Raptors Fire Masai Ujiri Over FINANCES & EGO?! Pelley Leads Team Into Purgatory

Raptors Fire Masai Ujiri Over FINANCES & EGO?! Pelley Leads Team Into Purgatory

has done so much for that organization he’s been amazing obviously he’s legendary in the whole country of Canada and for me you know I’m biased but I love what he’s done there obviously last couple years have not been great but I had full confidence that he would turn it around he hasn’t got that opportunity well we won’t get that opportunity any further but we we had a great relationship he had great relationship with all the players there and I said he was a guy that did a great job of recruiting guys and getting people to come there so I was a little shocked by it because I thought he might have made it he might have been one of the guys to make a run at one of the big stars this uh upcoming free agency
this is a classic tale of when ownership gets involved with their sports team and ends up making the wrong decision that will not result in more wins on the basketball court in my opinion I’m going to react to Keith P CEO of MLSC as he tried to explain why they parted ways with Messiah or why he himself decided that this was the best decision to move on from the team because I don’t believe he gave a solid reasoning as to why you would want to let go of a guy like Messiah now for more background Emily C Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment they own a variety of Toronto sports teams including the Raptors they themselves as of recently have became majority owned by another company called Rogers Communications this happened within last year 20124 along with Keith Py becoming the CEO of MLSC the question has come over and over again is is we didn’t bring in a new president for the Toronto Maple Leafs uh but we are bringing in a new president for the Raptors what is the difference and with the Toronto Maple Leafs you know one game from the conference final moving forward we didn’t feel the need for a president of the Toronto Maple Leafs with the evolution of where the Toronto Raptors are in the middle of a rebuild we felt that we needed to bring in a president let’s go over the trajectory of the Toronto Raptors when they won the championship from 2018 and 19 up until now all right so the 201920 season Kawhi Leonard is not there obviously they still win 50 plus games this is the bubble the whole CO situation is going on they lose in the second round to the Boston Celtics in the 2020 2021 season we’re still dealing with CO the Raptors aren’t even playing in Toronto their own arena they’re in Tampa they finished 12th in the East they missed the playoffs they end up drafting Scotty Barnes now fast forward to the 202122 season they win 48 games they got rookie of the year Scotty Barnes and they lose to the Philadelphia 76ers 2022 23 they finished 541 and 41 and they lose in the playing tournament and then from there the past two years is the Raptors trying to rebuild now in the midst of all this they’ve traded OG and Obi Pascal Siaka messiah Juri for the first time is at the beginning of a rebuild it seems Keith P doesn’t trust him in moving forward in this new phase with the Raptors but this next clip I’m about to play I think contradicts that thought
so Messiah and I spoke over a month ago and he asked that if a change were to happen that it was postdraft and that made the most sense not to disrupt the draft process you know we we were holding the the ninth pick a top 10 pick and of course Messiah’s not only his area of passion but his area of expertise he’s prolific when it comes to the draft and uh we were grateful to have him as the person with with Bobby leading our draft you know we talked last night about Colin Muro Boils and he said Murray Boils is going to be something special Keith and you’re going to enjoy watching him develop over the many years to come 13 seasons is an extremely long time in a sports leadership role
this is part of the press conference that really made me raise my eyebrows let’s go through this if I’m the CEO of a company managing a sports team I’m talking with the GM the GM tells me “Hey look whatever you do make sure that it’s after the draft.” And I’m thinking in my mind yo I want to move on in a completely different direction period we’re going in a rebuild and we want somebody new at the head of this why would I even keep you after the draft i would just tell you straight up look we’re headed in another direction we think it’s best and we just part ways now but if I admit that I actually like your expertise in drafting which is the biggest step headed into the rebuild one of the most important ones why not let that person follow through in the decision that they made moving forward especially if you seem to not only value the expertise but believe the pick is going to be good but let me tell you what’s really going on here man he said it out of his own mouth 13 years is a long time for somebody to be in a position of leadership especially in the sports world but we all know the saying if it ain’t broke don’t fix it
steve Simmons Toronto son did you make this decision or did Edward Rogers make this decision this this was my decision supported by the board when I when I arrived in April of 2024 uh I repeatedly asked the board “What was the definition of success for myself how was I going to be judged?” And that was on building championships on winning championships edward Rogers is the chairman of Rogers Communications keith P is selling the world no I didn’t get forced into doing this from people even who are above me i made this decision myself and the board back it up and Keith P coming in just recently 2024 all of this seems to me like it’s a regime change it has nothing to do with Messiah not being competent enough to do his job properly it’s hey I’m the new guy and I’m trying to build my own legacy here even though he says in the interview when asked about his legacy he doesn’t care about that kind of stuff but it still seems to me that he is trying to make his own footprint and mark on this team and try to win a championship with his own personnel and his own guys we we let’s give tremendous accolades for creating a brand and a culture um but but the testament to that brand and the testament to a culture is how it lives once that individual is gone and and I believe that the culture and the brand that he has created will flourish uh because that’s the way that he would have wanted it to flourish uh but when you create a brand when you create um a a culture if it is mitigated when that individual is no longer involved then the culture and the brand has not been created in the right way and I believe that the way that he has built the brand and the way that he has created the culture is something that we as an organization at MLSSE cherish and need now to build upon he starts off by giving credit to Messiah Juri then ends off by saying we need to build on that culture that he left it goes back to what I’m saying this is all about the new guy trying to leave his own footprint on this culture but let’s talk about that when we think of the Toronto Raptors let’s keep it all the way real because they’re a team in Canada there is a lot of American players that have a little bit of hesitancy to play for the Raptors whether it’s taxes customs the Canadian culture itself being different that doesn’t mean Canada is bad at all i’m just saying there’s differences and little issues that come up with another player coming to another country to play basketball but Messiah Yuri was the trump card to all of that which is why at the beginning of this clip you hear Danny Green say that he thought Messiah was going to be the reason the Raptors landed a big star once free agency kicked in
keith Michael Grange from Rogers Sportset um Messiah had a year left on his contract and I’m just wondering um was there a financial implication here why it needed to be done and uh what you can tell us on that front well I think there are there are major factors that go into a decision at this this this large but the primary reason in this case was the situation and where we currently are in basketball operations as I talked about the stability with our roster the stability with our front office and the stability with our coaching staff
I’m going to end things right here but this is another key part in this whole situation that I couldn’t leave out before I really left edward Rogers again the chairman of Rogers communication at the time after the Raptors won their championship there was rumors that he had an issue with the money the Raptors were paying Messiah or what Messiah wanted in his contract extension and Bell another media conglomerate at the time who owned a portion of MLSC along with Rogers Communications apparently Belle was okay with giving what Messiah wanted or the contract he was getting or what he was under and it was Edward Rogers who was really holding things up with all that said let me know why you believe Messiah Jury is being let go is it the right decision is it the wrong decision tell me why hit me up in the comment section and as always like share and subscribe salute for listening peace baby Yeah

With the news of the Toronto Raptors letting go of their president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, the CEO of the teams ownership held a press conference to explain why this decision was made.

However were the reasons he gave the most accurate reasoning of this action or is there something else going on here?

In today’s clip I will dig deeper and prove why there may be deeper motives at play behind the scenes!

#torontoraptors #nbanews #raptors #scottiebarnes #espnnews #nbarumors #nbaupdates #basketballnews #nba #nbaonespn