The Toronto Raptors’ Media day started off in an unusual fashion with comments from Masai Ujiri outlining how he felt the off season went, coupled with the need for continued patience from fans. Basketball Rewind breaks it down with Coach Roache and Beyond the Locker room on this episode of Basketball Rewind.
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8 Comments
I am very proud of Pascal and the way he's handling all of this drama around him and his career. Folks who under estimate Pascal demeanour will be sadly mistaken if they think he do not know his worth. A player that work very hard in the mud to elevate his career in a competitive NBA industry is not to play around with, it takes a certain focus and personality to excel based on where he started from. Pascal statement that he pays people to handle the business side of the NBA, I laugh because Pascal agent, network run deep in the NBA and his sponsor pockets are deep as well. We are looking at a confident professional NBA Champion AllNBA baller. Other teams are looking and salivating. Scottie and his US powerhouse agent WME are also observing. OG agency is also observing.
Lets see. Masai builds a team with no 3 point shooters, no centers, no true pg, no bench, poor passers, and a bunch of players who play in the same real estate. The problem was not selfish players, the problem was how Masai built the team. What happened when Nurse tried to focus on ball movement? And why did the experiment with ball movement stop? Simple the players Masai built the team with did not have ball movement skills. When Nurse tried to get the ball to move, the team kept turning the ball over. The only way the team that MASAI built could score was by going ISO. And sorry Masai, your dumb projects like BO CRUZ, did not help matters.
Siakam can, and is willing to play in a ball moving system, but could not do that Masai because of your incompetence in putting a team together. Masai the team we saw last season, was an indicator of your incompetence, not Siakam being selfish! Masai, Siakam was not the problem, the problem is you. While you tried to throw Pascal under the bus, everyone was watching you and cringing. Masai, you are not fooling people anymore, and your talk on "patience" seemed to make everyone roll their eyes. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Maybe you should rethink your "patience" approach, … you seem to be the only person left who does not realize that approach has been a mega fail.
Masai is dumb. It makes no sense to assert militarily that there will be no more selfish ball in Toronto. Isn't ISO selfish? You can't win without having some ISO ball. So does that mean that Toronto is closed for star players like Lebron, KD, Giannis, etc …? All stars play somewhat selfish. Who do you want taking the shot KD, or a player who can't shot? It would of been okay for Masai to say we are going to build a team based on ball movement. Using the word selfish is very disrespectful and unfair to many players on the team, including Siakam. Masai went on an authoritarian power trip, and even McDonalds has learned that is not effective.
Beyond needs to get a grip. Just bc there's a lawsuit doesn't mean they need to fire all parites named. In NA, parties are innocent UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. Why's he calling for this man's head before anything has been litigated. Ridiculous!
When Masai went on his authoritarian rant about no more selfish players, it was really embarrassing. His title is Vice Chairman/president. Yet his outburst is something you only expect from a young person with no experience managing people.
I have owned a few popular FB groups. When I hire new people to be mods, I often have to reject many because they are not used to power. They often go on rants about them being "the new sheriff in town", and how the will run a tight ship, blah, blah, … No way I will let someone that inexperienced, and disrespectful towards membership work in one of my groups. Masai would of gotten fired from my groups for his immature and disrespectful power trip that he showed as his presser. At the minimum I would put him through a training, to ensure that he never acts that way again, in my group.
I worked in a community center. When we hired new people, we would teach then how to run the drop=in by leadership. However, often with very young people, they would power trip and try to act authoritarian. When that happened they would lose the membership, who just would not respond to them. The person would end up spending months to try and earn their credabilty back with the membership. If they could not recover, they would end up losing their job.
The mistakes Masai made at his presser, are hard to understand coming from a Vice Chairman? Those are mistakes you expect from young inexperienced people. It is really hard to understand how someone in Masai's position, with his experience can make such a beginners level mistake? The only explanation I can come up with is incompetence.
I won't blame any of OG, Pascal, or Gary for wanting out. They are being treated horribly by Masai. Although the player who has been targeted most is Pascal. Disgusting IMO.
One of the problems is so many think Scottie Barnes has reached the Pinnacle, and that he is ready to take over this team – he isn't. And behaviors, decisions, opinions of Masai and also many fans are misguided IMO. No doubt Pascal is likely hurt and demotivated by all this SH*T that is being said around him.
50:10 well said!