Toronto Raptors: 4 things we learned from media day
Masai Ujiri tired of hearing that nobody wants to play in Toronto
One thing we’ve come to know about Ujiri since he joined the team is that he’s passionate and won’t take crap from other people.
He defends the reputation of the Raptors organization and the City of Toronto in a way we haven’t seen from a sports executive. He embraces his role, even willing to get fined for riling up the crowd with an expletive message about the Brooklyn Nets.
During the Leonard and Green press conference, Ujiri finally decided to step in when a reporter asked about the team’s struggle to bring in top players and his rant was glorious.
Masai Ujiri - "The narrative of not wanting to come to this city is gone. I think that's old and we should move past that. Believe in this city. Believe in yourselves." pic.twitter.com/ZaTzXxbLqx
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 24, 2018
Ujiri knows what the media has been saying about the team especially south of the border and you can tell it is starting to get frustrating. As the team’s president, he has a role to play in the way the organization is perceived off the court and while he can’t control what people say, he can make sure the narrative doesn’t have to be like that.
This is why he made the move to get Leonard even if it meant trading a fan favourite in DeRozan, at this point his job is to win a championship and he can’t give up the chance to get the team closer to that.
Raptors fans probably appreciate what Ujiri did and now it’s up to him to make sure this team plays well enough to change the postseason narrative because it didn’t happen last season.