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

[brownbobcat]

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?

So all scouts are qualified to be GMs? All of the people you listed have experience in government. That doesn't mean they're all good and/or qualified, but you can't evaluate Ujiri's leadership skills either from his job titles.

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?

Steve (Jobs) didn't ever code. Not my opinion, by the way - that's straight from Wozniak

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?

You're conflating leadership experience with technical experience. Do you think Jeff Bezos coded at Amazon or had any prior experience in book sales?

[Clay Davis]

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!

Hehe I thought I'd be generous

[Ackshun]

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?

So all scouts are qualified to be GMs? All of the people you listed have experience in government. That doesn't mean they're all good and/or qualified, but you can't evaluate Ujiri's leadership skills either from his job titles.

He never said that.

Also, yes you can certainly evaluate an individual's ability to lead from any job title, especially when one has been given advancement opportunities and has excelled.

[KrazyP]

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?

So all scouts are qualified to be GMs? All of the people you listed have experience in government. That doesn't mean they're all good and/or qualified, but you can't evaluate Ujiri's leadership skills either from his job titles.

When did I say that all scouts are qualified to be GMs? The question is would you hire a person to be president of basketball operations who has no experience in the NBA/basketball or pro sports in general? All that is required is leadership ability, no years of knowledge and experience in the industry are necessary?

Steve (Jobs) didn't ever code. Not my opinion, by the way - that's straight from Wozniak

Sure, Jobs was Sales/Marketing and Wosniak was engineer. Great. They were innovators who started small and then built something bigger. In this context, you can gain technical skills and knowledge on the fly as you grow. There's a big difference between this vs taking over a big tech company with no knowledge/experience and then immediately being responsible to thousands of shareholders/employees and billions of dollars in revenue. Knowledge and experience matters in this context.

Question - 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 shareholders/employees just because he was a leader?

When Apple, Google, Amazon replaced their CEOs, they hired Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Andy Jassy...all natural leaders but also guys who have years of business and tech experience in the industry. Do you think these companies given their behemoth size would have been equally as effective if they just hired any guy off the street with leadership ability and little to no experience/knowledge when it comes to business and technology?

Experience and Knowledge is just as important as leadership skills when it comes to running large businesses and governments. The reason it doesn't seem to matter in politics is because voters can be manipulated by branding and things that dont matter. If Justin Trudeau's name was Joe Bloggs and he looked like Steve Buschemi, nobody would vote for him.

[brownbobcat]

When did I say that all scouts are qualified to be GMs? The question is would you hire a person to be president of basketball operations who has no experience in the NBA/basketball or pro sports in general? All that is required is leadership ability, no years of knowledge and experience in the industry is necessary?

I'm saying that scouting experience - by itself - is so far removed from the skillset of a basketball ops president as to be barely more relevant than other kinds of leadership experience.
Andrew Friedman went straight from Wall Street to Director of Baseball Development for the Rays with ZERO baseball experience.
Same with Jeff Luhnow, who started off as VP straight from management consulting.

Obviously you believe this to some extent too, otherwise you wouldn't have suggested Masai would do well in a government leadership role despite zero government experience.

Sure, Jobs was Sales/Marketing and Wosniak was engineer. Great. They were innovators who started small and then built something bigger. In this context, you can gain technical skills and knowledge on the fly as you grow. There's a big difference between this vs taking over a big tech company with no knowledge/experience and then immediately being responsible to thousands of shareholders/employees and billions of dollars in revenue. Knowledge and experience matters in this context.

Question - 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 shareholders/employees just because he was a leader?

You're shifting goalposts. You said that leaders must have a legitimate background in the industry/area they're leading, i.e. the Minister of Health should have a background in health. While that can be useful in many cases, I am pointing out that the "Minister" part is more important than the "Health" part. The requisite skillset here is leadership and not technical ability in that field. Stop confusing leadership with charisma and stop using this 20-year old strawman that nobody is pushing for.

With respect to government, the reality is that your pool of candidates for any ministerial position is limited to elected MPs who are working within the framework of government. And so, the primary concern is more about how well those people navigate the role of governing and rely on other public servants to provide technical advice. Don't confuse any of this with a blanket defense of all politicians as being competent and skilled administrators. Many aren't. Some of them only have the skillset of winning an election, but that exists in the business world too - it's not always a pure meritocracy.

[Johnny Bball]

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.

Funny but this makes them no different than Jobs. He didn't invent anything, he was a marketer first and foremost disguised as something else. Trudeau, somewhat, but I said it years ago and will say it again, I think anyone with his platform on pot and his head of hair would have won. No joking.

[TheRealDeal]

the media loves pushing this narrative whenever we have something good. I was watching an old game the other day (our first ever national TV game against the Suns) and they were going on & on about about how T-Mac should go somewhere that summer to be “the man”. A move he still regrets to this day. Don’t listen to the hype Masai, the grass isn’t always greener

[m1kenoff]

If he goes, Masai will go to Africa, I am 98%, as he should, but he will not leave the Raptors for another team. Book it.

He is meant for bigger things guys, there are more important things in life than basketball.

[Kreamy]

Came across this in an unrelated article. Have to think the Wizards will be making Masai a crazy offer.

Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard is believed to be in the final year of his contract. And for all this excitement, ending this season as the 10-seed in a down Eastern Conference will mark the lower end of Washington brass' preseason expectations, sources said. Bradley Beal has consistently messaged his belief that the Wizards are a bona fide playoff contender as much as he's declared he has no intentions to leave Washington.

[OAKLEY_2]

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.

Funny but this makes them no different than Jobs. He didn't invent anything, he was a marketer first and foremost disguised as something else. Trudeau, somewhat, but I said it years ago and will say it again, I think anyone with his platform on pot and his head of hair would have won. No joking.

Trump had good positioning via social media and much disinformation and bold face lying but his branding "The Donald" "Mr. Real Estate Mogul" was nothing more than a talk show talking head guest appearance tabloid personality and Reality show cardboard cutout. He had terrible actual branding.

[OAKLEY_2]

Jobs had something. He was creatiive. He got kicked out of Apple when they peaked at 5 per cent of market share. Then years later he comes back. Itunes, ipad, iphone. All iphone users please stand up. All android users we'll call you later. Blackberry - oh never mind. Think Different was one of the best slogans ever but it was before their ressuraction. Jobs was a comeback kid of legendary status.

[OAKLEY_2]

Justin Trudeau made Cannabis legal. He's made his mark like no other white stiff before him. Is he somebody you will be confused seeing him as government spokesperson? Yes. He has turned into a podium jouster.

[anotherhomer]

Tommy was always a placeholder

[WaltFrazier]

With respect to government, the reality is that your pool of candidates for any ministerial position is limited to elected MPs who are working within the framework of government. And so, the primary concern is more about how well those people navigate the role of governing and rely on other public servants to provide technical advice. Don't confuse any of this with a blanket defense of all politicians as being competent and skilled administrators. Many aren't. Some of them only have the skillset of winning an election, but that exists in the business world too - it's not always a pure meritocracy.

The last points about Cabinet and merit is especially true of the Trudeau government, who appointed a 50 percent female cabinet despite not having 50 percent female MP's to pick from, and with little regard for experience or competence. Just because it was "2015". They have paid for that since, especially after driving the 2 women with the most integrity out of the party

[Raptorfan2012]

Came across this in an unrelated article. Have to think the Wizards will be making Masai a crazy offer.

Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard is believed to be in the final year of his contract. And for all this excitement, ending this season as the 10-seed in a down Eastern Conference will mark the lower end of Washington brass' preseason expectations, sources said. Bradley Beal has consistently messaged his belief that the Wizards are a bona fide playoff contender as much as he's declared he has no intentions to leave Washington.

Masai is the President of the Raptors. Need to know who the current President of the Wizards are and what their contract situation is.

[Kreamy]

Came across this in an unrelated article. Have to think the Wizards will be making Masai a crazy offer.

Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard is believed to be in the final year of his contract. And for all this excitement, ending this season as the 10-seed in a down Eastern Conference will mark the lower end of Washington brass' preseason expectations, sources said. Bradley Beal has consistently messaged his belief that the Wizards are a bona fide playoff contender as much as he's declared he has no intentions to leave Washington.

Masai is the President of the Raptors. Need to know who the current President of the Wizards are and what their contract situation is.

Wiz don't have a president. The role is vacant.

[canz55]

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 isn't good enough for me and shouldnt be good enough for you either.

Dude stop posting please. You're dropping too much logic on this thread and its putting my brain into logical overdrive.

Also for people who are impressed with chrystia freeland's resume - no one who should be listened to is saying that her resume isn't impressive (at least as an academic) - she'd make a really good professor or head of liberal arts faculty etc - but she's not a proven leader/manager at that level. Neither is Trudeau really but we're past the point of no return with him.

This shouldn't be a partisan thing - its a competence thing. Chretien had a lot of enemies but he was incredibly competent based on having so many qualifications in so many different areas.

Masai is one of the most sought after GM's/Leaders because he climbed the ranks of NBA competency through hard work and perseverance by leveraging his skills and talents that he accumulated over time. It doesn’t matter that he’s not a Rhode scholar nor did he graduate from an Ivy League School. I love the man most of all because his success basically torpedoes the affirmative action nonsense once and for all (at least in terms of executive positions in the NBA).

[anotherhomer]

It's CEO of an entity that includes wizards.
Ujiri can be CEO and given owner status.

[canz55]

When did I say that all scouts are qualified to be GMs? The question is would you hire a person to be president of basketball operations who has no experience in the NBA/basketball or pro sports in general? All that is required is leadership ability, no years of knowledge and experience in the industry is necessary?
I'm saying that scouting experience - by itself - is so far removed from the skillset of a basketball ops president as to be barely more relevant than other kinds of leadership experience.
Andrew Friedman went straight from Wall Street to Director of Baseball Development for the Rays with ZERO baseball experience.
Same with Jeff Luhnow, who started off as VP straight from management consulting.

You've completely neglected to mention the fundementals behind hiring someone from Wall Street finance in relation to baseball which is boiling down wins and losses into pure numbers (which we all know now as sabermetrics).

Davey Johnson - who before becoming a baseball player and subsequently a manager of the Mets - graduated from John Hopkins in Mathematics and later became a key figure in the development behind computerizing baseball simulations in order to make predictions about future outcomes which was a revolutionary way of thinking about the game at that time. His contributions to the game of baseball is what paved the way for statistitions (from seemingly all walks of life) to become invloved in baseball.

How does any of that in any way relate to appointing a Harvard educated journalist as the minister of finance for a G8 country (as an example)?

[dagger]

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.

I can top that: Our Premier was a drug dealer and college dropout.