- 2 days ago
Raptors Shockwave: Masai Ujiri's Era Ends
- Legacy Analysis: How "We The North" became "We The Champs" (2019 title run, Kawhi trade, cultural impact)
• Downfall: Competitive stubbornness delaying the rebuild (*"Refused to believe he’d need to rebuild"*)
• Bobby Webster's Rise: Why keeping the GM signals a new direction
• Fan Reaction: Calgary bar watch parties, draft night awkwardness, and Vince vs. Masai debates
#Raptors #MasaiUjiri #NBA #TorontoBasketball #sportsanalysis
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- Legacy Analysis: How "We The North" became "We The Champs" (2019 title run, Kawhi trade, cultural impact)
• Downfall: Competitive stubbornness delaying the rebuild (*"Refused to believe he’d need to rebuild"*)
• Bobby Webster's Rise: Why keeping the GM signals a new direction
• Fan Reaction: Calgary bar watch parties, draft night awkwardness, and Vince vs. Masai debates
#Raptors #MasaiUjiri #NBA #TorontoBasketball #sportsanalysis
👇 Subscribe for more NBA draft analysis and Toronto Raptors coverage!
🎧 Listen on: Apple https://apple.co/49NGm2L | Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM?si=icY7NEBvT7yZadv_JFlT6Q
💬 Follow for live breakdowns: X.com/primetimepk | Twitch.tv/primetimepk | Kick.com/primetimepk
🔗 Support the Show:
- Tip Jar: https://streamelements.com/couchpotatodiary/tip (fuels more content!)
- Partners: C of Dead http://cofdead403.ca/ | Swift Energy https://www.swiftenergy.gg/?ref=mriusnqm PROMO CODE: PKPrimetime for 25% Off!
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SportsTranscript
00:00This was a gigantic, surprising way to wake up this morning.
00:17Masai Ujiri and the Toronto Raptors have parted ways.
00:20That coming from Shams from ESPN.
00:23It was a move that you kind of always thought in the back of your mind something could happen.
00:30But you just, you weren't ready for it now.
00:33He was going into a bit of a lame duck year.
00:35He was going to go into the final year of his contract.
00:37I'm assuming extension talks didn't go swimmingly.
00:41And so now, now he's gone.
00:44It is, it's just, it's surprising to me.
00:46And I've had a couple hours to kind of digest it here.
00:48And it still seems very, very surprising that Masai Ujiri is not the one in charge of the basketball operations for the Toronto Raptors anymore.
00:57And the longer you would go with hearing, oh, well, the Knicks are interested, the Hawks are interested, the Nets are interested.
01:03All these teams want Masai to come in and turn their team around the same way he did with the Raptors.
01:09You just, after a while, you would just think like, okay, whatever.
01:13Heard it before.
01:14He's going to be here for forever.
01:15And so you just kind of felt like he was always going to be a part of the fabric of this team.
01:19And I guess in a bigger overall sense, he certainly will be.
01:22But I just, I, I couldn't imagine it without him.
01:27Now, he has been around for so long and just had the hands on the steering wheel for such a long time
01:32that it feels strange to not have him be a part of the Raptors at this point.
01:38For him, I can't imagine he is going to be out of work very long, even with the Raptors in not the most advantageous position right now.
01:46To see the turnaround of this franchise, I think, like, there are very few organizations that wouldn't want a Masai Ujiri at the head of everything.
01:57So this is, this is a big move, I think, not just for the Raptors, but in the NBA as well.
02:03The timing of it is surprising.
02:06The draft was just, like, it just finished.
02:08And free agency is just about to start.
02:11And I'm sure there are reasons for waiting.
02:14I would imagine that there were probably lengthy contract negotiation discussions trying to get everything figured out.
02:21And I am sure that there are also timings and everything like that, like with the whole league year thing and everything.
02:27But I, I just find it a little bit surprising that you allow this guy to be the head of a draft and get all of your ducks in a row for free agency, and then he just bails.
02:42Like, that just seems weird.
02:43Like, at some point, you have to have a, okay, if negotiations aren't at X by the time we get to this day, then we just have to cut bait and we have to move on with this thing.
02:53Um, so I'm sure that there are contract timings and everything like that, that make this a bit of an uninformed opinion, I suppose.
02:59But it, it still feels like the timing of it is weird.
03:03And I don't think Masai was sabotaging things or anything else like that.
03:07Um, I, I just, I still think it was a strange timing on all of this.
03:13And the, the optimistic side of me wants to believe that this shows that, uh, Bobby Webster was more in charge of everything.
03:21He's going to be staying on, gets an extension.
03:23And we, we always heard, like, oh, everyone, Masai gets all the credit, but no, it's actually Bobby who's doing a lot of these things.
03:29And I wonder now if that is, like, fully the truth.
03:32And that's why the organization was fine to just do this kind of a, this kind of a move with the timing that it is.
03:38That is the optimistic view of me.
03:40Um, the, the pessimistic one is maybe they thought they could get it done and they didn't, and they just didn't think it was that big of a deal.
03:45Um, so it, it's, the timing of it makes it a very strange move.
03:51But looking at the overall, I guess, legacy and impact of Masai Ujiri, first and foremost, he made it cool to be a Raptors fan.
04:00Like, Vince Carter was the first who made it cool to be a Raptors fan, although one could argue just the cool logo made that cool.
04:06But Vince Carter first put the Raptors on the map, but I, I would still suggest a little bit, and maybe this is just shifting narratives to fit what I'm talking about today.
04:17But I almost think that Vince made it cool to be a Vince fan, and you were then by proxy a Raptor fan with that.
04:26Now, I don't think a lot of people followed him to the Nets, so maybe that, that is a little bit of flawed logic.
04:30But he, Vince made it okay to be a Raptor fan, Masai made it okay to brag about being a Raptor fan.
04:38He made it okay to pump, puff your chest out a little bit, like, yeah, my Raptors, that's my team.
04:43And he made it cool to have a bit of a swagger as a Raptor fan.
04:48Like, look, it didn't work out with how the series went, but the fuck Brooklyn thing was a real, this is different moment.
04:54It really did kind of solidify, like, look, we're not just going to be this, um, basically farm system for the NBA that will give you Vince, and will give you, uh, Chris Bosh, and we will take on your Jermaine O'Neal's so you can get a Roy Hibbert, and, and those sorts of things.
05:10We will be the ones to latch on to the contract year of, uh, Hito Turkoglu, and have that spectacularly blow up in our faces.
05:19That this was now going to be a moment where we are going to be the challenger brand here in the NBA, and we are going to, to really make you focus on what is happening north of the border.
05:31And with that came quite a bit of success.
05:33And the, the story of it is, is pretty clear, and, um, a little bit funny now in retrospect, because again, it wasn't supposed to be this way.
05:41Um, he comes in, they want to start to tear things down, make the Rudy Gay trade.
05:46There's a Lowry trade that is about to happen, and just through circumstances, it doesn't.
05:52The team starts playing very well, and now you're just kind of with a competitive basketball team, and you have a core that is set that you can build on.
06:00And from there, he really did show that you can actually have legitimate success with the Toronto Raptors.
06:07It wasn't just going to be, um, like, hey, we're just going to trick people into coming to Toronto.
06:13No, whether it's going to be, and I get, like, the big one would be the trade, but it isn't just going to be, we're going to trade for a guy that we wouldn't get,
06:21and then hope that maybe they don't hate it here enough, that they want to stick around and actually play basketball,
06:25or we're going to draft some people and they just have to stay.
06:28There can be a real legitimate plan, and really drawing people into this organization, bringing successful people in,
06:36and building a quality organization out of it.
06:39So it wasn't just, like, tricking this team into being successful, he showed that you can actually build a winner,
06:45a sustainable winner, with the Toronto Raptors.
06:48And he showed the world what the Raptors could be, and what Canadian basketball could be.
06:53And, uh, like, obviously now, you have a lot of Canadian talent that is working its way through,
06:59and that is coming off of Vince Carter and what he did in the dunk contest,
07:02and coming off of Steve Nash and him being the MVP.
07:05But now there is going to be an era of basketball fans that grew up on We the North.
07:10And so, not just for the Raptors, but for Canadian basketball as well,
07:13he is instrumental in building this thing up.
07:16And I think the main thing that you really look at with Masai is legitimizing this team.
07:24Like, the Raptors, they had superstars, right?
07:26They had playoff runs.
07:27Um, Vince in the East semifinal missing the shot against the 76ers.
07:31Chris Bosch and some pretty sustained trips to the postseason.
07:36Anyway, quite a few failures in there, but at least some sustained playoff pushes.
07:42And then the DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry era leading up to the championship in 19.
07:48He legitimized this organization.
07:51Uh, we're going to talk about where the Raptors are at now and all of that in just a second.
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08:14It is not all positive with Masai, right?
08:16Um, I think his competitive spirit kind of hurt where this team is at now.
08:21I think he refused to believe that this team needed to give up and that he could figure out a way to build this team back into a winner with what they had.
08:31And I think if there was a sober second thought taken, there could have been actually quite a surplus of young talent coming into this organization and starting to peak again coming off of the title.
08:42I, obviously 2019 was an amazing time and we will get a, get to more of that here in a second.
08:49But I do think people sometimes forget like how hard this team fought in 2020 with everything that was happening, um, with Kawhi leaving and everything to be able to still put out a quality basketball team that was more than competitive.
09:04They won 50 games in the East and were into the second round of the playoffs in the bubble, uh, before getting eliminated.
09:13And so to have that type of a foundation built, it, it did feel like something you didn't necessarily want to get away from.
09:19And I think Masai was hoping that that would allow the team to kind of build off of it.
09:23Then they have to be in Tampa for a while and all of that situation playing out.
09:28And then it just slowly trickles away.
09:31And so from this championship team, Kawhi leaves for nothing.
09:35Um, Lowry, you get a sign and trade and Goran Dragic comes in.
09:40Uh, Fred Van Vliet is gone for nothing.
09:42Gasol's gone for nothing.
09:44Ibaka's gone for nothing.
09:45And then you are finally stuck with, okay, you kind of have to do something with Siakam and OG Ananobi now.
09:51And even still with that, there was a thought, well, we can turn this around.
09:55And so they use those assets to try to bring in a few more, be competitive in this moment sort of pieces.
10:02And it ends up not really working out.
10:04So it just, it felt like he was overly confident that he would be able to bring a winner back here.
10:11And so obviously it is a bit less success, but it is kind of similar to the Bill Belichick way where just at some point it stopped working.
10:17And at some point it wasn't just, well, I can fix this.
10:21I know how to do this.
10:22This is the way we did it before.
10:23So this is the way we're going to do it again.
10:25And it just didn't work.
10:27And it now, it's not the most amazing spot.
10:31Although, as I've said before, this is a watered down Eastern Conference.
10:36And you have a roster of like 10 guys who you feel good about in your rotation.
10:41There's no super duper star in there.
10:44But like, as far as starting fives go, you have a pretty good one in this Eastern Conference.
10:49As far as bench units go, it's a very young one.
10:53But there's a lot of potential in that.
10:55And so this is a Raptor team that does still feel kind of comfortable with where they're at right now.
10:59The problem is there isn't a lot of upward mobility in that.
11:02And there were a couple of opportunities to maybe tear down a little bit, enhance some draft prospects, and overall be further along as an organization.
11:12And it is too bad that it didn't work.
11:13And it does feel almost a little bit defeating from a Raptor fan standpoint that Masai put in all of this work.
11:21And you get to the highs of a championship and you'll never take that away and all of that.
11:25But still, the last couple of things that will be talked about from the Raptors standpoint in the time that Masai was with the Raptors
11:34was a kid that looked like he didn't want to come to the Raptors on draft day.
11:38And national media in the States basically mocking Toronto for thinking they were going to be big players in free agency and in trades again.
11:48And so it does kind of feel like he took, he went in and put all of this work together
11:53and got it to some highs that no one thought you really could with this organization.
11:58But then when it's at the end, it is basically back to where you were when this whole thing started.
12:04Where you don't get a lot of attention from the ESPNs and the folks down south.
12:08You aren't taken as seriously as a basketball organization.
12:13And you still feel like a destination that no one really wants to go to.
12:17Even though Oklahoma City and Indiana were just in the championship game.
12:21So it does feel almost cruelly full circle with Masai in a way that really does kind of sting.
12:29That is obviously eliminating a lot of the good that happened, right?
12:32Like, and it is, like, he brought the championship and everything like that.
12:35So how will he be remembered for Raptor fans?
12:38I think, like, first and foremost, he brought the Raptors a championship.
12:42Like, that is it. Period. End of discussion.
12:44We can talk about other failings, where they are at now, what they maybe could have done out of it.
12:48But he did the unthinkable and turned We the North into We the Champions.
12:53I'm based out here in Calgary.
12:55I never thought I would be going to a bar in Calgary, Alberta, while it was going insane for a Raptors game.
13:02But that's what happened when I was at Home and Away, downtown here.
13:06It was on 17th at the time. Now it's on 1st.
13:08But you have a whole bar going insane when that shot bounces in against the 76ers in Game 7.
13:18On a sunny afternoon in Calgary, a bar was packed watching the NBA, and I'm walking along the streets of Calgary with a Morris Peterson jersey, and people are honking and celebrating.
13:30I never thought that would happen.
13:32I never thought doing radio out here in Calgary, I would be doing daily updates on the Raptors, and only kind of getting made fun of for it, instead of a buzzer and a quick,
13:41well, that's your basketball report, having it actually be somewhat taken seriously, I never thought that would happen.
13:48I never thought as a Raptor fan in Calgary that I would be watching outside on a giant video board with food trucks everywhere,
13:55because we have our own Jurassic Park, watching as the team comes one shot away from winning a championship in Game 5.
14:02I never thought that we would hear the national guys talking about Siakam, Lowry, Van Vliet, Norm Powell, Nick Nurse, all of those guys.
14:11Like, you just, you never thought that would be possible, and you never thought a championship would be possible for the Toronto Raptors.
14:19But they're champions. Forever.
14:20This organization at least has one championship banner hanging in the Raptors' rafters.
14:26And that's how Masai will be remembered.
14:29When you look at the most important people in Raptors' history, it's Vince, because he put this team on the map at a time where, you know,
14:37the other Canadian team was not doing so hot.
14:40You probably have to put Lowry in there, but you can make a case.
14:44Like, Masai is at least on the Mount Rushmore for most important people in Raptor history,
14:49and you can make a very compelling case that he should be one, or at the very least, number two with this organization.
14:55And now he's gone. So it is a new chapter in Toronto.
14:59And I think the timing of that actually does make a lot of sense,
15:04but it doesn't change the fact that this was a giant with an organization that never thought they could reach the heights
15:11that it got to, and he never thought that they couldn't.
15:15And that was the big difference with Masai Ujiri with the Raptors.
15:19New episodes of Couch Potato Diary are going to be dropping all week, every week, as we continue to build this thing here.
15:28So make sure you find it over on Spotify or on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
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