad season.

Even the guys running MIA, GS, SA, LA, BRK etc have a bad season or two every now and then. Winning consistently is hard.

Frankly, this fanbase has been spoiled since 2013.

Also ignores the 7 years before the championship season.