The REAL Reason The Toronto Raptors FIRED Masai Ujiri…

The REAL Reason The Toronto Raptors FIRED Masai Ujiri…

absolutely shocking news messiah Yugiri is officially out as vice chairman and president of the Toronto Raptors this was reported this morning and this is just stunning the timing of this is absolutely stunning the Raptors just concluded their draft free agency is a couple days away and this one guys I’m going to give you the details and my thoughts on what just went down messiah Jiri no longer with the Toronto Raptors and this is the end of an era doesn’t matter how you feel about Messiah leading to this point you cannot deny Messiah Yujiri ushered in the most successful era in Raptors basketball it’s going to be incredibly tough to top what Messiah just did the Raptors were a mere afterthought they were the laughing stock of the league before Yujiri took over and once Yujiri took over he instantly changed the culture and everything about this Raptors franchise for the better his numbers speak for themselves the Messiah Jiri era in Toronto he won an NBA championship in 2019 the franchise’s loan championship eight playoff appearances 545 and 419 record the Raptors 56 and a half win percentage is the fifth best in the NBA since 2014 messiah he turned the Raptors into just a well-run worldclass organization and his legacy is going to live forever i mean he’s going to go down as an absolute legend of course famously pulling off that huge deal for Kawawaii leading to the championship all of the winning seasons messiah Yujiri reached the absolute top with this Raptors franchise and it’s going to be hard to replace somebody who is regarded as one of the top front office minds in this game now of course the last 5 years were very bumpy a 171 and 229 record only one playoff appearance poor asset management a lot of poor decisions of course you had these situations with Seakum and Anobi that weren’t handled the right way it hasn’t been smooth and the writing was on the wall especially with Yugjiri only having one year left on his contract but I just didn’t think this was going to happen right now messiah Jiri is the only one out bobby Webster has been extended he will stay on as GM and the rest of the Raptors front office and leadership room remains the same mlsc president and CEO Keith P he addressed the situation and he said that he and Messiah spoke a month ago and Messiah asked that if a change was going to be made for it to happen after the draft mlsc felt this was the right time to make the move and then you know P did say that the current GM Bobby Webster will be a candidate for the Raptors president job and he doesn’t think they’ll have a problem attracting the interest of qualified external candidates and then he went on to say Messiah and I have been chatting for the last 2 or 3 months about the future so we had a number of conversations over that time and then P said that the decision to part ways with Messiah was his own supported by the MLSC board so based on the presser it’s confusing because it seemed like they were okay with Messiah leading their draft they were okay with the vision and the plan but ultimately it just seemed like they weren’t cool with continuing to pay Messiah the premium for leading the basketball team like I think this is absolutely a financial decision solely based on that it just seems like they didn’t want to pay Messiah flat out and if it was actually related to basketball and his performance why would you let him lead your draft it doesn’t make sense from that perspective josh Lewenberg alluded to this as well he said it don’t get it twisted this wasn’t about the vision because the rest of the leadership is staying on it’s a costcutting decision first and foremost other teams were sniffing around as they always do when Yugjer’s contract is coming up and he was surely looking for an expensive new deal yuri was already one of the highest paid execs in sports not specific to Messiah but pretty clear MLSC Rodgers don’t think anybody is worth that kind of money in that position safe bet the Raptors next president will make a fraction of what he did so MLSC they didn’t want to pay him a side and as a result they lose arguably the heart and soul of their franchise like you look at the press conference there was no clarity to their decision to part ways with Messiah and the only thing you can chalk it down to financial purposes it’s going to be tough to find somebody who cares about the culture who’s a tone setter who’s invested in this as much as Messiah was i get it he underachieved the last few seasons a lot of rocky campaigns questionable decisions but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth knowing that it appears the only reason why they let him go is just simply to cut costs and this can truly be a dark day for Toronto basketball fans if there isn’t a proper plan in place there’s a lot of pessimism online and rightfully so because Messiah completely changed things here and as Matthew Ca said “Messiah is out larry Tannibal is on his way out the individuals with the most passion for basketball are gone and Rogers Communications Inc is in full force what a bad day for Toronto basketball fans.” And I just hope they didn’t underestimate Messiah’s impact and what he meant to this franchise so I think only time will tell this could end up being a huge huge mistake and regret or this could also be the start of a new and something that was needed just to freshen things up and maybe change is going to spark a new for the better for this team but MLSC better deliver now if their sole reason which it looks like it was to get rid of Messiah was simply because they didn’t want to pay the premium for him they didn’t want to pay him a lot of money and now the new guy whoever they put in that role they’re going to be expected to come in and and win i think this is MLSC saying that you know we got to get a winner here we got to see some results and they didn’t think it was justified to continue paying Messiah the money that he was making we’ll see what happens uh Messiah Jiri did say “I can guarantee you Toronto will win with or without me.” He said that last year so I I think he knew this time was coming us as fans we knew it was coming just didn’t think it was going to happen now but we will see if this ends up being a giant mistake or a good decision that helps catapult the Raptors into the next era of their franchise which is hopefully a successful one but nonetheless thank you Messiah for everything you did for this franchise he’ll always be a legend in my books help win a championship that is the ultimate goal in this game might even be the only championship of my lifetime when I look back at it so for that Messiah he got the job done and he will be remembered forever with this franchise let me know your thoughts guys do you like the decision do you dislike the decision sound off down below that’s it for me it’s Luke signing off thanks for watching i will catch you all again in the next one

Masai Ujiri is out as Toronto Raptors president.

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