MASAI UJIRI OUT WITH RAPTORS

MASAI UJIRI OUT WITH RAPTORS

hello We are in the wee hours of the morning Well not wei hours It’s 9:30 a.m But
yeah but for us it’s we hours Yeah I’m Samson Folk I’m joined by Espendandy Barhaney Mhm
We are reacting to the news that for the first time in well over a decade the Raptors will be going forward without the insights and decision-m of Msayiri who is no longer with the team for Shams as it’s early but I’d like your reaction off at first blush here Yeah Um definitely shocked definitely shocked even though um you know you kind of hear the whispers of like there’s internal pressure there’s pressure for them to turn into a playoff team and there’s pressure for them to turn this thing around and become competitive
I always thought that they would at least give um you know Messiah the year to kind of figure out especially with his contract up next year next summer Um I thought the expectation would be for them to to give this one season for them to try things Um obviously the the off season is still very very long and there are different opportunities This was actually this you know the thing that kind of caught my eye and I’m not sure if this is typically the way it goes but I from what I remember last year it was the way it went Um Messiah would speak at one of the draft day availabilities He didn’t speak yesterday It was Dance Hollesman again and I thought that was like huh okay all right I guess they’re Messiah’s busy doing something Clearly that was what was happening Um
and so I to me that’s what caught my eye and and I guess it kind of showed that there’s something that’s going on behind the scenes Um yeah shocked truthfully I’m still trying to collect my thoughts I’m I’m still trying to figure out like what this means for the Raptors moving forward What was your initial reaction uh bad I think uh Messiah there’s you know there’s something about Messiah Jiri even when he missteps I think you know that there’s a a conviction there for the team and it’s based around winning and a lot of times you don’t have that exact same clarity in sports management there can be other things that are packaged into what a you know a leader or who what a decision maker is trying to make happen And I think the Raptors had that clarity for a long time And it was helmed by I think we lost uh Samson there for a second But to answer or Ali up his question it was helmed by Messiah Juri Um yeah I I guess the the other aspect of this as we wait for Samson to get on Um look Messiah Juri has been the president of basketball operations and the vice chairman Uh Bobby Webster has been the general manager for quite some time Bobby Webster was actually the GM who traded for Kawhi Leonard Uh it’s it’s well known at this point uh he’s been the head decision maker although obviously Messiah uh has had some say so in decisions as well be given his title and given uh what he has is we’ll wait for Samson his computer crashed he’ll come back in a second so um Messiah was obviously part of the decisions more than anything though um Messiah was a culture setter so especially post championship and uh you know obviously throughout the championship run It was about establishing a culture for for the Toronto Raptors Um you know there’s going to be a lot of fans I imagine there are some fans here in this comment section right now who do not remember the Raptors pre- Messiah jury It was a tough place Uh very very very um mismanaged if you will Uh there were a lot of weird decisions Hello welcome back Um I was just talking about like uh Messiah’s role really you know other than being a lead decision maker for them was like setting the cultural tone for the team uh and for the rest of the organization So like people don’t necessarily especially like younger fans don’t necessarily remember preia basketball and how wild some of the decision-m and rash the decision-m was Now obviously there was like an ownership change that happened and all that too but for the most part if you if you can remember like the Brian Kangelo days and the days that like it is hard to find good executives to run your team Uh and Messiah Jerry was absolutely one of the best one of the most well sought out executives in all of um Canadian basketball all of basketball in general So it’s just tough to to see that not be there now as backbone for the Raptors
So I was going to say Rogers they cut the internet because they knew I was about to make some critiques
Yeah that’s uh and so I I obviously missed some of what you said but I’ll I’ll tell you this much It does worry me at least like a decent amount thinking about where the Raptors go from here
Yeah
Even if there’s been By the way wait how’s my internet is it Your internet is a little choppy your internet I’m not going to lie Your internet is a little choppy which does lean into the jokes It does lean into the jokes that we’re making right now But you’re you’re good Yeah I wonder why it is this way
Not sure Day gum man
It’s It’s 9:30 in the morning before 10 a.m
Yeah exactly It doesn’t expect it You know you know that thing where it’s like uh Have you ever Actually this this might actually be true Your internet tracks how active you are based on the times of days And me and you we’re night owls So it’s probably like I’m going to rest at 9:30 in the morning He doesn’t use the internet No What what is this what is this that’s what he’s pro the internet is probably saying Anyways sorry Go ahead
Um yeah So I think it’s it’s extremely disappointing for the Raptors and something that
you know as I was saying that
it is tough to have the type of clarity on goal and want like heading into the future that the Raptors have consistently had with Messiah at the helm And I think that it’s going to be more um muddied now
Yeah
And I also think like I don’t know just not it it doesn’t matter for me I’m not connected to any of this but my expectation my impression of Ed Rogers as like the guy and kind of pushing this is you know alleged this is my read is that like Messiah’s being pushed out here and Messiah is kind of like his control over the basketball and everything is it’s it’s losing itself a little bit
Yeah Yeah And I just
I’ll just I’ll I’ll just say on that like the messaging we got after the the Ro Roger stuff got reported was that things have been mended ties have been mended especially from Assad’s side of things Um you know again that’s just messaging you say out loud Um so I I guess like you know to the point of of that look MLSC has made a lot of changes recently Um and like you know they’ve made Maple Leafs changes They funny enough have not made Blue Jays changes right rogers has not made a ton of changes on the Blue Jay side You probably know more than me on that Um but like they have organizationally uh made a lot of changes in recent years So clearly there is a shift um that’s that’s happening right now Uh that shift unfortunately has now led to Messiah Jur getting booted and I wonder if that’s one part the shift that’s happening and and one part the looming contract extension As we both know Messiah Juri is one of the most handsomely paid executives in basketball Um and so I I don’t know what his contract kind of negotiations would have looked like Um but he would have been well worth the money I I’ll tell you that Um damn Yeah I’m still kind of reeling over this to be honest with you because like the last the last thing I remember Messiah saying in his end of season availability was just like how much he wanted to win another championship in Toronto because that was taken away from him Like that moment was taken away from him in 2019 Um yeah that’s just whatever team is going to bring on Messiah next is going to bring on a guy who like has a vendetta in terms of getting a championship Like a very motivated version of Messiah Jury to
to basically get to that point again you know But yeah
Okay I’ll go Jesus man My phone started playing back the podcast because I clicked the link at the start and then randomly start going my computer crashed The Wi-Fi was going crazy You’re back man You’re back
Let me collect my thoughts here Yeah Okay
To to be to summarize how I feel this makes me feel leery of Rogers or the overreach in general from the man at the top the name to the people he hired to kind of horn in on Messiah’s property or his decision-making cache And you know Nigel asked the question because I said the Raptors have had tremendous clarity about what they’ve been trying to do
Yeah
that’s like I understand the Raptors have not been as successful I do get that However they have had that clarity of like we’re going to build and we’re going to build towards winning and this is this is not being you know run strictly as like a consumer product but this is being run as a basketball team And I think
that is where a lot of this stuff gets muddied Totally
That is that is the big concerning thing here And man Messiah even though there’s been decisions that didn’t work out you and I have uh discussed critiqued
uh I’ve publicly had a back back and forth with Messiah Y
I think he’s a good executive and everybody’s liable to be wrong about basketball but the motivation is really important and that’s why Messiah is still seen as a strong decision maker in the NBA and why he would pro why he will probably be seen as somebody that some teams will want to get on their side of things
Yeah
Now like at the height of it Messiah it wasn’t talked about like oh he’ll get poached by the Raptors It was like is he going to go do something with Obama yeah
you know what I mean and ah man I it surprises me to see this happen It makes me wonder about like is this massive billionaire conglomerate really you know scared of either one paying money
however much Messiah would have gotten or two his giving too much control to one person and trying to absorb it into the larger structure I think both of those are bad
It’s probably both It’s probably a combination of both to be honest with you Um and and like look that is that is generally what we’ve seen reported about uh the ownership group and how they move generally Um and I I think that to me is the big crux of what we’ve seen over the last couple of years in terms of the push and pull of what the Raptors honestly some of the organizational decision-m in general You can probably uh some of that has to do with the pressures that they felt above okay well we’re rebuilding but also we’re going to have to go out and get these stars and you know oh we’re going to be in the mix for certain players and whatnot I think part of that has to do with the split of expectations versus reality versus what a team wanted to run versus what the organization wanted to run And I wonder how that alignment now changes what the Raptors focus is on cuz that’s that’s what that’s what it is at the end of the day right like um Messiah was an incredible leader in Toronto he’s going to uh hopefully one day uh like be honored in some way in Toronto cuz I think that’s that’s well worth it But the the big important part here is like what does this mean for the Raptors and the basketball team itself to me it’s culturally like you don’t have a guy who just has this ridiculous presence to him that can command a room that can obviously like understands how to build a good organization you’d no longer have that person there He’s obviously helped build up other people um and and kind of develop you know quote unquote develop them to get to that point too Bobby Webster being one of them Dan Tolsman being another Um like he has people in the organization currently How long is that the case is also another question is does this imply a complete overhaul of the Raptors organization or does this just mean you know one specific situation with Messiah and his contract extension these are sort of the questions that you think about moving forward but I don’t know What are your thoughts on that what do you think they look like next
i think it would be pretty radical for Dan Bobby to go Yeah I agree
because you know this isn’t like a coaching staff necessarily but and the part of the reason why Messiah is going is because they they don’t want to give like this all this power to one spot the president spot right
and it’s not like I don’t think they’re going to hire another president I don’t think they plan on doing that They probably just want to insert their people and have the the superructure kind of absorb it And if they and if they did you know like I’m sure they’re going to let Bobby run it and then if they don’t like it Bobby would get fired and then it’ll just be a regular GM thing
You know what I mean that’s that’s my expectation But the like a president I I don’t think that’ll be the case And yeah I agree
I don’t I don’t think they’ll fire I don’t
Well that’s what that’s what happened with the Leafs right uh from what from my understanding is they they didn’t hire a new president when they let go of Brennan Shanahan It was hello hi Um you know we’re kind of just keeping the GM here Um so yeah I I think that’s probably the case Uh and and ultimately like in terms of decision-m Messiah Jerry um obviously seated a lot of like the the I guess decision-m generally to Bobby Webster for the most part There was a lot that was baked into what Bobby and Dan Tolsman would do for the organization Um and Messiah’s role at least over the last four or five years was more of a consultancy like hey highlevel thinking type of thing for this team Um I I think that’s something worth noting But at the same time it’s hard to it’s hard to find guys like that that do it at the level that Messiah does Um there’s a reason he was involved for the Hawks job There’s a reason that he’s constantly putting names uh in certain situ you know just being like involved in other hiring situations Um hard to replace that guy It doesn’t seem like the Raptors are going to replace that guy uh because of what they did with the Leafs and whatnot Uh and I just to me uh like it’s hard to analyze what this next phase looks like without seeing any further decision-m Uh that being said you can probably look at some of the last four or five years and the pressures that Messiah had to deal with uh organizationally that relate to some of their onc court decision-m and and you know kind of the decision-m that they did with the team but it’s it’s tough It’s tough to reconcile with at this point
Does this make you feel any differently about the the Brandon Ingram trade pressure to compete absolutely Walk me through that
Yeah cuz I I think the messaging at the again like we have to just work off of the things that we are told right so from a messaging perspective at the start of the season the first word that came out of Messiah Jir’s mouth was rebuild right and a rebuild doesn’t necessarily mean four or five years you know we’re going deep into the dirts and tanking every single season but a rebuild means you are restarting around this certain player and that player was Scotty Barnes and Emanuel Quickley Um that tended to mean you’re not going out and paying first round picks naturally when you look at like other teams that are in rebuilds you’re not going out and buying players or acquiring other players Um you’re you’re kind of working through the draft You’re working to be opportunistic And while you could maybe argue that the Brandon Ingram trade was opportunistic given the price that they paid it wasn’t a high price for a guy who’s made an all-star team before Um I think generally that move signal to me where it’s like okay there’s clearly a a shift now to become more competitive and the fact that the last season was I guess especially like 30th anniversary puff and everything like that the the Vince Carter of it all the circumstance of like hey we’re bringing back purple jerseys That’s clearly good for business Um but moving on from that they needed something else to focus on and that something else was to be competitive to put out a playoff team And I do think part of that what came from pressure from ownership and from organizational being like hey we can’t have a rebuilding team um because of the fact that it probably won’t generate a lot of leaguewide interest uh you know nationwide interest viewership interest etc etc Um yeah that’s that’s what I imagine it was the conversations Honestly it probably relates to the fact that the Raptors were so in on KD too you know Um but yeah that’s that’s where I’m at with it It definitely seems like there was this fundamental shift that happened um where they they figured out hey the pressure is on now to be competitive immediately I thought that pressure seemed obvious um it didn’t seem that it was going to be like have this massive implication a day after the NBA draft And also that’s that’s also this is a weird part of it I’m curious to get your thoughts on it Just the messaging of letting go of a guy who was part of and responsible for your most successful tenure in franchise history a day after the NBA draft to me that that doesn’t look the greatest You know
that is very confusing to me quite frankly And I I guess there’s reporting that the Raptors are looking for a president
Is there Okay
I saw in chat I was trying to find it So actually let me say not for sure I didn’t find it anywhere Um but apparently the ESPN is reporting that the Raptors will look to add a president I don’t know if that’s I won’t I won’t repeat that until I see that somewhere Yeah Chad is not a reliable place Um so the day after the draft is weird
Mhm They maybe they’re like you know what he is actually great at drafting We’ll give Oh actually let me let me Yeah that is funny Um so ESPN did actually say that Messiah Jur is out as vice chairman and president of the basketball operations sources tell ESPN the Raptors are expected to conduct a full search for the next president of basketball operations sources said So that actually makes it a little bit more confusing to be honest with you Um because that’s not that’s not a job that many people step into Usually people get hired into GM and then get elevated right
to something like that What if it’s just Bob Myers naya says they loved him during the second round of the NBA draft His man
this guy brings up good points That that makes it much more confusing I think because
Messiah
Well because that’s that the ownership hasn’t moved that way right um like with the Leafs they didn’t do that you know maybe maybe that’s the thing It’s like they just move Bobby up to president of basketball operations and he finds a general manager or brings to
God Andrew Schultz is gonna be the the general manager Andrew Schultz Andrew Schultz is going to have 20 uh shows in the middle of October
Oh man Yeah
that’s okay So that that adds a whole new element and not one that I’m not really
Yeah suited to to discuss because I don’t know who the hell they’d hire as a president I don’t know
No clue This is this is Nibil uh conversations right here He probably has 20 people on his list uh that he’s he’s considering I Yeah I don’t know either Uh Bob Myers is a funny guess although like I guess he would be in conversation for this I do think that it makes the most sense for them to internally um like move Bobby up because it just to me that like if you hire a president of basketball operations he’s usually going to end up bringing in his own or her own people You know what I mean so it’s unlikely that Bobby stays Then tools So like to me it just seems like they’re going to keep this ship intact by you know uh promoting the co- captain of this whole thing
Josh Luenberg saying that rival execs saying he’s very hard to deal with I’m glad he’s hard to deal with man
Yeah Yeah
That’s that’s the job What it like if people are like this guy he’s so easy to deal with We love what’s been happening
We love trade But but this this does um like this is the point I want to I you can critique Messiah for like basketball decisions certainly but the how much of the basketball decisions are his and how much of the basketball decisions are Bobb’s that’s not exactly like that’s that’s kind of opaque
and the reason why
you know the Messiah stuff despite disagreeing with some stuff that went on with the Raptors Why I think it’s not necessarily or actually why I think it’s a bad thing that he leaves
Mhm
Is and I guess we’ll see what happens with the president search or what that happens to And I’ll Messiah versus Bobby I prefer Messiah for what it’s worth I know maybe Bobb’s the new president and I’m putting my foot in my mouth here but I prefer I prefer Messiah I just if they are getting a new president if the full search does result in something like that fine I guess we’ll see It’ll be tough to be what Messiah was
Oh my god Yeah But if they don’t if they don’t then having a giant conglomerate operate at the top of this thing without like a strong hard to deal with president in between team and and ownership
Yep
That worries me man I think that that a lot of times that leads to like overreach and it’s just
Well it also it also leads to group think right because whatever you say is whatever I say whatever I say is whatever they say in this sort of like echo chamber of everybody agrees you know everybody ages we’re going with this move we’re going with this higher we’re going with this trade Um and so there’s no back and forth There’s no I mean collaboration part of collaboration is that back and forth And yeah that’s the that’s the tough part for me I I will also say like I think I think I would be surprised if they do hire a new president of basketball operations cuz that to me just doesn’t fall with the MMO of of what the rap well what the ownership group has done recently And also hiring a new guy means that he will command a salary you know and that just requires your organization to be more expensive And I’m not sure if that’s you know given kind of the structural changes that they made with the Maple Leaf side of things I’m not sure if that’s exactly what they’re trying to do with this Raptor side So to me I I would be pretty shocked if that’s the case Look look my morning alarm is is on here you know that’s that’s how early we are cooking this thing But um yeah
called me and woke me up and he’s like
and then you called me and woke me up Yeah
He’s like did you see i was like no what happened he’s like my thigh’s gone I was like whoa Yeah Yeah Um hey I I’ll I’ll also say this I think from like an um some some people have said like the Messiah decision-m over the last five years and him coasting Um he has sort of me mentioned that in his press conferences Uh yeah Sharon Baxter Messiah has been coasting for five years getting that big money
that big money that big moola Um yeah he’s he’s kind of made light of that in some of his press conferences and said you know he’s he’s taken more he was he had taken more of like a can’t remember the exact word that he used Um but more of like a a background role uh and that he maybe maybe that breeded complacency a little bit uh but that he was ready to jump back into it And to be honest with you I think like some of the draft decisions over the last three or four years have been really good from them I don’t know if that’s all Messiah if that’s Dan if it’s Bobby or whoever else but for the most part I think uh postcoid draft they’ve done a pretty good job with the NBA draft in my opinion Not sure how you feel about that but um like from a draft you’re picking my guys so I better pick So So you better love them Yeah Um and like from free agency it’s not like the Raptors are a crazy free agency destination or have had space or anything like that You can argue the the way that they maneuvered through the Pascal Seakum and Fred Van Vleet and OG Anobi contract situations uh was tough undoubtedly Uh and I I again I think that was something Messiah has mentioned before Uh according to the chat by the way Keith Press conference for 1 PM So yeah
I guess we’ll probably be there I don’t know I don’t know
You have You have time to go to that
I have an audition to go to
I have an audition of sorts as well
Oh yes you do Yes you do Oh my god
The official press release is out by the way Do you want me to read in what Keith Bell has said okay So
this is from Raptors PR Um during his 13 season this is what Keith Py has said Uh during his 13 seasons with the Raptors Messiah has helped transform the organization on the court and has been an inspirational leader off of it He brought an NBA championship Toronto to Toronto and urged us to believe in this city and ourselves We are grateful for all he has done and wish him and his family the very best As we planned for the f franchise’s future and its return to the NBA playoffs a search for the successor as president of rap of the Raptors led by CIA executive search will begin immediately That was an interesting ad Uh we are confident that the Raptors organization under the guidance of Bobby and his team is in a great place They have a plan in place for next season and beyond As the team continues its rebuild and we have confidence in their ability to execute and ultimately to excel we feel the team is in a strong stable place and we believe the addition of a new president will continue to move the Raptors forward towards our next championship So then why’d you fire the guy i’m that CIA part is pretty interesting though Leon Rose Here we go man
What is the C that’s like a That’s like a Sham’s tweet You know how randomly there’ll be like somebody’s name in there
Yeah Vegan grass says CIA or CIA Yeah
That’s funny That’s funny Um man
that’s an interesting I mean like there there wasn’t much there you know what I mean other than the CIA executive search thing Um
Nibil says that’s Messiah’s old agency by the way Oh he left for WME Yeah
Yeah
I mean I don’t I don’t know if that has anything to do with it but
Yeah Yeah I don’t know about all that
Yeah
Um yeah Raps need roadside assistance certainly
So Messiah out Keith P and Rogers looming
over the top Bobby apparently cozy
Also oh a little a little note here from Raptors PR which I think is interesting on the bottom of the headline Team leadership remains in place with contract extensions while a search for successor as team president begins immediately There were there was Messiah Jury had mentioned that there was contract extensions with Bobby and with Dan and all those guys And so this seems that they have extended those contracts but that they’re looking for a new team president Interesting Yeah cuz that was Messiah was like that is my biggest
Yeah Getting these guys locked in long term Yeah
Yeah All right
Okay All right Here we go Uh we have from Raps V says “I’m not going to lie I’m so excited.” We have from Clur Anyone who thinks Messiah wasn’t 100% behind this is kidding themselves He’s been angling to leave for years flirting with other teams
Oh interesting
We’ve been in the cuck chair apparently just waiting Um so there we have Messiah no longer with the Raptors That really is something man He has been with the Raptors obviously the full time that I’ve covered this team He’s been with the Raptors the full time that many people have been watching this team if you’re of a certain age
Yeah Yeah And that man that is why I I really should like let people know it is hard to find a guy of Messiah Jur’s capabilities even despite some of the shaky moves and things that can like again basketball-wise label over the last five years that were like bad moves Um like I it’s really hard to find someone organizationally to fill that void you know if not impossible Let’s look at like some of the other teams that have tried to do this okay like the New Orleans Pelicans right now just brought in Joe Dumars right and Troy Weaver two guys with a spotless track record Um that that like you think of the the Sacramento Kings and bringing back Scott Perry okay who obviously uh tough time with the New York Knicks as a president and we’ll see what happens with them the Phoenix Suns They just found a new president of basketball operations in I believe Brian Gregory or GM in Brian Gregory And apparently Matt Ishbia is gonna take more control You know I don’t know if you saw that report but he’s going to he’s going to really dig deep and be a part of the decision-making process now as if he wasn’t before So like in the NBA it’s really hard to find dudes who are good at their jobs Um and especially at the high level And I think that’s something that should be noted here Uh the Raptors have before Messiah Jerry and before Tim Lowicki um really there was like this this moment in time from I don’t know like 2000 to 2011 where it was this constant influx of GM coach GM coach GM coach player coach and just like this churning of really directionless basketball Uh I will admit that like that’s less the case now There are more well-run organizations now than there were back then Uh I actually was like I saw a clip of Bill Simmons saying he missed like dumb organizations and that dumb organizations are making a comeback Like that that’s an off comment
The Pelicans
was that was that was regards to the Pelicans Yeah
it wasn’t that bad by the way the Pelicans trade It wasn’t that bad
dude It could be the first pick next year
I doubt it Okay Anyways whatever
Trey told me Derek Queen will lead them to the playoffs He did He did say Derek Queen would be a Hall of Famer Um yeah So like I just I think organizations have gotten better at hiring the right people and there are more tools to uh at the hands of organizations to be better at basketball decisions than there were 15 years ago So I don’t think they’re going to go back into the dark ages like some of the comments that I’ve seen But it’s also going to be really hard to find that president of basketball operations Also find that president of basketball operations who doesn’t want to bring in his own people or her own people That to me is surprising That that to me is something that’s interesting cuz how does that work but anyways
it is going to be Schulz because he already has an existing beef with Kendrick Lamar
So there the you know everyone will be aligned on that man
This is uh this is Raps V says I really hope they replace Bobby He’s apparently extended man
You know what I mean that is why that is why I don’t understand like I understand people are like oh the team wasn’t good you know like look at the way they built Messiah’s been you know screwing up they extended Bobby he is just as big a part of the team building machinations of the past however long as Messiah is
Mhm This is not performance because otherwise why would Bobby be extend why would Bobby be like okay lock in because Bobby is very much part and parcel of that this is Messiah allegedly Messiah Rogers rift and you know what somebody said I can’t remember their name but is like as far as Messiah wanting to leave and kind of like finagling willing to get out I don’t know I’m not like I’m not Grange I’m not I don’t text Messiah I don’t have that you know situation I don’t know what Messiah wants to do
Yeah No but that’s it It maybe that’s a possibility that Messiah wanted to do other things I don’t know Regardless though um I don’t think this is a basketball performance thing I don’t think Ed Rogers and Keith P are like you know what Vision 69 was stupid as hell we resent you for that I don’t I don’t think that’s I don’t think that’s what this is about
Yeah Yeah I don’t I don’t think they went into that interview and and said like “Hey here are the last 20 transactions you guys made.” Like I don’t I don’t think that’s the process at which they did this Um yeah by the way like I do think I I see some comments Sandeep said Brett Seagull was saying that Bobby was running this draft this year for the Raps Maybe that’s why no come on at nine I would probably say that like Bobby and Dan uh kind of spearhead the draft most years for
but also Messiah doesn’t just select Africans guys This is
Yeah that’s also that’s also
has never been a thing Yeah I know Um that’s that’s a Yeah that’s not part of it And also like
Yeah I don’t know man I don’t know Should we get a statue for Messiah does he get a statue does he get honored like that let’s see I don’t God a statue for an executive is kind of it’s not as true Yeah
It’s it’s not it’s not that easy you know
Yeah you’re right It isn’t easy
I just the there’ll be something that says Messiah’s name on it probably around there But like a statue him doing the we will win in Toronto The little Yeah Um
I guess but like the statues are like moments a lot of the time
Yeah totally Totally
And like that him in the hotel room on the phone
That would be funny
Marty Rosen you’ve been traded
That would be funny
Um yeah I I mean retiring the jersey that would be cool too Um he it would be worthy of it It just
This is a good point
Yeah Antoine Rose says Bobby ain’t training no one until president is hired That is actually like
not bad
We’re heading into free agency
Yep Yep
Like free free agency is right away and they don’t have a president that apparently they’re looking for
Mhm I all this just makes me think Bobby has a lot of cache I would be pretty skeptical if they hired a new president To be honest with you I would be shocked Honestly I would be shocked
It doesn’t It doesn’t make that much sense but All right What What do you think well let’s Odds are either Bobby is the new president or they hire outside What do you think is a greater you’re getting a lot of love here in the comments to be the president I don’t know how you feel about that
The president of the Raptors Yes
Uh the I’ll take the salary People are already weird about me online You know Reddit already discusses me I might as well get paid handsomely for trusting folk Trust
you know Yeah You guys man if you guys are pissed at Messiah I’m pretty sure you guys cuz again I’ll tell you Messiah he has been what’s the term in Toronto loafing you said loafing Loafing
Yeah loing
Yes Messiah’s clearly been copying my notes for the draft or at least Bobby has Let’s have a few original thoughts everybody Just going over and what is who is Samson like um I I I think I’d be bad at that job
By the way I don’t think this has anything to do with the draft There’s going to be people who say like “Oh they’ve made this pick and that’s why.” There’s unlikely that that has anything to do with the decision- making here Um that’s surprising
But no I I don’t think they selected Colin Murray Boils and reaction
Rogers descended like “No this is bad.”
Yeah that’s clearly that’s ridiculous
That would never happen
And by the way Colin Colin Murray Boils is an excellent pick So I no I it would I I’ve never heard of such a process for an ownership
No that would be that would be ridiculous
No I I Okay so my my pick would be that they do not hire uh a president of basketball operations and that they just promote Bobby Webster to president of basketball operations That’s my that’s my bet That is the that is what I’m assuming
Yeah Yeah I think probably the simplest thing is that they thought Messiah was really really expensive
Yeah
And tension etc etc Um overreach etc etc Bob’s your uncle Becky’s your aunt You have to discuss contracts extensions and then there you go
Yeah
Yeah
I guess the the out outpouring like kind of the ripple effects of that is the question moving forward You know Daniel is listing all of these media people as president but not me And I feel a little sad I feel a little hurt
Well aren’t don’t you exist within the the structure currently
i technically
you’re you’re the most likely to get promoted
Shoot me up from in arena host to president of basketball operates
Well what is president if not you know an in uh uh organization host
yeah you know undeniably As for Secretary of the Interior wow All right All right Yeah Um I don’t know man I I I think just more than anything um this puts you know the one question I wanted to ask yesterday didn’t get a chance to because they were they were sorting out uh undrafted guys and two-way guys to sign and so there was um no no s will go through assistant GM first Thank you so much for really uh it’s a lot of emails in that job I hope you know Yeah I could imagine Um the question I wanted to ask moving forward was like hey you guys obviously got a lot of uh calls during the NBA draft You guys got a lot of information on how your players are valued throughout the NBA draft Um the draft process and just basically getting different calls to gauge interest on some of your players and on players that you guys might be interested in Um how does that dictate or kind of change the way you guys view the rest of the off season that was my main question Um and unfortunately my question still lingers I I really I have no idea now how the rest of the offseason looks for the Toronto Raptors because of this new Yeah Ian just mentioned this There’s an extension for Bobby Terms not confirmed Yes we we we mentioned that the press release mentioned there’s going to be extensions for the front office people Um yeah I I have a very big question on like what’s next and what how the Raptors operate while they don’t have a president of basketball operations That’s my biggest question That’s Yeah we’ll see what happens there
It’s probably just Bobby’s team for the most part I guess with a lot of um oversight from ownership on you know what does it cost what does it look like was it Brad Stevens he he clearly had a you know he clearly had a very um ownership stepped in and said something to him right when he was like Brad Stevens probably wanted to operate as an expensive team probably but then they had this exorbitant tax bill and he was like man up against the second apron this is crazy
actually it was actually nuts and crazy so now we’re gonna trade everybody
um but not Derek White which is smart Uh anyway
do you I if if the Raptors over the next couple months cut costs in a way that makes them cuz they’re pretty close I mean you and Blake talked about it last night but they’re pretty close to being a tax team They’re pretty close to being um yeah you know and and they do have until game 82 of next season to get out of the tax for what it’s worth Um but if in the next couple of months they made some sort of uh trade that were you know kind of moves RJ or Ochai or something in a cost cutting effect Um would that sort of signal to you what the important things were for ownership i don’t I don’t think so because honestly I think they probably have to do it regardless Like I restructuring and finding a way to identifying the guy who is least important to this team winning next year that comes at a certain cost was already like a very important move to be able to do I think for the Raptors Now whoever whoever they identify I’m not certain but I do think that was important So if they do that this time that’s not going to make me think like immediately oh this is this is the cheap cheap team cheapville And also on top of that like it is a little bit more opaque because there’s you know there’s a bunch of like um investment Even Mark Shapyro is a good example of this Like Mark Shapyro hasn’t had the heat on him necessarily the same way Atkins has because Shapyro was overlooking a lot of the renovations to the stadium Like that was a lot of his role as the higher up not the what is Atkins the GM or whatever the hell his job is And Atkins was more of the team builder But the Jays spend a lot of money They’re expensive but they don’t spend a lot of money on management They spend a lot of money on players
And you know which is different in the MLB than it is in
Yeah it’s the NBA because salary cap sport But man uh I guess we’ll do final thoughts because you and I probably actually have to go to that dum Keith Press conference So
all right Yeah
Uh oh yeah How you feeling he’s got it Um I I’m feeling I’m feeling uh pretty bummed to be honest with you And I don’t I don’t mean bummed as far as you know it’s funny Um our good friend Caitlyn uh she she posted this thing about you know uh why we do it and you know fans kind of like the fan part of this right she posted on basketball She wrote a very very good article I’m sure you’ve read it I read it just basically about like the fan aspect of this and why we end up doing it Um and obviously like we have now we’re still fans but we’ve there’s like layers of analysis and work and research that now comes into what we do um with our jobs that kind of takes away from the fan element a little bit and and days like today kind of like it it kind of reminds you of some of the fan element of things Obviously it’s hard to to be that same reactionary fan that I might have been in like 2019 if I heard this news or 2017 if if this news dropped Um but at the same time it it it kind of makes you think like hm how do you reconcile a guy who was like so important to the Raptors organization and foundation um with kind of the decision-making process of an organization in its totality um as a fan you know and I I again I say this because we no longer like wear like this like we’re fans but we don’t wear a fan hat when we do this work we were trying to be as objective as possible and like yeah for the most part um that’s the thing that I’m kind of curious about is like how do you reconcile the the fan element and I don’t know if I’m talking out of my ass here I apologize but like how do you reconcile the fan element of this guy was so important to the city to reshaping a c a culture and a an organization to the point where it became well respected to the point where everybody uh knew that the Raptors were one of the well-run organizations because of him Um and now this So that that’s that’s the part that I don’t I don’t know And yeah someone just said “Yes I am talking out of my ass.” Thank you very much Appreciate it
Also from Adam Pike who has done a wonderful job detailing the the Grizzlies and their G-League uh the hustle Uh by the way um says Anna Winter step down which what does that mean ant Winter and uh
that would be fun
MSI both stepping down I I’ll say this So as far as um yeah Zoran Mandani is suspending his mayoral campaign to become president of the rappers
That would be sick I would be so down Um so I like I understand what you mean as far as the the Messiah stuff It’s it is a job that is like what have you done for me lately
yes
it’s always going to be a what have you done for me lately situation I’m
I do my read of the situation is that the basketball of it all has involved a lot of Bobby Webster which is why I’m not exactly just like Messiah ran this thing into the ground or Messiah did X or Y I just Messiah is an incredibly important figurehead for the rise of the Toronto Raptors If he was no longer you know we had people in chat saying like or Sharon Baxter was like collecting a paycheck all this kind of stuff like
just uh not like it’s you can be harsh It’s harsh a harsh view of the job or whatever right like yeah no results just collecting a paycheck all that kind of stuff
you know it’s all that kind of stuff It is performance-based of course and it’s okay to be harsh with people who make a ton of money as long as you’re not being hateful right and Sharon is just being harsh not hateful The the thing here is Messiah will have an outsized impact and like legacy with fans because of what he what he was However it isn’t the basketball stuff that makes me think Messiah left And I don’t think the basketball stuff is why the Rogers did away with him I think it’s I think it’s all of the other machinations
Yeah And I’ve disagreed with a lot of the decisions that Messiah’s made as a basketball decision maker or that he and Bobby have made in lockep
I haven’t disagreed
with his presence or I guess like the job of a president overall or the fact that the Raptors are a team driven for winning and all that kind of stuff So I don’t uh as Mark Gorgle here or Gargle writes nobody built Toronto’s brand better than Messiah basketball aside That’s that’s kind of where I’m at Yeah I agree Yeah And that’s that’s sort of what I was talking to about the fan perspective of things because you know what was the number one slogan that fans would bring up when it came to Messiah trust in Messiah right whatever would happen basketball And sure that that lost its uh kind of flavor a little bit over the last couple years and last five seasons because of the decision-m and again decision-m that both of us have disagreed with at times Um that was that rang true because you could lean on the fact that there was this experienced veteran executive that kind of knew what he was doing and could build something culturally that kind of made sense That said um like that was also that trust and Messiah slogan was also used as a way to like blindly accept anything the Raptors uh did transactionally So there’s the push and pull to your point You could either be very harsh right or you could be um sad And I think that’s why there’s this sort of split in the fan base and honestly a split in these comments here between people who are like “Man we’re sad to see Messiah go This is a weird day for the organization etc etc And um people who say well it was time you know um I just I think there’s a very clear split here between what people imagine to be the case for why Messiah is no longer executive and why he probably isn’t is the fact that it’s money you know
Yeah Yeah
Uh somebody asked me what I disagreed with uh about Messiah I man I covered the team for years a lot of people watch and listen I can’t run everything back for you It’s all all my work has been public for like a really long time I just man and now we’ve gotten to the point where we’re we hate that I’m wearing a what seems like a San Francisco Giants hat but actually it’s a Samson folk hat for anybody who’s wondering These are my initials
S uh anything you want to say before we get out of here we’ve been going 54 minutes on an opaque somewhat unknown thing
Yeah it’s hard to know you know and and there was a comment at the start that was like “You guys are overreacting.” And I was like “I don’t like I don’t think so This is this isn’t like a subdued reaction but this isn’t like a oh my god.”
Yeah
Um
it’s hard to be h oh my god at 9:30 in the morning for me truthfully You know um look I all I’ll say is like uh there are many more questions than there are answers And there are many more an like you know we do not have all the answers right now Keith P will be speaking at 1 PM Maybe that will provide us with more clarity about what’s going to happen next Um usually truthfully executives of that stature don’t talk very candidly and uh that that might end up just being one of those you know kind of like house cleaning type of pressors But that said we’ll see man We’ll see what happens Um there’s just a lot more questions than there are answers at this point And I’m not sure what the next couple of months of Raptors basketball decision-m wise looks like Yeah that’s it That’s all I got
Yeah And I’ll I’ll say like most of the negative reactions that I’m seeing are tied to people just not liking a decision like disagreeing with a decision that Messiah’s made Like some people are like “Well the CMBB pick.” And it’s like I hate to tell you guys it’s not Messiah is not gone for the reason that you guys think he’s gone It’s not basketball
It’s not about the thing that you disliked Like the the Rogers not acting at your behest Um and that’s kind of it’s just it’s like there will be a there will be I’m sure Grange will have something Somebody will have something and it will probably come down to money overreach and Messiah’s aspirations elsewhere
Yeah
that’s probably what it is But I tell you what he didn’t get they didn’t let him go because of a CMBB pick They didn’t let him go because of
of a Yaka Pearle trade Yaka Purle trade Yeah you know
uh honestly like uh you guys have had I I know I have currently uh and like there are bosses everywhere in the world where like uh they’re kind of understanding of the day-to-day decision-m isn’t as thorough as you would imagine compared to everything else right so they’re not locked into hey why was this the case versus this the case it’s more like a general well you’ve done well you know this this team has done this thing would you like to extend for this amount or not that’s the amount and that’s what it ends up coming to um yeah I I I also also like uh someone said you know the questionable moves you mentioned over the past five years uh has to be laid at the feet of Bobby it honestly it could be laid at the feet of tons of people it’s not that that’s part of the conversation that we’re having here It’s not like Messiah is jumping in here and saying “Well you have to trade for Yaka Purle tomorrow or you have to draft Colin Murray Boils or whatever.” This is a a group of people making these decisions Um so that’s that’s worth noting here that it’s probably not a basketball decision type of thing despite how weird the last four or five seasons of decision-m has been for the Raptors All right Uh where can you watch the pressers today i assume one of the TV stations will have it or have it or the Raptors themselves Although the Raptors themselves having it I think would surprise me a little bit since it’s a yeah a bigger thing
I would imagine it’s on either the Rogers website or something along the lines of that That’s what I would uh Yeah that’s that’s probably what it will be
Rice says that they will miss Giants of Africa It’s not going anywhere So
there’s like that’s if you enjoy Messiah the the person who does things then uh he’ll still be doing things I’m I’m quite certain of it So like Messiah will still be probably present in basketball Just probably not Raptors basketball
All right everybody Yes sir
Thank you for tuning in S thank you for huffing on with me in the wee hours the morning for us anyway Us night owls Yeah um the wee hours of the morning and uh yeah thanks everybody You you just read that one comment Oh man thank thanks everybody That’s that’s why I may as well you know I’ll take the job because this happens Anyway thank you everybody for tuning in Uh make sure to like comment subscribe all that good stuff
Hire us as as president of the presidents of basketball operations
We’re we’re actually a duo We’re a business duo Uh thanks everybody for tuning in Uh whether you got into this in the morning or at night have a blessed day from myself and S and goodbye

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