Masai Ujiri's departure marks end of incredible era for Toronto Raptors

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Everyone knew a day would come when Masai Ujiri would no longer be the face of the Toronto Raptors.

But after a dozen years of the man being front and centre — and actually delivering on his oft-stated pledge that “we will win in Toronto,” — it feels weird that Ujiri’s time with the Raptors has come to an end.

The news Friday morning was not completely out of left field, of course.

Toronto just missed the playoffs for the third season in a row and for the fourth time in five years, and Ujiri had expressed some frustrations about the wheels falling off in recent campaigns.

Plus, his biggest booster at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Larry Tanenbaum, will be forced to sell off his ownership stake by next summer, per when Rogers, Bell and Tanenbaum became co-owners back in the day.

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Edward Rogers and his company will get full control of the conglomerate at that time (Bell’s decision to sell already has been approved and continues to progress) and, though reports of Rogers and Ujiri having a frosty personal relationship have been overstated, per multiple sources, the business side of the relationship was a different matter.

Ujiri got a massive financial haul in his last deal (which also made him vice chairman of the Raptors), but he also was closer to the glory years when it was signed. Based on the recent Raptors record, Rogers was unwilling to meet Ujiri’s still notable price and he wasn’t sure about the fit in the new world order of sports in Toronto, minus Tanenbaum, who has said Ujiri is “like a son” to him.

So, here we are.

Though Ujiri had also been upbeat for many months now as a long-awaited rebuild and culture shift started to bear some fruit (he even popped in to talk to local media on draft night Wednesday for a few minutes, acting as if nothing was amiss), the franchise will now be steered by Ujiri’s chief lieutenants Bobby Webster — who was hired away from the NBA front office — and Dan Tolzman, who Ujiri brought to Toronto from Denver.

Both are highly regarded in league circles and Toronto’s draft record is solid, but nobody can replace Ujiri’s statesmanship or can champion Toronto and the Raptors the way Ujiri could.

Maybe his future is in politics or as a CEO of a large company. A major European soccer club once unsuccessfully tried to poach him.

A June 11 anonymous email to Postmedia had assured details were being worked out for a divorce, though attempts to follow up failed to pan out. A source Friday said Ujiri had been told of the decision on June 9 and after that it was all about the details of the split.

MLSE president Keith Pelley said Ujiri will be replaced as president, with a search set to get underway.

That’s a bit surprising given how the company fired Brendan Shanahan as Maple Leafs president and isn’t expected to hire a new one anytime soon. It also didn’t replace Toronto FC’s former present Bill Manning after his removal last July.

“With the evolution of where the Toronto Raptors are in the middle of a rebuild, we felt that we needed to bring in the president (of basketball),” Pelley said at his media conference Friday.

“Obviously, whoever comes into that position has massive shoes to fill so it will need to be a prominent, successful business leader.”

There have been rumblings that Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro might step down before his contract ends, though the team’s recent strong play might change things there and MLSE will conduct further cost-cutting in the coming weeks across the organization, per sources. The Maple Leafs are expected to be hit hard after years of Shanahan adding to the staff.

On the hoops front, despite the recent stumbles, Ujiri’s legacy in Canada is secure. Like Pat Gillick years ago, he built a sustainable winner that ultimately scaled the entire mountain. Ujiri’s Raptors remain the only Canadian champion from the NBA, NHL or MLB since 1993.

Only three teams won more regular-season games than the Raptors in a nine-year span ending in 2020-21. The team had been a league laughingstock, for the most part, winning a single playoff series (a best-of-five at that), before Ujiri urged belief in what was possible before delivering.

That rarely happens in these parts.

Way back on Day 1, Ujiri had told us: “Basketball decisions are going to be my decisions. It doesn’t matter who tells me what or how it’s done, at the end of the day, I’m sitting right here on the hot seat, so it really doesn’t matter.”

And he did end up taking some heat. Of course there were mistakes, particularly post-COVID. Ujiri and his staff first waited too long to address a glaring hole at centre, made a bad trade sending away Norman Powell, then kept the band together too long, gifted ultra-talented forward Scottie Barnes too much, too early, took odd shots at Pascal Siakam before dealing him to Indiana for peanuts and zagged away from adding shooters when the NBA became all about long-range marksmanship.

But, again, even the most optimistic Raptors fan couldn’t have anticipated the run Ujiri went on before things went south. The ‘We The North’ era was a rousing success in the standings and in ownership’s pocketbook.

Ujiri didn’t just passionately defend Toronto and the Raptors brand, he went full-throttle into his job of building.

He wasn’t afraid to be bold, be it yelling at Dwane Casey and the players after an ugly sweep at the hand of the Washington Wizards, replacing coach of the year Casey with the unproven Nick Nurse or trading away beloved franchise icon DeMar DeRozan for the mercurial Kawhi Leonard.

All of that will be difficult to replace as the Raptors shift to life in their thirties as a franchise.

“I love being the leader of the Toronto Raptors. I am here to stay,” Ujiri had said in August of 2021 upon signing his last contract here.
Just not long enough to bring a much-desired second championship north.