‘BELIEVE IN THIS CITY’
The question was about changing the landscape by coming to Toronto. As far as Masai Ujiri was concerned, it’s one that has been asked and answered — and it’s time we found a new topic.
“The narrative of not wanting to come to this city is gone,” the Raptors president said with as much force as he mustered on any topic all Media Day. “I think that’s old and we should move past that. Believe in this city, believe in yourself.
“We can stop talking about coming to the city or wanting to come to the city, but that’s old talk. We want to win. We have a privilege and an opportunity to be one of the top NBA teams here. That’s a huge privilege for us and it’s our jobs here to try and get these players (to come).
“It’s our jobs to try and sell it to these players here, but we’re proud of who we are, we’re proud to have these guys. We’re proud to have the young guys we have. We’re proud of what Kyle and everybody has done here. So let’s move past that narrative of (not) wanting to stay here or (not) wanting to come here.”
Ujiri does not anger easily in a public forum, but he has heard this too often. He knows there is little truth to it based on his own history and wants this kind of talk to end.
“It’s frustrating because I can’t believe a beautiful city like this would not believe in itself. We have to move on from that,” he said.