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Edmonton Journal
15 hours ago
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
SIMMONS: Firing Masai Ujiri is a huge mistake by MLSE
You don't fire Masai Ujiri. Not now. Not ever. You don't sack this man of integrity and character, who changed basketball in Canada, who changed the way in which the Raptors are perceived, who brought a certain cachet to the sport, his love of Africa and his pride in everything that is Canadian basketball. You don't fire him. Not under these murky and unspoken circumstances. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley couldn't easily explain why Ujiri was being let go Friday as president of the Raptors. Instead, he clumsily tripped over words that made no sense, answering little that was asked directly about the dismissal of the most important Raptor in the history of the franchise. Sounding more Peddie than Pelley, the CEO went through the how's and why's of Ujiri being replaced without ever really explaining why. What made less sense: Ujiri is out as president and he will be eventually replaced, Bobby Webster has a new deal as general manager and the front office staff of the Raptors has been retained. 'Change,' said Pelley, 'is inevitable. Thirteen seasons is a long time in a sports leadership role.' And then he explained what needed further explanation. He let Ujiri work the NBA draft for Toronto, knowing he was leaving the franchise. And that makes no sense. If he was being pushed out, they should have done so before the draft, not after it. And if the franchise isn't in great shape leadership-wise, why fire the president but retain the general manager and not only retain the GM, but extend him. All of this happening with Ujiri having one year remaining on his contact, due a 2% raise this coming season, and with a $1-million payment due to Giants of Africa, Ujiri's charity, very shortly. Pelley insisted the decision to fire Ujiri was his. Others outside the organization are not so convinced. 'Edward Rogers did this,' said a basketball insider. 'He doesn't like Masai. If Larry Tanenbaum was still in charge, Masai would still be running the Raptors.' It was Masai's way — his way or the highway — in his 13 years on the job. And many memories of all that made him different and special. ♦ ♦ ♦ In his first summer on the job in 2013, before the Raptors had played a single game under his leadership, Ujiri flew to Philadelphia for only one reason. He wanted to meet Kyle Lowry and get to know him — and find out whether he was worth keeping. He also wanted to shake him up just a little. 'How do you want to be perceived in the NBA?' he asked Lowry rather pointedly. Because back then, Ujiri suggested to the veteran point guard, you're wasting your career and most people look at you as a loser. The two went at it chapter and verse. With Ujiri tearing into Lowry, and Lowry from a position of weakness, trying to fight back. Whatever it was, Ujiri wasn't convinced he had a winner in Lowry. A few months after that, he thought he had a deal made to send Lowry to the New York Knicks. The deal was agreed upon along with the notion the Raptors would tank the season, looking to draft Canadian Andrew Wiggins in the first round of 2014. But the owner of the Knicks, James Dolan, called the deal off. The tanking of that season never happened. The Raptors won 48 games, the first of seven straight seasons making the playoffs. Lowry, the born hot-head, became the unlikely leader and best player for the Raptors. He would later attribute his change in career success to everything Masai had done for him. And the two even worked through and lived though a season in which they barely spoke to each other. Ujiri had traded Lowry's best friend, DeMar DeRozan, to San Antonio in a franchise-altering deal for Kawhi Leonard. He made the deal while telling DeRozan he wasn't going to trade him. Lowry, who had difficulty seeing beyond his own nose at times, didn't recognize he was playing for the best team of his time in Toronto. The two made up before the championship celebration in June of 2019. Lowry is expected to be the next Raptor to have his jersey retired by the team. A long time after having lunch — and being scolded — in Philadelphia. ♦ ♦ ♦ Leonard wanted to be traded — just not to Toronto. Not to Canada. Not to anywhere cold. Not to anywhere where he didn't have approval of his destination. The first time Leonard met with Ujiri after the deal for DeRozan was done, he asked a rather pointed question to Masai. 'Why did you trade for me?' said Leonard, who had played just nine games the year before the Spurs. Ujiri answered rather quickly: 'Because I think you're the best player in the NBA.' For a few seconds, there was just silence, which is something you come to expect being around Leonard, who was staring at Ujiri. And Ujiri was staring right back at Leonard. That year, with load management factoring into everything the Raptors did, Kawhi played just 60 regular season games for Toronto, hit the shot of all shots to win a playoff series against Philadelphia, had an incredible double overtime playoff win on an injured leg against Milwaukee and was named Finals MVP when the Raptors beat Golden State for their only NBA championship. Leonard had proven to be what Ujiri told he was when he first acquired him. When he played, he was the best player in the NBA. The Raptors will forever have a championship with his autograph all over it. The trade no one saw coming — the great gamble sending an established star in DeRozan for the question that was Leonard — proved to be the best work of Ujiri's time with the Raptors. ♦ ♦ ♦ The Raptors won 59 games in 2018, the most wins in franchise history. Before that, coach Dwane Casey had a tremendous run of 48-49-56-51 wins. That year, he was named coach of the year. The league named him that. On his own team, from his own manager, there were questions. By the time the playoffs ended that season, Casey and Ujiri were no longer speaking to each other. The animosity of year-after-year playoff failures — most of it coming against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers — had hardened both men. Casey was named coach of the year and Ujiri did what has almost never been done in basketball history. He fired the coach of the year. He thought Casey had taken the team as far as he could. Ujiri had a coach in mind to replace Casey, but Mike Budenholzer wound up in Milwaukee instead of Toronto. In what seemed like a guess at the time — who knew, really? — Ujiri hired assistant coach Nick Nurse to replace the coach of the year Casey. Nurse had been on almost no one's radar around the NBA. He'd kicked around basketball circles forever as an assistant or minor league head coach. This was his first chance at head coaching in the NBA. He distinguished himself early on as the Raptors won the title in 2019. Nurse lasted five seasons in Toronto with a .582 winning percentage and coaching in 41 playoff games. He was let go at the end of the 2023 season, when he and Ujiri seemed philosophically heading in different directions. ♦ ♦ ♦ I can still smell the locker room from the celebration of 2019 in Oakland. That stays with you after all these years. There was champagne spraying. There was plastic covering everywhere you looked. There were safety goggles if you wanted to protect your eyes. And everywhere, there was champagne spraying. It's the kind of smell you never forget and the soaking wet Raptors were engaging in hugs and high-fives and family photos for anyone who was there. Masai Ujiri couldn't have been prouder that night, even if he later talked about being assaulted. We sat with him in what was probably the quietest corner of all the bedlam after the Raptors championship victory over the Golden State Warriors. He cried a little bit, he smiled a lot, he seemed to enjoy being surrounded by the media people who had either become friends or advocates or critics or all of that over the years. That's what happens when you cover a team honestly. There are good days and there are bad days and there are good relationships and bad relationships and often with the same people. Masai had promised a championship when he first came to Toronto. Sometimes it sounds like predictable rhetoric when you hear that kind of talk. From him, though, coming to Toronto, coming to a place known for NBA failure, coming to a place where being irrelevant was just part of the show, he sounded more believable than the usual salesman stuff you hear. And I reminded him of that in the winning locker room. 'You told us this was coming and we didn't believe you,' I remember saying to Masai. He told us to 'f— Brooklyn. He sold us on We The North. We taught us about belief and hope, trust and care. And every time I saw him and spoke to him, spent any time with him, it didn't matter the circumstances, that proved to be a better day. The championship in 2019 was his first. It wouldn't be his last, he said. One day, the next one may come. Just not here. Not anymore. Word began to spread Friday morning that Ujiri was out as Raptors president, weeks after first learning about it. Twenty-six years after the Blue Jays won their second World Series, the Raptors had a title to call their own. Three titles for Toronto in North America's big four sports. In 129 seasons of combined NHL hockey, NBA basketball and Major League Baseball since the Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup and Toronto arrived on the scene, the Raptors had their own championship. A championship written and directed by Masai Ujiri. A championship celebrated all across Canada, never to be forgotten again. ssimmons@ X: @simmonssteve
Toronto Sun
15 hours ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
SIMMONS: Firing Masai Ujiri is a huge mistake by MLSE
You don't fire Masai Ujiri. Not now. Not ever. You don't sack this man of integrity and character, who changed basketball in Canada, who changed the way in which the Raptors are perceived, who brought a certain cachet to the sport, his love of Africa and his pride in everything that is Canadian basketball. You don't fire him. Not under these murky and unspoken circumstances. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley couldn't easily explain why Ujiri was being let go Friday as president of the Raptors. Instead, he clumsily tripped over words that made no sense, answering little that was asked directly about the dismissal of the most important Raptor in the history of the franchise. Sounding more Peddie than Pelley, the CEO went through the how's and why's of Ujiri being replaced without ever really explaining why. What made less sense: Ujiri is out as president and he will be eventually replaced, Bobby Webster has a new deal as general manager and the front office staff of the Raptors has been retained. 'Change,' said Pelley, 'is inevitable. Thirteen seasons is a long time in a sports leadership role.' And then he explained what needed further explanation. He let Ujiri work the NBA draft for Toronto, knowing he was leaving the franchise. And that makes no sense. If he was being pushed out, they should have done so before the draft, not after it. And if the franchise isn't in great shape leadership-wise, why fire the president but retain the general manager and not only retain the GM, but extend him. All of this happening with Ujiri having one year remaining on his contact, due a 2% raise this coming season, and with a $1-million payment due to Giants of Africa, Ujiri's charity, very shortly. Pelley insisted the decision to fire Ujiri was his. Others outside the organization are not so convinced. 'Edward Rogers did this,' said a basketball insider. 'He doesn't like Masai. If Larry Tanenbaum was still in charge, Masai would still be running the Raptors.' It was Masai's way — his way or the highway — in his 13 years on the job. And many memories of all that made him different and special. ♦ ♦ ♦ In his first summer on the job in 2013, before the Raptors had played a single game under his leadership, Ujiri flew to Philadelphia for only one reason. He wanted to meet Kyle Lowry and get to know him — and find out whether he was worth keeping. He also wanted to shake him up just a little. 'How do you want to be perceived in the NBA?' he asked Lowry rather pointedly. Because back then, Ujiri suggested to the veteran point guard, you're wasting your career and most people look at you as a loser. The two went at it chapter and verse. With Ujiri tearing into Lowry, and Lowry from a position of weakness, trying to fight back. Whatever it was, Ujiri wasn't convinced he had a winner in Lowry. A few months after that, he thought he had a deal made to send Lowry to the New York Knicks. The deal was agreed upon along with the notion the Raptors would tank the season, looking to draft Canadian Andrew Wiggins in the first round of 2014. But the owner of the Knicks, James Dolan, called the deal off. The tanking of that season never happened. The Raptors won 48 games, the first of seven straight seasons making the playoffs. Lowry, the born hot-head, became the unlikely leader and best player for the Raptors. He would later attribute his change in career success to everything Masai had done for him. And the two even worked through and lived though a season in which they barely spoke to each other. Ujiri had traded Lowry's best friend, DeMar DeRozan, to San Antonio in a franchise-altering deal for Kawhi Leonard. He made the deal while telling DeRozan he wasn't going to trade him. Lowry, who had difficulty seeing beyond his own nose at times, didn't recognize he was playing for the best team of his time in Toronto. The two made up before the championship celebration in June of 2019. Lowry is expected to be the next Raptor to have his jersey retired by the team. A long time after having lunch — and being scolded — in Philadelphia. ♦ ♦ ♦ Leonard wanted to be traded — just not to Toronto. Not to Canada. Not to anywhere cold. Not to anywhere where he didn't have approval of his destination. The first time Leonard met with Ujiri after the deal for DeRozan was done, he asked a rather pointed question to Masai. 'Why did you trade for me?' said Leonard, who had played just nine games the year before the Spurs. Ujiri answered rather quickly: 'Because I think you're the best player in the NBA.' For a few seconds, there was just silence, which is something you come to expect being around Leonard, who was staring at Ujiri. And Ujiri was staring right back at Leonard. That year, with load management factoring into everything the Raptors did, Kawhi played just 60 regular season games for Toronto, hit the shot of all shots to win a playoff series against Philadelphia, had an incredible double overtime playoff win on an injured leg against Milwaukee and was named Finals MVP when the Raptors beat Golden State for their only NBA championship. Leonard had proven to be what Ujiri told he was when he first acquired him. When he played, he was the best player in the NBA. The Raptors will forever have a championship with his autograph all over it. The trade no one saw coming — the great gamble sending an established star in DeRozan for the question that was Leonard — proved to be the best work of Ujiri's time with the Raptors. ♦ ♦ ♦ The Raptors won 59 games in 2018, the most wins in franchise history. Before that, coach Dwane Casey had a tremendous run of 48-49-56-51 wins. That year, he was named coach of the year. The league named him that. On his own team, from his own manager, there were questions. By the time the playoffs ended that season, Casey and Ujiri were no longer speaking to each other. The animosity of year-after-year playoff failures — most of it coming against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers — had hardened both men. Casey was named coach of the year and Ujiri did what has almost never been done in basketball history. He fired the coach of the year. He thought Casey had taken the team as far as he could. Ujiri had a coach in mind to replace Casey, but Mike Budenholzer wound up in Milwaukee instead of Toronto. In what seemed like a guess at the time — who knew, really? — Ujiri hired assistant coach Nick Nurse to replace the coach of the year Casey. Nurse had been on almost no one's radar around the NBA. He'd kicked around basketball circles forever as an assistant or minor league head coach. This was his first chance at head coaching in the NBA. He distinguished himself early on as the Raptors won the title in 2019. Nurse lasted five seasons in Toronto with a .582 winning percentage and coaching in 41 playoff games. He was let go at the end of the 2023 season, when he and Ujiri seemed philosophically heading in different directions. ♦ ♦ ♦ I can still smell the locker room from the celebration of 2019 in Oakland. That stays with you after all these years. There was champagne spraying. There was plastic covering everywhere you looked. There were safety goggles if you wanted to protect your eyes. And everywhere, there was champagne spraying. It's the kind of smell you never forget and the soaking wet Raptors were engaging in hugs and high-fives and family photos for anyone who was there. Masai Ujiri couldn't have been prouder that night, even if he later talked about being assaulted. We sat with him in what was probably the quietest corner of all the bedlam after the Raptors championship victory over the Golden State Warriors. He cried a little bit, he smiled a lot, he seemed to enjoy being surrounded by the media people who had either become friends or advocates or critics or all of that over the years. That's what happens when you cover a team honestly. There are good days and there are bad days and there are good relationships and bad relationships and often with the same people. Masai had promised a championship when he first came to Toronto. Sometimes it sounds like predictable rhetoric when you hear that kind of talk. From him, though, coming to Toronto, coming to a place known for NBA failure, coming to a place where being irrelevant was just part of the show, he sounded more believable than the usual salesman stuff you hear. And I reminded him of that in the winning locker room. 'You told us this was coming and we didn't believe you,' I remember saying to Masai. He told us to 'f— Brooklyn. He sold us on We The North. We taught us about belief and hope, trust and care. And every time I saw him and spoke to him, spent any time with him, it didn't matter the circumstances, that proved to be a better day. The championship in 2019 was his first. It wouldn't be his last, he said. One day, the next one may come. Just not here. Not anymore. Word began to spread Friday morning that Ujiri was out as Raptors president, weeks after first learning about it. Twenty-six years after the Blue Jays won their second World Series, the Raptors had a title to call their own. Three titles for Toronto in North America's big four sports. In 129 seasons of combined NHL hockey, NBA basketball and Major League Baseball since the Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup and Toronto arrived on the scene, the Raptors had their own championship. A championship written and directed by Masai Ujiri. A championship celebrated all across Canada, never to be forgotten again. ssimmons@ X: @simmonssteve ssimmons@
Edmonton Journal
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Joe Bowen started his Maple Leafs career with an 'F__ you'
Article content From a Walt Poddubny goal at old Chicago Stadium when it seemed his Maple Leafs' broadcast debut was doomed, Joe Bowen will have put in 44 years behind the microphone when he retires next year. He's seen it all with this team, except a Stanley Cup to date, and those memories are sure to be part of a wonderful final season, even if there's no farewell tour after cost-conscious Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment saw fit to ground him and sharp witted colour man Jim Ralph in recent years.
Toronto Star
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
The Maple Leafs won't replace Brendan Shanahan. So it's up to Brad Treliving to correct their fatal error
It's easy enough to rhyme off the organizational sins that led to Friday's Maple Leafs press conference that explained the firing of team president Brendan Shanahan. On Shanahan's 11-year watch, the Leafs handed over the franchise to a rookie general manager and a rookie coach; traded the fiery Nazem Kadri for lesser pieces; lost the indispensable Zach Hyman for nothing to free agency; and allowed Shanahan's relationship with GM Kyle Dubas to erode to the point that Dubas pulled a backstabbing power play that required his inconvenient firing in the crucial summer of 2023, this with the team in obvious need of a roster shakeup and Mitch Marner's trade protection about to kick in. Beyond all that, the Leafs never advanced beyond the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's an ugly inventory that overshadows a lot of the good Shanahan did for a franchise that was lost at sea when he arrived. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley doesn't plan on hiring someone to replace Brendan Shanahan after it was announced the Hockey Hall of Famer's contract won't be renewed. Pelley said he has the utmost confidence in general manager Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube, adding the team has all the resources it needs to win championships. (May 23, 2025 / The Canadian Press) But you can make the case Shanahan's biggest error was taking the wrong side of a timeless nature-versus-nurture debate. Are big-game players born or made? Can the lessons of repeated failure create playoff-worthy 'dawgs,' to use the word Kadri recently popularized in a brilliant bit of social-media tsk-tsking at the Colorado Avalanche for trading away a clutch-time dominator named Mikko Rantanen. Through the years as the Leafs' record of playoff futility got uglier and uglier, Shanahan essentially doubled and tripled and quadrupled down on the idea that his Core Four players could change their essence. Shanahan made a bet that with the help of world-class sports psychology, and the mentorship of veteran teammates and the lessons of losses, the Leafs could eventually train their best players to have the growl of playoff pit bulls. Alas, when the lights have been brightest, the highest paid Leafs mostly performed more like lapdogs. What the Leafs should do about that now that Shanahan is gone is anyone's guess. But MLSE CEO Keith Pelley, on the job for a little more than a year, made two things clear on Friday. For one, the franchise's standards are higher than the low bar Shanahan set for more than a decade. 'Make no mistake about it, making the playoffs and winning rounds is not our aspirational goal,' Pelley said. 'Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup.' For another, the Leafs are GM Brad Treliving's team now. There are no plans to replace Shanahan. There are also no easy solutions to fix the core issue Shanahan allowed to fester: the big-game malaise of an entitled team whose captain has never scored a goal in a winner-take-all loss. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Pelley didn't claim to have any answers. As much as he said he would work closely with Treliving and coach Craig Berube, he acknowledged the hockey decisions will lie with the hockey men. But Pelley did take a moment to quash the idea that the pressure created by Toronto's fans and media is at the heart of the team's non-performance — a notion put forth most recently by members of the Florida chapter of the NHL players' union. 'Pressure is a privilege,' Pelley said Friday. 'I respect, understand and appreciate (the fans') disappointment in the way their season ended. I thank them for it, the way that they've invested in the team … Winning is the only thing that matters.' Give Pelley credit for having the market savvy to understand that fans are to be honoured. It's OK for players to label the chatter around the team derisively as outside noise. But considering the Shanaplan era began with Salute-gate, a player-driven eff-you to Leafs fans that marred Dion Phaneuf's captaincy, it's a fine line between staying in your bubble and snubbing the people who inject the passion and the cash into the operation. Pelley said he'd sat down to dinner with Berube on Thursday and called him an 'incredible asset' — implying Berube might lend insight as Treliving partakes in the task of team building. A coach, of course, is only an asset if his GM respects his counsel. There's no reason to believe that respect doesn't exist. But coach-GM relationships can be tricky if the coach thinks he's co-GM; let's not forget Mike Babcock's adventures in occasionally burying Dubas acquisitions in what amounted to a territorial flex. Now we'll see how Treliving sees this team. If Shanahan essentially tied Treliving's hands behind his back, famously calling the Core Four to assure them their positions in Leafland were safe in the wake of the Dubas's firing in 2023, Treliving has options — albeit, thanks to Shanahan's stubbornness, not wholly attractive ones. Letting impending free-agents Marner and/or John Tavares leave for their salary-cap space is on the list. Pelley was complimentary of Treliving's buoying of Toronto's goaltending and defence. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'I think we've made strides,' he said more than once. And he was deferential to Berube's possession of a Stanley Cup ring. 'Chief changed the culture,' Pelley said. But neither Treliving's roster building nor Berube's influence changed the end result: the seventh loss in seven winner-take-all-games in the Shanaplan era. If you don't have dawgs, what do you do? Treliving and Berube are on the clock to find this team some snarl.
Toronto Sun
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
MLSE BOSS ON SHANAHAN'S EXIT: Sometimes you need change
Keith Pelley, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment addresses media at Scotiabank arena in Toronto on Friday May 23, 2025. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia WATCH: As president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brendan Shanahan had a positive impact, explains Keith Pelley, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Pelley also explains that they are in a result driven business. What do YOU think? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below or send us a Letter to the Editor for possible publication to . Letters must be 250 words or less and signed. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Toronto Maple Leafs Columnists Other Sports World Toronto Maple Leafs
