Raptors’ Ujiri: Cop altercation was racial

Raptors president Masai Ujiri released an official statement Thursday in response to new footage of a 2019 NBA Finals incident with a security guard.

Ujiri’s lawyers released the video this week, in an attempt to show he was not the aggressor in a shoving match with the guard as he attempted to gain access to the court after the Raptors beat the Warriors in Game 6 to win the 2019 NBA Finals.

“Thank you to everybody who has expressed disappointment and concern regarding the video that was recently released,” Ujiri said in the statement. “My family and I are deeply grateful for your care and consideration. The video sadly demonstrates how horribly I was treated by a law enforcement officer last year in the midst of my team, the Toronto Raptors, winning its first world championship. It was an exhilarating moment of achievement for our organization, for our players, for our city, for our country, and for me personally, given my long-tenured professional journey in the NBA.

“Yet, unfortunately, I was reminded in that moment that despite all of my hard work and success, there are some people, including those who are supposed to protect us, who will always and only see me as something that is unworthy of respectful engagement. And, there’s only one indisputable reason why that is the case — because I am Black.”

San Francisco Bay Area police officer Alan Strickland filed a lawsuit against Ujiri, the Raptors, and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in February, claiming Ujiri assaulted him, causing “injury to his body, health, strength, activity and person, all of which have caused and continue to cause Plaintiff great mental, emotional, psychological, physical, and nervous pain and suffering.”

On Tuesday, Ujiri, the franchise and MLSE filed a countersuit against Strickland in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif. The suit includes body-camera footage showing Strickland acting as the aggressor as Ujiri attempted to make his way onto the court.

Despite the newly released footage, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is sticking by its story that Ujiri was the instigator during the altercation.