OFF-COURT PLAY FOR UJIRI BEARS WATCHING
Rumours swirl that Toronto Raptors GM high on the New York Knicks’ wish list
In September of 2018, before Kawhi Leonard had played a game for the Toronto Raptors, and long before all the franchise-altering things that happened on the way to what still feels like a miraculous NBA championship, Masai Ujiri delivered a spirited and unprompted defence of his adopted home.
Leonard had been asked about his pending free agency, and holding Toronto’s fragile ego in his hands, and Ujiri jumped in to answer.
“The narrative of not wanting to come to this city is gone,” he said emphatically. “I think that’s old and we should move past that,” he said, waving it away with an outstretched arm. I am paraphrasing here, but: Stick up for yourself, Pointdexter. “Believe in this city, believe in yourself,” he said.
Yes, well. About that. On Tuesday the New York Knicks fired team president Steve Mills, who had been comically unsuccessful and long-tenured — a rare combination. Almost immediately came reports that Knicks owner James Dolan had his eye on Ujiri as a replacement.
And just as immediately, the Raptors fan base was back to fearing that it was about to be spurned again. For all the ways in which the Raptors have been utterly transformed in the Ujiri era, from a curious NBA outpost that saw a succession of stars leave a succession of mostly bad teams at the first opportunity to one that retained talent, won consistently, and even added that improbable championship, the one thing that cannot be changed is geography. Toronto is not Los Angeles or New York, or even Boston, Chicago or Miami. All of the praise that the city receives for being a big, interesting market — one with a mix of cultures and one that represents an entire country — does not change the fact that it is not a big American market, where the NBA is a much bigger deal. Even the most ardent of Raptors fans would have to admit that winning a title in New York would change Ujiri’s life and legacy much more than winning another one here.
Toronto’s challenges as a basketball market are nothing new, and Ujiri’s enthusiasm for the place last fall neatly sidestepped the fact that one of the key reasons he made the Leonard trade was because he knew he would always be unlikely to land a superstar of his calibre in free agency. No one knows more than the Toronto team president how this city presents difficulties as an NBA destination that New York would not.
The Knicks, though, are another matter entirely, which could cause Masai Panic 2020 to come and go quickly. Dolan may want Ujiri above any other candidate to lead his team out of the abyss, but the Raptors have him under contract for now. The MLSE board — Larry Tanenbaum, Rogers, and Bell — would be incredibly foolish to allow him to leave now, in the middle of a season in which the Raptors are mounting a shockingly stout title defence, when so much of their own future is uncertain beyond this year. You just don’t let a valuable employee, under contract, walk to a division rival midseason because you happen to like the guy. if Ujiri does in fact consider the Knicks his last great challenge, then Dolan would be wise to wait and come calling in June.
But Dolan is as unpredictable as light-rail trains in Ottawa — sorry, transit nerd joke — and he has a long history of firing and hiring people at baffling moments. He fired a GM on the eve of training camp and a team president just after the draft. (The Mills dismissal, two days before the trade deadline, completes the rarely hit bad-timing trifecta.) It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Dolan barrel ahead and hire someone other than Ujiri, because barrelling ahead is kind of what James Dolan does. This is not a man known for careful pragmatism.
There is also the state of the Knicks themselves. They are deservedly a laughingstock, coming off back-to-back 50-loss seasons and working on a third, and their roster is like a living document on how not to build an NBA contender. They twice told everyone that they were going after Lebron James, and he ignored them both times, then they traded potential franchise cornerstone Kristaps Porzingis to clear cap space for Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who both ignored them. The constant in all of this, and in misadventures with Isiah Thomas and Phil Jackson, is Dolan, and his presence would have to at least give Ujiri pause.
But the Knicks would also provide the possibility of a blank canvas. The terrible roster could quickly be turned into a yawning chasm of cap space, plus rookie R.J. Barrett. Ujiri is known to be targeting the boffo 2021 freeagent class with the Raptors, and he could easily do the same in New York.
It has to at least be intriguing, and so far Ujiri isn’t saying anything publicly. Given that, the Raptors fan base could be forgiven their angst. They are very familiar with how this story usually ends.
The best basketball executive this franchise has ever known insists that Toronto has been turned into a desirable NBA market on his watch. He has an unusual opportunity to prove himself right.