Raptors Fired Masai Ujiri !!!
That light coming down the train tracks finally arrived...
Today MLSE officially fired Masai Ujiri, long standing president of the Toronto Raptors. Long time readers here weren’t surprised of course but the rest of the NBA world was shocked, especially at the timing. Let’s go step by step through this story so that we get it right and are fair to all parties involved.
Masai’s Raptors History
Myth #1 - Masai built a championship team.
Masai was hired as GM of the Raptors May 31, 2013. Masai had no draft picks to select any players in the 2013 draft, however he was gifted the complete core of a team that would go on to win 48 games, then 49, then 56 then 51 and finally 59 games…all prior to the “All In” move for Kawhi. During that period Masai whiffed on drafting Bruno and Daniels in 2014 but hit on Pascal, OG and Poeltl a few years later. Young players during that pre-championship run they only contributed off the bench for the last few years. Masai brought in little free agent talent and simply developed what he was given in 2013 when he arrived.
Masai arrived with a young and very talented roster.
Reality #2 - Masai engineered a championship team.
The ‘All In’ trade for Kawhi Leonard was a brazen move very few GM’s in the NBA were interested in. Kawhi had clearly stated he wanted to go to LA and he wouldn’t be resigning with anyone else. Masai gambled he could convince Kawhi Toronto is a great place to play, offered more than the low ball LA offer, and a vengeful Spurs team were only too happy to ship Kawhi off to Canada. Masai then quickly added Marc Gasol to solidify the defense and the rest is history. The leadership of Kyle Lowry allowed Kawhi to just Ball Out which he loved to do. Clutch contributions by many won the team the championship. Masai deserves credit for taking a huge risk and winning it all. Very few have done that in Pro sports. Many many more have lost their jobs trying.
Myth #2 - Masai kept the Raptors winning
Actually, Masai’s gamble with Kawhi backfired when he left Toronto immediately after the championship year. Regardless the Core added recent quality draft picks and won more games during the season after the Championship. While Pascal and OG contributed to winning games, it was still the old Lowry core that carried the team more than the ‘Bench Mob’ that had finally broken through to some starting roles. Masai’s contract negotiation with Ibalka would end disastrously and leave the team with only the fast aging and champagne drinking Marc Gasol who was barely walking now. The lack of an NBA quality center would go on to Tank the team in the Covid shortened year and a couple more mediocre years after that.
Myth #3 - Masai fleeced in Trades
Masai was regularly called out for ‘strange moves’ by NBA pundits after the championship year. Prior to that he certainly pulled off some good trades. Lost a few others. In the end his trade history is a mixed bag. He was known to hold on to his young players, over valuing them in trade talks, until their trade values were next to nothing. Rather than trade FVV he let him walk for nothing. The following year he dumped Pascal in a poor trade having scared off all interested NBA teams by waiting far too long. Other trades like the OG trade look fine and the Brandon Ingram trade will likely turn out just fine soon. Masai’s trading history is much more a mixed bag than many Raptors Fans are willing to admit.
Why was Masai Fired?
Poor Performance. Bottom line. His team won 30 games this year and 25 games the year before. That’s Brutal performance for a team that was an NBA Champion only 4 years before that. In fact it’s one of the faster collapses of NBA champions in modern history. Masai certainly could have been fairly fired when FVV walked for nothing. Simply unheard of letting that happen in the NBA.
Why the Poor Performance?
Masai gambled big time on his after championship Core of Pascal, OG, FVV when Scottie Barnes arrived. He added Jakob Poeltl to that core at the expense of the future despite that Core group never showing high level potential. Jak certainly stabilized the defense but that group never gel’d, never worked well together and never achieved anything but a first round exit. The mix was wrong. The leadership without Kyle Lowry was a massive Black Hole. Band aid additions of Vets to practice with never helped enough.
Why the Timing Now, after the Draft?
Keith Pelley confirmed in his recent presser that he started having ‘talks’ with Masai about 3 months ago. He further confirmed he told Masai they would be moving on from him and both agreed to wait for that to happen after the Draft.
That’s NOT the WHOLE Story.
When Grange asked Pelley ‘were there any financial implications’ that delayed the firing until after the Draft Pelley carefully dodged the question, but said it was very complicated situation. Yes, it was, but not in a way they talked about.
The Truth is this, on June 12, 2025 the CRTC officially Approved the Bell Media Inc sale of it’s shares to Rogers. All the sports leagues governing bodies had been contacted and confirmed no concerns with the sale prior to the CRTC approval. Bell shares would have transferred to Rogers control Friday June 13 or Monday June 16. Masai was officially fired 12 days after that Monday. Pelley told Masai he would be fired AS SOON AS they started getting approvals from all the sports leagues involved…the final hurdle.
Bell Media REFUSED to vote it’s shares with Rogers in terminating Masai, instead siding with Larry Tannenbaum and ‘keeping the peace’ until their share sale closed. He would have been fired sooner if Bell would have voted with Rogers against Larry. Rogers wanted to fire Masai as soon as possible because his contract holds a clause that give Masai a % of the Raptors team valuation increase. Considering the recent $10 BILLION sale of the Lakers that slice Masai is getting of the team’s value increase is going to be HUGE. The sooner he was fired the lower the team valuation. This recent announced Lakers sale will absolutely become a part of the legal battle we will eventually see as Rogers takes Masai’s contract to court trying to low ball that team value clause. It’s going to get really really legally messy very soon. Rogers is beyond upset at that contract and he’s going to fight it until the bitter end. And bitter it will be.
End of the Masai Era
For most Raptor fans this is a sad day as they have lost the Man who built the Raptors into a Champion. For the deeply knowledgable Raptor fans this day should have come sooner and would have if Bell Media and Larry Tannenbaum didn’t support Masai. His record with the team was average prior to the Championship year, great in that one year of moves, and poor again after the championship. His constant delaying of critical decisions cost the team valuable assets. His over valuation of his own players made trading in the NBA difficult as other teams laughed at his prices. His failure to sign even ONE Big Free Agent to Toronto when he declared he would make the city an NBA destination was the biggest problem of all. As the recent KD trade negotiations show, Toronto is NOT a destination city still.
Why do so many Raptors Fans Love Masai?
Easy answer. Rogers and Bell control 80% of the media in Canada. None of their mouthpieces would ever go against Masai regularly. Sure they send some soft criticism occasionally, but few went hard and regularly against Masai. Even the unpaid ‘influencers’ all wanted jobs with Bell and Rogers so would never call Masai out for his decisions. Remember that NBA teams hold access to players and scoops tightly to their chest. If you go hard against a team don’t expect anything from them. Them’s the brakes when you go up against power.
Conclusion
The idea Masai will get a job in the NBA tomorrow is absolutely NOT true. His history is plain as day for all to see, and unlike NBA fans, teams do their homework. They know Masai was handed a talent heavy young team. They know he gambled with Kawhi, got lucky in the playoffs with injuries and everything bouncing the teams way, then paid the price for gambling when Kawhi walked. Other NBA teams know Masai burned down a Championship level team in 4 years.
They won’t be very interested.
The NBA is about the latest, greatest, hottest thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Masai hired as a special assistant for an owner, someone outside the team reporting structure. But I highly doubt he is handed an NBA team as President. Why such a strong opinion? Masai has already know for over a year that he’ll get fired when Bell can’t protect him anymore. Believe me, he was looking for a new President role. And there were a few that came and went…without Masai getting a new job.
Masai had a good run thou! He’s got the Ring on his finger to prove he’s a Champion, and that says a lot. He deserves respect for getting a team over the line to their first Championship. It’s just that here we keep it 100 and Masai was overdue to be fired.
Good Luck developing your Basketball league in Africa!
Seriously! All the Best Masai…